Pole barn studio wannabe from hell

  • Thread starter Thread starter RICK FITZPATRICK
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RICK FITZPATRICK

RICK FITZPATRICK

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Howdy all. Ok, knightfly started this, so don't get pissed at me:D Just kiddin steve!;)
Ha! Heres the deal. I ain't no Bill Gates, but I still got a hankerin to build the real deal. I don't give a damn about how or what it takes to do it. But I HAVE to use what I got to start with. And this is what it is.
I bought this here house on a hill outside Coos Bay. Man, what a f...king view. And
on this property is a pole barn. The builder started it, but got.....lets say detained :D
And this here pole barn is pretty damn big. And tall. And it sits right on the edge of a 75' chasm. No kidding. The back poles are sitting on the edge. On HEAFTY concrete custom piers. Fat. Deep. Heavy duty. The poles are 14' high. The building is East to West long. North to South front to back.
There are 3 sets of 3 poles, with each set of 3 North to south poles supporting a 6 x 10' beam. End poles are braced to the beams, north to south. But no shear or bracing East to West. Looking at the front, resting on 2 sets of the post/beam assembly are 10 or so trusses,24" oc with an approx 25' span, x-braced between them, but 2 of the truss' have been braced East to West. The trusses have been sheithed with 1/2" ply and rolled comp. But here is the interesting thing. On the East end, they continued the roof pitch downward with 2x6 rafters down to another set of 3 poles/beam plate. This is also sheithed and the comp is old. What visually is interesting, is it sets up two big spaces, appropriately sized for studio, iso booths, and control room.
But gravity and wind have done its thing, and now it is starting to lean and rotate. It won't be long and this thing will fall. And that would be ashame to have $5k+ worth of already built roof be destroyed from lack of vision and indifference.
Here is my vision. Its my studio so I will save it. And this is how.
First off, the poles are only a temporary support device. BTW, it has an asphalt floor, a side building attatched to it, a mountain of fir tree branch's and ivy, and an eroding mountain side up to it. Ha!!! Not to mention the back wall plane looks straight down to a creek at 80 degee angle, and the east end drops 20" to 10" of run. Just like my driveway, which is asphalt and ends right in front of it. If that weren't enough, there is a woodpile and junk up the ass, 6' high and dumps eat you alive here.:eek:


OK, ok, I know. Bulldozer time. But noooooooooooooooooooooo! He has to make a friggin recording studio out of it. What a frigging moron!!!:rolleyes: :D Ha!! Ok, heres the immediate plan.... there is a 150' fir tree(Big John, which is right next to 200' Tall Paul:D) which will be an anchor to wrap a chain around. Which in turn I plan to connect 3 3/8" steel cables and 3 comealongs to. The plan is to have wood and steel temporary braces to fasten in place, untill I can cross brace between each set of East to West poles with the same type of cables and turnbuckles. These will be fastened to 1/2" steel eybolts at top and bottom of each pole. Outside perimeter only. This will have to last through the winter. That gives me and you time to PLAN.
The trick is to design a perimeter and shear wall that will rest on foundation footing poured between the piers. Its how to get them in place, while at the same time, removing the poles(or maybe not!) Well, you get the picture. Ha!!! Got my hardhat, gloves, various tools and maybe, with a bit of luck I can stabilize this piece of shit without killing myself. I will have some help, and I'll look at the whole thing 10 times before I do it. And of course, listen to your advice. This is a MOFO scary proposition, as I'm not accoustomed to structural delima's. And compared to this little ole body of mine, this is Goliath. Ha!
Well, as soon as I get my Hosting space squared away, I'll post some pics, and CAD layouts and my so-called PROPOSED solution in the next day or so. Ha! Well, I never said I was a structural engineer Steve. Michael, where are you when I need ya!! Knightfly, thanks for the offer of help, as I can use all the help I can get.
.......whats that dear? Well crap, the kitchen sink faucet just broke. Just put in a new water heater yesterday cause the damn thing was rotton. AND......and and;....&$%#)%*&@%_+)((&&%^@^&&*^*&
ARRRGGGGGGGGGARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
OLD HOUSES ARE FU............oops,..yes dear, its beatiful. You what. Discovered old Fir flooring under the linoleum? and you want to what? Refinish them? Yes dear, we can do that. Oh lord..:rolleyes: Good grief.
Cheers
fitz:eek:
 
agree - need some pix...

if possible - -::)))

Fitz - from the description it sounds like a well planned and started pole barn, good piers, etc - don't discount pole barn construction..... and I think in terms of standard frame construction it would cost you 10k to get back to where it is now (having spent 20k 3 years ago to put a full second floor over my 24x24 garage)

what are the main poles ? 6x6, telephone poles, local round shaved timbers ??

1/2" eyebolts sounds a bit heavy, I'd have said 3/8" would be fine - backed up by big, thick washers to prevent pull-through. You are probably, guessing by the desription, going to need to pull from 2 different directions to make it straight again - 3/8" cable sounds fine - make sure the come-alongs are heavy duty, and don't try to pull it all at once --- also - be very careful about the trees you use as anchors - some fir trees have very shallow root systems - I've never been to the pacific northwest, but have spent alot of time in northern Maine, and seen big spruces blown over easily by a good gust of wind, ripped out by the roos - no tap root going down, just a bunch of roots fanning out perpendicular to the trunk, lying just under the surface.... Caution!

Have seen this done to an old barn, using a parked bulldozer as the anchor. Be careful not to overpull - once all those joints get moved they're loose - it can just as easily come over backwards on you - slow and steady, keep measuring for vertical on the poles with a level.

shoot some pix, we'll see if we can come up with some more detailed suggestions - cause your right - the basic layout sounds ideal !!!

best

b-h
 
...and in the news today, man pulls down 150' tree trying to save building......

Hi guys, thanks for the interest. I'll post the pics as soon as I get the host thing happening. My wife needs it for ebay and I need it for CAD. But our local provider, only allows 10 meg of space, so we have to find a place on the net to host a 100meg.

Hey blueshacker, thanks for the pointers. Like I said, I've never had the occasion to do this before, and really, it doesn't sound difficult, just scary:eek: I'll reverse pull it from the other direction somehow too. Kind of like a tug of war, ha! The tree is 5' in diameter, so just pulling this thing into alignment seems like it would be no problem for a tree this size. Good god, thats the last thing I need is to pull down 150' fir tree on top of the pole barn. I think I would forget about building anything if that happened:D
Besides, the neighbors below would probably string me up!!
fitz:)
Oh, the poles are about 10" in diameter, and are local fir. Considering there is a pole barn company at the bottom of the hill, and the slough is FILLED with poles all the time,
a lot of barns around here are pole barns. Man, a HUGE barge came in yesterday LOADED 50' high with poles and dumped them in the slough. They actually sink the ship to unload them. Interesting shit here. Stuff no one ever sees. At least me.
Anyhoo, thanks.
fitz
 
HOSTING PICS

I can host some pictures for you until you get your server up.

it's on a dsl connection, so it's ok for pictures as long as they are not like 100mb's each :O

P.M. if you are interested
 
Wow, thanks for the offer!:D :D I don't even know how to do that yet. And plumbing is the priority for the moment. I'll pm ya tonight. Thanks again!
fitz:)

btw, how do you do that. Do I just send a jpeg or something as an attatchment to an email? I've been offline for 3 months and its amazing how quickly I forget how to do things. If only I could conviently forget how to fix things my wife wants.:rolleyes:
 
You have a digital camera don't you Fitz?

Just attach the file to your post here in HR.com
 
Fitz, here's a lo-res dwg of the trusses I built in-place in my barn, I didn't need the whole span so trussed 2/3 of it. You can see where the pole was, in the lefthand third of the pic. I just used 1/2" ply for gussets, the 2x12's were already there - I added the horizontal chords and the diagonals. Just make sure you have a peak where the original support was, and continue the zig-zag til you run out of room. I used 5/8 bolts and large washers drilled through the poles to mount - my poles were square cut creosoted 6x6, and I used 2x8 bottom chord and 2x6 diagonals. I drowned each gusset in Elmers construction glue, and played John Dillinger with the nailer filled with ring shank #6's while each gusset pair (one each side of the truss) was clamped. Left the clamps til the glue was dry.

I was planning on doing these on each side of each pole, but winter beat me to beta test - we had 90 mph winds that year and the barn was still there in spring, so I figured, "IIABDFI", which of course stands for, If It Ain't Broke...

BTW, once the first trus was in place for each set of poles, I cut that pole and dropped it out. Then I pulled the stumps out, already had the siding off, used a medium sized Kubota and cleaned out all the loose crap so I could have the slab poured.

I can send you a dxf, dwf, dwg, etc, whenever you want... Steve
 

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RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Wow, thanks for the offer!:D :D I don't even know how to do that yet.

It's quite easy to attach the pictures the way i'd set it up, just cut and paste ;)

Michael Jones might have an idea with just posting the pictures here though, might be easier...save a step or two :p

Either way...it'll work.
 
Hey guys, man, ask and thou shall recieve! Cool. Oh, I thought I had to upload a file to a server somewhere, and then just post the location. I didn't know you could attach a jpeg. Man its scary what you can forget, while sitting around in a motel room for 2 months.
Ok, I'll get these pis on tomorrow. My wife already took them. She has to load them from the camera with a little disk, and then send them to me.
It's still convoluted for me to do this stuff as I havn't even got my email working, which is how she sends me the file. Her computer is the one set up for pics and cute files(whats the technical name,jpegs?)for ebay. I just got this computer right before I moved, and all the fancy software for pics, but no interface from a camera yet. AND I'm in the middle of setting up the house hold network for 5 computers and a server, all fed broadband via cable which also feeds 5 tv's. Just ordered the cable amp today.
Shit, getting back online is a headache. :rolleyes:
Ok, Steve, let me study this a bit. I'll get a CAD shot uploaded as fast as possible with dim's of "as built" and see if I can supeimpose your solution to it. Crap, I'm also inundated with winter prep on the house. The shop is 42' long and covered with green and clear corrugated fiberglass in pretty good condition but needs some winterizeing too. :eek: :eek: :eek: And the plumbing. and....and....oh, and searching for tools and A MIXER.....I WANT THE GHOST ON EBAY!!!!!:D Ha! My wife hasn't ok'd it yet.:rolleyes: She's still calculating. :eek: I think a M3700 would be fine though. Yea. thats it.
Thanks everyone. Lots to do. OH shit. Theres a lot of craft shows commin up starting in NOVEMBER. I want to show my stuff!! So I've got to get the shop up and running too!!! Lord, what fun!!!:D Finally. Cool.
Thanks a mill.
fitz
 
Hey, Fitz, just thought - maybe I could send you a cad file here, just zip it first since the board takes zip files - I'll try it tomorrow night, gettin' ready fer nite nite, long day... Steve

Oh, BTW, which flavor works best for you?
 
Hi Steve, ok, thats cool. I'll reciprocate when I get this shit running.

Steve, thanks a million. You have really been very generous with your time.

Ha! so you have a pole barn too you skallywag! Didn't bulldoze it either. Ha!
Ok, just kidden with ya! Hey, your getting into CAD huh? Cool. What program are you using? Just before I moved I got this here new computer and Autocad 2002. What a program. Does more than I'll ever need but who knows. Its one of the things I will beusing to make some $ here. If it works out.(I'd be glad to send the disc to ya if you want!)
We'll, my wife is glaring, So I better get my ass in gear. My body is worn out from this move and is NOT cooperating today:rolleyes: Damn its tough gettin old:D This climbing on roofs and under the house and cabinets and up into the attic stuff is gettin old too!
later
fitz
ps. as usual, the zip thing gets me confused. Thats why I'm still in Analog land.
 
Zipping a file is rather easy.

If you don't have winzip (my favourite) you can download it at www.winzip.com. Get the trial version. It's free and never runs out :D

Then simply highlight (single click) on a file(s) you want to zip and right click. In the right click menu you will have a Winzip option with a fancy icon. click on that and then click on "add to Zip file"

When winzip starts up press "Use Evaluation Version"
Then press "new" (towards the top of to the left)
Specify a name for the zip file
Then press "add" (top right hand corner)
Then close the winzip box.

The zip file is now located in the same directory as the files you used. You can change the directory where is saves the file when you press "new"

Might sound like alot of steps, but VERY easy
 
I've been using Generic Cadd since its inception back in about 1981 or so - it's a DOS based prog, but I'm used to it so hate to switch. I have Autodesks' cheapie Quick cad, but don't like the crap they waste screen space with so only use it for a file converter. Turbo cad, at $39, is probably the best bang for buck but offers no conversion to any raster format such as JPEG or GIF or BMP.

Generic Cadd was so cheap and good when it came out, that Autodesk bought the company. I thought I'd lost my cheap cad source, but they kept it til Windoze overcame and they decided NOT to port it. Still works fine under 98 and XP, so why fix what ain't broke...

Get Nuts & Bolts from Network Associates (McCaffee) it's got one of the best zip managers I've seen. Install it, RTFM, and you're set. Probably the only way we can do hi-res here, since .EXE's arent allowed. If they were, I could post a self-extracting. Oh well... Steve
 
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