RE: Delurk, and some questions

[jmark.vanscoter@amd.com]

Here are some answers, based on one person's experience.

Pole barns and post and beam buildings differ in how the roof framing is
handled.

Pole barns and pole building use large timbers (solid or built-up from
dimensional timbers (Bonanza Building did this) that are normally resting on
concrete pads and buried in the ground. The roof is framed with fabricated
trusses made of dimensional lumber (2x4 and 2x6) that are typically located
on 8' centers and use 2x4 purlines to support the roof material.

Post and beam building use large timbers to frame the whole building,
including the roof. Typically, the posts are attached to a foundation
(although in the past, they would be buried).

IMO, a better solution for SB construction, would be to use fabricated box
columns (imagine a ladder of 2x4's, sheathed in 3/8" or 1/2" plywood) that
are bale wide as the posts and use raised end/raised center trusses for the
roof. The box-columns will ELIMINATE notching the bales. The raised end
trusses allow space for insulation. The raised center allows more headroom
and causes your eye to look up rather than look left to right like regular
flat bottom trusses tend to do. 

One suggestion, use 3 bales (2 wire) width as the space of the uprights,
that way you will use either full bales or half bales only.

If you have any questions or want any details, please feel free to contact
me.

Mark V.S. in Austin, TX (who is getting ready to do these things)

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hixii [SMTP:argyle@up.net]
> Sent:	Monday, January 31, 2000 9:07 AM
> To:	strawbale@crest.org
> Subject:	Delurk, and some questions
> 
> Well, it's high time I said hello, girded my loins, and asked for some
> feedback.
> 
> Hi, I'm Colleen. We live in the UP of Michigan (the Keweenaw penninsula,
> actually; sort of the UP of the UP). I've been faithfully lurking this
> list
> for almost three years (yes, really!) while we've been saving money and
> looking for the right bit of land to build our bale-burg. We found our
> land
> in October, and since then I've been trying to pull together many years of
> reading, researching, and thinking into a real house.
> 
> The house I have in my head is a simple rectangle, oriented for passive
> solar, 30 X 40 ft. (interior dimensions). I have been thinking about doing
> a pole building on an insulated slab-on-grade with the poles attached to
> hardware embedded in the slab. Now, what I want to know is what to call
> it.
> Is it still a pole building? And while I'm at it, can anybody explain what
> the difference is between a pole building and a "modified post-and-beam"?
> I'm beginning to suspect it's the difference between tomay-to and
> tomah-to,
> but please advise.
> 
> The roof will be 3:12 gable (with those wi-i-i-de overhangs) with 18
> inches
> of blown cellulose in the ceiling, and sheathed with plain metal roofing.
> We plan to rely on harvested rainwater/snowmelt for our house water
> supply,
> with a shallow well for irrigation. I have this wild idea for harvesting
> snow water from the roof using heat-tape: anybody else in snow country
> doing rainwater harvesting?
> 
> BTW, we get *serious* snow here (200 or more inches most years) and The
> Man
> requires roofs to be designed for 70 lbs/sq.ft. live loads.
> 
> We'll be moving onto our land and living in a temporary shelter as soon as
> the ground dries up enough (probably May) and starting on the house right
> away. We are planning to mill as much of the lumber for the house as we
> can
> ourselves from trees on our property, using an Alaskan mill. I'm looking
> forward to the whole adventure with a mix of excitement and terror...
> 
> Colleen
> argyle@up.net
> 
>