Sunday, October 27, 1996 was a special day for my pole building construction company. Bob Vila’s Home Again was airing at 10 a.m. Pacific. Beginning at 9:30, live on the same network, we set a world record for a “fastest building”,  the fastest site-constructed two car garage, completing the work in 31-1/2 minutes.

Now all of us who participated thought this was pretty darn quick, and the record has never been challenged. But, just like anything, there is always something even more impressive.

When it comes to homes, Habitat for Humanity built one in under 3-1/2 hours, however it was mostly prefabricated. The fastest primarily site built house was probably done by Bowen Construction of Post Falls, Idaho, taking four hours.

However, we may all be humbled by this achievement……

Almost anywhere you travel, you’re bound to run into construction of some kind. Whether it’s on a building or a highway, it seems as if construction is everywhere and takes forever to complete.

Well this is not the case with a new project in China. Near the Dongting Lake in the Hunan Province, a 30-story, 183,000 square foot hotel was just built in only 360 hours–and there’s video to prove it! The time-lapse YouTube video is going viral with more than half a million views already.

The construction of the hotel “fastest building”, coordinated by Chinese Firm, The Broad Group, used prefabricated modules mounted on a steel structure. The Broad Group’s specialty is sustainable architecture. In the video, teams are seen working around the clock in shifts, not stopping even once over a 15 day period.

Just like when we built the “World’s Fastest Pole Building” in 1996, with the process moving this quickly many people are wondering about the quality of the building. After over 15 years of daily use as a garage in Millwood, WA, our pole building still performs admirably. There has never even been a roof leak!

According to The Broad Group, the hotel can withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake (tested by the China Academy of Building Research), making it five times more earthquake resistant than similar structures. Plus, the hotel has four-paned windows, which makes it five times more energy efficient than typical buildings. On Twitter, some people are wondering how the U.S. can compete with this kind of growth and efficiency, with one person tweeting, “let us welcome our Chinese overlords.”

Fast does not necessarily equal poor quality, as successful speed construction is a product of carefully orchestrated choreography.  As for my own “fastest building”, following wrapping up the filming, I headed to the local restaurant to join my crew to celebrate our accomplishment.  I had to laugh as I found my contracting crew busily scribbling on napkins while debating taking minutes off here and there as they discussed finessing movements to build an even “faster pole building.” I’m sure someday someone will beat my record, but the main point was ease of construction does not detract from overall quality.  This alone…Hansen Buildings is a winner every time.

Before you commit all your time and money to building your “perfect” pole building, check with a Hansen Buildings professional and consider these common pit falls:

Not doing homework in advance…

Pole Barn Planning.

There are rural/remote areas in some states which actually have no building code requirements and no building inspectors. You can take the axles off your fifth wheel or throw a tarp over some straw bales and regard it as home. You could be planning something more serious.

However. Before you ever begin to shop for a price on a pole building, contact your local planning department to find out if permits are required, what their restrictions might be, as well as any building code requirements.

In the event no permit is required, you may want to hire an engineering firm to do inspections on your work during construction. In the event you resell your property, either a Certificate of Occupancy (issued by a building department) or an independent inspection may be required, to assure the building was built properly.

Ignoring financing.

It’s no fun paying daily interest for a building you cannot use. Construction loan interest is generally 3 to 4 times dearer than long-term lending. For instance, if current long term rates are 4%, expect to pay about $30-35 a day in interest for each $100,000 loaned. Construction loans usually have stiff rate rises if not paid back within half a year.

Time is definitely important when building! Plan for the surprising. What happens if your builder finishes on time, but the only inspector is on a two week fishing trip? Your local Building Department won’t be responsible for the additional interest.

Letting the lender set your financial position.

Imagine your lender has pre-qualified you for $350,000. Many people take the number a lender gives them and build primarily based on what they can get instead of what they want. Say they find a bit of land for $75,000 and get a bid from a contractor of $255,000 for a home and a pole building. They’ve picked the location and structure they desire for $330,000. The $20,000 difference between the pre-qualification and the original estimate offends their subconscious.

They’re forced to find another $20,000 in extras and options. What happens if a local employer lays off 1,000 folks during construction and the appraisal for the home and pole barn drops to $345,000? What if interest rates change during construction and now you are qualified for only $340,000? Building to the maximum amount you can borrow is an awful risk. Life is ever changing. One adverse change and you may need to bring an additional $10,000 to closing or perhaps not be able to close!

Avoid these common mistakes by keeping your eyes wide open, taking time for careful pole barn planning (which includes asking a lot of questions), and not succumbing to adding features and options you didn’t need to fill your loan cap.  Do your homework and you will pave the way to a “no-surprise” fast track to your dream pole building.

A couple years ago, they had purchased a 1960’s home and needed a combination garage and shop. As first-time home owners, they were prepared for the noise, dust and dirt of construction. What they weren’t prepared for how hard it was to find a good contractor.

They phoned contractors with websites having great customer testimonials and reached out to friends of friends, producing a short-list of candidates who they expected would be professional and provide fair price estimates.

Right.

The first contractor arrived with professionalism and a sense of humor.  He even took off his shoes upon entering their home.  He knew all the right things to say, promising great things for their new pole building.

“This is so easy!” they said to themselves excitedly. They never heard from him again.

The second contractor seemed like a cross between a newly sprung criminal and the creepy guy who offers candy to little girls. To top it off within the short time he was there, he said they needed $4,000 worth of electrical work to put in a temporary power pole to plug in all of his tools while the crew put up the building.  Yet their house, with a 20 amp GFI outlet was only 30 feet away. They let him stay for 10 minutes then escorted him out.

The third contractor was a friend of a close friend.  He and his business partner seemed like nice guys, until they wanted to charge $5,000 to scrape the sod off where the new building would be–or as they liked to call it, for “site prep.”  Not to build the building.  Just to literally remove the lawn where the 30 x 36 pole barn would be.

To them it seemed they had made a major mistake by already buying the pole building kit package. The materials sat in their backyard, with “lovely” blue tarps over them. The contractors no doubt realized they weren’t going to make money off of the customary mark-up they would have taken. Plus, they appeared to be in a desperate situation.  Either the contractors thought “let’s get ‘em on obscene labor charges” or it just wasn’t a big enough ticket job.

Fortunately, they had been smart enough at the outset to ask another friend of a friend —a contractor who couldn’t do the job because he wasn’t licensed in their state—for his estimate.  He came and gave his estimate before any of the contractors came.  So they had a number to work off of to prepare the site, erect the pole building and pour the concrete floor and approaches.

After the three contractors came and went, the wife came up with a brilliant idea: One of their friends was a volunteer firefighter and knew firefighters who were contractors.  Apparently, many firefighters work in construction for their second job, since they have so many hours off.  Their friend put them in touch with his friend, a firefighter-contractor.

When he walked through the door, they had an instant feeling of sanity.  He was clean, well-spoken, understood their budgetary concerns and in the end, gave them a reasonable estimate which was only ¾ of their budget number.

The work went swimmingly.  They were happy with the craftsmanship, the contractor’s crew (firefighters, EMTs and other heroic professionals), adherence to Building Department rules and the overall time of two weeks total to complete the entire job.

Through the project they learned if you want the job done right, try your friendly, neighborhood firefighter. Maybe one day there’ll be a 911 for pole buildings!

Real estate apparently holds value better than relationships. Given the choice between their dream property and a perfect spouse, 30% of the 1,000 Americans surveyed said they would choose the dream home, according to a survey by Rent.com and RedShift Research. And some 22% of single people would date someone strictly because they like their home and pole barn.

In fact, nearly one-quarter of Americans value one thing more than freedom from a broken relationship: a great place to live – and over one-third of them would wait a year or more to move out. Men are even more likely to stay in a relationship – 28% admitted to delaying a break-up to keep their current living situation versus 21% of women, the survey says.

You can create your own Man Cave!

While the adage is, “the way to a man’s heart, is through his stomach”, it appears more weight (pun, intended) might be given to having a nice pole barn as a “man cave”.

Whether the man cave is as simple as a single car garage, or as elaborate as a multi-story or multi-level building complete with sleeping space and a bathroom and kitchenette, a pole barn can be the answer – and although it doesn’t “make the relationship”, studies show it may be one of the deciding factors…both for getting into one, and for…well, not moving out of it.

While my wife and I don’t necessarily agree on the results of these surveys, I do know, “if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”! Because when it comes to both the final decision of purchasing a new pole building, and most definitely on choosing colors for siding and trim, the relationship between a client and spouse does have an effect on the final purchase.  I’ve had personal experience with couples where procuring a new pole building eliminated the fight over “engine parts/hunting and fishing gear” versus “home for the wife’s car”.  OK, I give…maybe the survey is right!

The steel/wood steel/wood debate, as far as building structure, seems never ending. The “all steel” building manufacturers highly tout the resistance of their heavy steel frames against fire. But just maybe, the all steel buildings are not everything they are promoted to be.

I’m a member of several discussion groups on LinkedIn. In one of these groups, a gentleman who is both a prefabricated wood truss designer and a firefighter offered some insights.

He found himself constantly defending wood trusses against current teachings and a layman’s understanding of truss performance in a fire.

According to him, the number one common myth is, steel is a better performer than wood. WRONG! Steel can expand 9″ per 100′ length with direct flame impingement. A single steel member failure can be much more significant in causing a structural collapse than a single wood member failure!

Many years ago, I personally witnessed a fire in a huge all steel building in Salem, Oregon. Given my limited knowledge, at the time, I was shocked to see it burning. I was even more shocked, as I watched the steel framework warp, twist and collapse into a rubble heap.

Wood frame pole buildings are easier to construct than all steel buildings.  They are also less costly.  Therefore, small added steps can be taken to further protect wood truss systems from fire, still keeping your new building within budget.

In buildings with enclosed attic spaces, use two layers of 5/8” thick type X drywall for the ceiling. This will increase the time before the ceiling is penetrated in the event of a fire.

Order trusses built from fire retardant treated lumber. If cost becomes too much of a factor with this option, consider using the fire retardant lumber only on the truss bottom chords (the lower member of the truss, which spans from sidewall to sidewall).

Wood frame pole buildings have decades of successful performance against climactic conditions, as well as the ravages on natural disasters and the worst man can throw against them. When considering your next building, look at the facts when making your decision, rather than listening to scare tactics.

Yeah, right….and what did this tell you?

Frost heave can do nasty things to pole buildings with improper or inadequate footing designs. When pressure preservative treated columns are embedded to an inadequate depth, or are encased in concrete where the holes are conical (wider at the top than at the bottom), they can be prone to heave.

In winter, ground freezes from the top of the soil downward. The depth of frost penetration depends on soil type, the severity of the winter, the amount of water in the soil and depth of an insulating blanket of snow.

The frost depth varies by region. In frigid northern climates, the frost depth can be 60 inches or more, whereas a warmer southern state frost may not even be an issue.

Your local building department can be called and asked what the frost depth requirement is. Then dig the footing holes so that the bottoms of the pole building footings are at or below the frost depth.

The mechanics of frost heave are complex, but here’s a quick primer. Water in the surrounding soil collects and freezes into thin layers of frost called “ice lenses.”

When water freezes, it expands (think of how ice cubes have a dome shape above the original water level in the ice cube tray). Ice exerts a pressure of about 50,000 lbs. per square inch—enough force to lift even a large building. A pole barn on inadequate footings doesn’t stand a chance.

The reason buildings don’t always return to their original height is that surrounding dirt sometimes fills in under the footing while it’s lifted.

Heavy clay soils don’t drain well, so they tend to have more frost heave problems than sandy, well-drained ones. But even if pole building footings are deep enough, ice lenses can latch onto the rough surfaces of wood and concrete and lift footings and posts from the side. This potential problem can be alleviated by increasing the diameter at the bottom of the holes.

Bottom line: make sure your pole building footing design extends below the frost line.  Frost acts randomly, so unless you are planning on selling tickets to “pole building at a slant”, make sure your building stays…exactly where you put it.

This means if someone walks in the Building Department door and wants to construct a pole building, as long as the building owner (or builder) agrees to build to match the prescriptive requirements, they will be issued a structural permit. This is, of course, with the caveat of being able to meet the requirements of other departments, such as Planning.

WHY IS THIS BAD?

Prescriptive requirements are often based upon, “the way things have always been done”, rather than having a basis in the sound fundamentals of structural design. Every three years a new version of the Building Code is published, sometimes with sweeping changes in structural design. Many highly qualified design professionals, including many engineers, are involved in revisions of the Building Code.

A classic example of this came when the International Building Codes were first adopted in 2000. Prior Codes did not have deflection criteria for wall members in those cases where the members did not support a rigid finish (like plaster or gypsum board). The new Code limits the deflection in all cases. In order to meet the new requirements, in many cases, pole building wall girts can no longer be installed “flat” on the outside of the wall columns.

Many times materials are included in the prescriptive requirements which do nothing but cause more work for whoever is doing the actual construction, as well as using materials which either are not necessary, or are larger than what an engineer would have specified.

On occasion, these prescriptive requirements do not actually meet the Building Codes. In my spare time, I have challenged more than one of them and gotten Building Departments to make changes. The prescriptive requirements resulted in a building which was under designed.

The scary part….if you build to prescriptive requirements, and have a collapse, the Building Department is absolved from any structural liability!

THE SOLUTION – IF a Building Department has PRESCRIPTIVE REQUIREMENTS for Pole Buildings – invest in an engineered building kit. It is less expensive to pay for the engineering and it guarantees a building which will be designed to actually meet the building codes.  Your bonus is the sealed plans are your “insurance’ – the engineer is now liable to for the safety and integrity of your new building.

From a practicality standpoint, what pole building engineering is… is insurance. Insurance? Yes, it means a registered design professional verifies the building design will work and withstand the forces of nature up to the levels specified on the building plans.

There are some pole barn providers who do make structural changes to their buildings depending upon whether the buildings are engineered or not engineered. Morally and ethically, it is this author’s opinion there should be no changes in material design whether an engineer seals the plans or not. If changes ARE needing to be made, it could lead one to believe the non-engineered buildings are under designed and could fail within the load parameters the buildings should have withstood!!

While I do not agree with this practice, many Building Departments will issue pole building permits without engineered plans. In some cases, permits are issued with no plans being submitted at all!

Regardless of Building Department policy, any building used for commercial purposes should include “sealed” plans with pole building engineering.

Many Building Departments have “prescriptive requirements” for non-engineered post frame (pole) buildings. What are “prescriptive requirements”?  If you construct your building to match what their specifications are, they will issue you a building permit. Rarely are these requirements economically practical from either a materials or labor standpoint. Almost universally, it will prove less expensive to invest in a fully engineered building kit, rather than following the prescriptive requirements. Colorado and Washington are two states in which Building Departments often hand out these requirements.

Any building in Arizona, California, Florida, Oregon, Nevada, Utah or Washington which requires a Building Permit which includes a structural plan review (pretty much a guarantee), should have engineered plans.

If prefabricated trusses are used, the company manufacturing the trusses will provide engineer sealed truss drawings. The truss engineer is NOT the Engineer of Record for the building, nor does this make the building itself engineered.

The International Building Codes, on their own, do not have specific prescriptive tables for post frame building components – unlike “stick built” buildings. Even stud wall framed buildings are required to be engineered when the walls are over 10’ in height.

In the 2009 version of the Codes, is a new twist. Any buildings of 60′ or greater clearspan REQUIRE the end user to hire a Registered Design Professional (engineer or architect) to provide special inspections to assure truss bracing is properly installed.

Don’t underestimate the value of pole building engineering. The engineer provides for you the peace of mind, in design reliability, and helps to ease your permit application through the structural review process.

My garage is adjacent to the stairs leading down to the house, from our parking lot. The garage has a 7/12 slope steel roof. One might believe not very much snow will stay on a slick roof which is so steep. I fell into this category, until I first saw several feet on top of the roof. Then I closed the door of the garage and witnessed the snow coming off the roof like a freight train, burying my stairs in several feet of snow.

My back having learned the lesson the hard way, I came up with what I thought would be a solution the following summer – I had steel snow brakes added to my roof to keep the snow on. These are pieces of steel trim which screw onto the high ribs of the roof steel, keeping the snow on the roof…..until the snow got so deep it ripped the screws out of the steel, sending snow, snow brakes and my gutters plunging onto the stairs.

My eldest step-son teaches physics, so I am sure he will be impressed by my having used the laws of physics in coming up with a better solution.

Keep in mind, the correct snow guard solution involves holding back thousands of pounds of snow and ice. Done right, the property and personal damages from sliding snow are eliminated, removing not only the problems of removal, but also the potential liability risk involved if a person was to be hit by such an avalanche.

Back to physics, the most efficient design is a pad style snow guard with a three to five inch wide forward (uphill) mounted flat face, with solid support struts and base. Other shaped configurations have found to not be efficient at retaining snow, which is their sole purpose.

For strength, the guards should be made of either 100% prime virgin grade UV stabilized polycarbonate or American made 304 Stainless Steel.

The manufacturer should be able to provide independent test results and replace the product, in the event of a failure. The only thing worse than having to purchase a snow retention system… is having to buy a second one to replace the first one.

Snow guard layout is critical to performance. The best value will come with a professionally designed layout. Most often, companies will quote far too few guards to properly do the job, in order to be the low bidder.

A reliable layout will have multiple staggered rows of guards, with each guarded mounted in the center of the valley between the high ribs of the steel. The most common layout mistake is to mount a row near the eaves and call it good. This gives sliding snow a chance to build up velocity and damage the guards and allows too much load on the lower roof section, potentially causing a structural failure of the entire roof.

Proper snow retention layouts equally distribute the snow load across the entire roof.  They will have multiple rows and a staggered placement.

Also, and just as important, most steel roofs are designed with a snow load adjustment due to snow being able to slide off a slick surface. If your new pole building will have snow guards of any sort installed, it is essential this snow load factor be set to not incorporate this reduction.

Take it from me, the guy with the shovel and the sore back…if you are in snow country – put snow brakes on.  But have someone design your roof system so they do what they are supposed to…and hang up your shovel.

In today’s lesson….one of our clients has taken his engineer sealed plans to his Building Department to obtain a building permit. The building is designed with interior steel liner panels (not my personal favorite choice – but a topic for a future blog). The panels are to cover fiberglass insulation.

Sounds pretty straight forward so far, at least to me…..

Until our client told the Plans Examiner he is going to insulate the building using rigid foam plastic insulation.

What is rigid foam plastic insulation? An example would be Rmax’s R-Matte Plus-3, which is a rigid foam plastic thermal insulation board composed of environmentally sound, closed cell, polyisocyanurate foam bonded to a durable white-matte (non-glare) aluminum facer and a reflective reinforced aluminum facer. Basically – any polyisocyanurate sheathing.

The plans examiner came up with the following, “…foam plastic shall be separated from the interior of a building by an approved thermal barrier of 0.5-inch gypsum wallboard or equivalent thermal barrier material that will limit the average temperature rise of the unexposed surface to not more than 250 degrees F after 15 minutes of fire exposure, complying with the standard time-temperature curve of ASTM E 119…”

In layman’s terms, if your idea is to insulate your new pole building using polyisocyanurate insulation boards, plan upon having to place ½” drywall on the inside wall. This may result in costs which were not budgeted for, not just for the drywall, but to have the framing and weight capacity of the building designed to be able to support it.

My recommendation? Compare total costs between this and other options, such as fiberglass, before making a commitment to rigid foam plastic insulation.  It’s not that it is a bad choice – not at all.  It’s just that your building needs to be designed to support it.  And of course, your buildings need to meet the code for it so your plans examiner is in happy-land.