How to Build a Pole Barn Style Garage

Two car epoxy floor near me can cost upwards of $25000 today for a simple garage with a concrete floor. With nothing fancy and by using vinyl siding on the exterior, you can build a garage yourself for under $5000. In fact you will need some free hands form time to time to aid you in some of the building work bur friends and family should be able to help without you becoming too much of a pain in the butt to them.

If you are starting with a level or almost level site for the garage, that is a big help. Heavy machines needed to level a site can eat up a great deal of cash really fast. Assuming the site is flat layout the rough size of the garage you are going to build with some string lines and stakes. A typical two car is twenty-four feet wide and twenty four or twenty-six feet deep. Roof trusses are spaced every two feet apart so keeping the garage measurements in even two foot increments is important.

Having laid out the garage location, step back and take a good look at the area. Is there enough room between the garage and the road to park a car outside? Is the garage square with the house? Is the garage aligned with the property lines? Is the garage the proper distance from the side property lines? All these questions are very important. Once the garages main poles are set, it will cost you good money to move it if it is wrong.

If you have decided you are happy with the garage location now is the time to lay out the garage accurately to drill or dig the holes for the main posts of the building. Start in one corner and setup a string line on the center of the post locations and drive a stake in at the other end of that wall. Continuing on with all four sides, the string lines should all be in the center of the pole locations and cross at the four corners exactly in the center of the four corner posts. Using a can of upside down paint ($2.99), paint the holes for the four corner posts on the ground. Now add four new stakes at the locations where the four strings cross. These will help hold the tape as you measure and layout the other post hole locations. If you have a helper you can avoid this step and let them hold the tape measure end at the string crossing for you.

Checking your drawings you will see that perhaps the poles are to be six feet apart on center. Starting on the outside of the corner post (not the center), measure along the line exactly six feet. Draw the post hole on the ground. proceed along the string and mark all the post holes. Along the back wall there will be five holes counting the corner holes. Now do both sides. Five holes here also for a twenty-four foot deep garage. The front of the garage is a bit different. Lets assume you are going have two eight foot garage doors. Starting on the corners on the outside of the post, the post hole spaces will be, two feet, eight feet, two feet, eight feet and two feet, totaling twenty-four feet. Garage doors come in exactly eight foot widths so you want your post exactly eight feet apart. if you choose nine foot doors, adjust your column widths to suit. When you install the typical 2×10 wood trim, the openings will downsize enough for the doors to butt against them when they are closed. The finished measurement of the opening would he seven foot-eight inches for eight foot doors.

Now it is time to dig the holes. Keeping our budget in mind and if the ground is actually the type that can be hand dug again you will save a bundle of your muscles can take the work. If the ground is very rocky or clay soil type, hand digging may not be possible. Rental stores have gas driven post hole augers with a twelve inch diameter bits that with the aid of a helper can make short work of the post holes. There are contractors that offer this service with truck mounted augers but again your budget will feel the pain. If it is at all possible, dig the holes yourself. It may take several days but by carefully covering the holes against weather, kids and stray animals and your wallet will love it.

You should have a helper for the pole work but it is not impossible to do it alone. I have set sixteen foot pressure treated posts alone but it is a real chore and a little dangerous. Your drawings will show the various lengths of poles for each hole. Longest poles go on the sides at the ridge center and shortest on the front and rear. if the gables are on the left and right. If the gables are over the garage doors, (front and rear) the longest poles will be center of the front and back wall. I have found if you install a pole slightly longer then the top of the truss, construction is a great deal easier. The first end truss will be supported on the top of the perimeter beams and lean against the poles. No bracing is necessary. Set all the posts in their respective holes. Check your drawings to determine if a concrete footing is required for the posts. If yes, pour a bag of pre-mix concrete in each hole and wet with a hose. Using a hole or shovel, stir up the mix so the water penetrates the concrete mix and level as best as possible in the bottom of the hole. Allow the concrete to dry overnight.