Build a Pole Barn for Animal Shelter: I Built A Pole Barn For Under $3,000
(Page 4 of 6)
February/March 1995
By Ellen Franklin
The Trusses
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Prebuilt trusses are available from many lumberyards and are well worth the money, since these parts of a building must be designed to carry a lot of weight. I was able to purchase used ones from old military buildings at a very good price. As with most bargains, there was a catch, however. All of my trusses were evidently not from the same building and were not precisely the same. This caused a few problems along the way but nothing insurmountable. I would advise that you compare used trusses very carefully if you build with them. My oversight could have been disastrous. I was lucky.
A friend and I hung the first truss by hand from the back of a pickup truck. They must be placed on the stringers one at a time, hanging upside down, with the pointed ends jutting out an equal distance beyond the walls. Then, using poles and ropes, the trusses are rolled over into an upright position and hopefully it lands more or less where it is supposed to be. If not, you have to slide it into position by hand. Since there is almost nothing to anchor it to, this first truss is very difficult and very dangerous to set in place. Secure the first one with ropes, brace from the stringer, poles from the ground, and every other way you can find.
After setting the first one, my friend commented that he was going to need a “truss" of another kind if we had to raise any more that way. We hired a backhoe to set the others. Having tried it both ways, let me say that it is possible to do this job by hand, but you don't want to unless you have no choice. We nailed short pieces of 2 x 4 along the stringer as a "stop" where each truss should go and the backhoe just picked it up and held it in position while we anchored it in place. We used a carpenter's level to get them straight up and down.
I put a truss every four feet, which made every other one and the two end ones fall on top of a pole. All the others were set on the double stringers between poles.
Purlins
I used 10-foot-long 2 x 4s for the purlins (boards nailed lengthwise along the top of the trusses to fasten the roofing to). I fastened them every two feet, running from peak to eave along the trusses. For greatest possible strength, you can set these on edge across the trusses. However, that gives you only a two-inch surface to try to hit with your roofing nails when you put the tin on. The problem is that if you should miss the purlin with your nail, you may possibly leave a hole that will leak rain. Since I feel that the object of a roof is to keep the rain out, I decided to lay the purlins flat against the trusses, giving me four inches and doubling my chances of getting my nails into something solid under the tin. I set the purlins every two feet apart and, since the trusses were every four feet apart, I had a very strong roof without having the purlins on edge.
Be sure you use straight, unwarped lumber for the ridgeline and for the eaves. The ridge-line and bottom eave line purlins must be cut so the ends meet snugly on the end of a truss. A truss plate nailed at the junction adds strength.
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