Building a pole barn is an easier task today. With a lot of available ready-to-use blueprints and plans, a DIY Berkshire homeowner can build not just a pole barn of two and even six horses, you can also add handy sheds for tractors, feed storage or shelters. The plans could be used to build some other types of pole buildings, including workshops, storage barns or garages. Simplicity, cost-cutting and strength are the the reasons why people still use poles, the oldest construction technique, to build simple buildings.
Poles have been used for hundreds of years to make huts and shelters around the globe. Poles rooted in earth forming a frame for any covering material, whether it’s animal skin, metal or wood, provided enough warmth and protection, and can be built quickly from whatever material was available. To construct pole barns, people still utilize this technique, which hasn’t changed much through the years. The types of materials have changed though, now pole barns are covered with aluminum, steel along with other durable lightweight materials, with insulation and sometimes wooden or even stone facades.
Pole barns are getting more popular then ever in The Berkshires mainly because they allow the building of reliable shelter for animals or storage without money-consuming earth excavation, concrete foundations and general site disruption.
The most affordable approach to start building a pole horse barn is to use a pole foundation. A pole foundation is a pole that doubles as a framing member. Posts or poles are inserted deep into ground allowing them to bear a great deal of pressure, sometimes as deep as 10ft. 4ft. in Berkshire County is deep enough for most horse barns. But that’s just about all the digging for the foundation that the pole barn builder can anticipate. The pressure is distributed equally around the pole, and so the construction becomes very stable and sturdy. The builder can dig the holes himself by using a power auger. The poles are secured by using some concrete poured into the holes, conserving money and labor, as full concrete foundations are usually rather costly.
The pole foundation allows the construction quite a lot of flexibility. A pole barn with pole foundation can be built almost anywhere in Berkshire County, even in locations where a traditional concrete foundation isn’t feasible, for instance, on a steep hillside or wooded area. Thanks to the pole foundation, a pole barn is usually built quickly without expensive ground excavation. Even coastal, earthquake and mountain locations are acceptable for building pole barns and sheds. By doing this, pole barns leave the very best land for raising crops, preserving the natural environment and tend to be more eco-friendly using minimal construction methods.
An additional benefit to pole barns is that you simply don’t need to make them visually perfect and “manicured”. You can use low-cost galvanized steel for your roof and wood sidings, making the entire project very economical. The one thing that isn’t worth skimping on, reported by experienced builders, are storm clips. They are a very important investment considering storms and hurricanes are hitting more often. Trusses should also be of high quality because these components of pole building construction will carry significant weight.
Pole horse barns as well as other pole buildings will cost you somewhere around $3,000 and upwards, depending upon the size and materials available. With simple instructions and plans, these buildings can be built very quickly, even though you don’t have strong building experience. Give a call at 413-442-9977 there are lots of horse properties in Berkshire County that already barns built for horses or can be retrofitted.
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