Attention: TDR Forum Junkies It is winter and I am trying to think through this. I am sure many members have been down this road, and welcome input. "Plan the work, work the plan."
Use
I have a travel trailer (assume 40 feet in length), a small power boat (assume 25 feet in length), small utility trailer, plan to have a compact tractor and implements, and a truck to store. I’d also like to have space for a bathroom, workbench, and storage lockers. I dream of having a concrete floor area with a lift. My initial thought is 30 feet wide by 60 feet long by 16 feet high.
Snow Load
It is not usual to have snow on the ground for four months of the year here, and it is fairly normal to have a good amount of snow where my property is. One year we got five feet of snow in two days. So the snow load requirements are pretty substantial. I see some steel buildings in the area – these are shaped like Quonset huts, or very similar to Quonset huts. I don’t recall ever seeing one collapse. I have seen pole buildings collapse.
Anybody have any view on steel Quonset hut type buildings?
I think if I do a pole building I need to consider perhaps increasing my poles and roof trusses; e.g., maybe poles on six foot centers and roof trusses on two foot centers rather than poles on eight foot centers and roof trusses on four foot centers. I think a roof pitch of 6/12 is required.
Foundation
It looks like a common pole building approach is to place a precast concrete circle at the bottom of a hole at a depth below frost line and set the pole on that. In my area, the hole would be such that the top of the concrete circle would be at a depth of five feet. To help reduce rot and decay, a plastic sleeve can be added to the portion of the post that is in the ground (https://www.postprotector.com)
Another approach would be to set the pole on a concrete pier. One thought that occurs to me is that of using the bigfoot system (https://www.bigfootsystems.com/index.htm) or the sonotube base system (https://www.sonotube.com/sonotubeconcreteforms/tubebase.aspx) coupled with a mounting bracket (https://www.ltcolumns.com/sturdi-wall). This gets the wooden pole out of the ground.
A cross between these two approaches would be to place the precast concrete circle at the bottom of the hole and set a precast concrete column with mounting bracket on the concrete circle (http://www.permacolumneast.com/PermaColumn/models.htm). This approach also gets the wood pole out of the ground.
A regular foundation is an option: reinforced concrete footer at a depth below the frost line and a poured reinforced concrete foundation wall with pole attachment brackets.
If I were to do a steel building, I wonder if I could use the concrete piers and tie-in a 12 inch or 18 inch reinforced concrete perimeter slab.
Framing
For a pole building, I did not assume anything unique apart from: (1) more closely spaced poles and roof trusses, (2) using 4 ply 2x8 poles rather than a 6x6 post or 4 ply 2x6, and (3) 2x6 girts rather than 2x4 girts.
I assume I will have a 14 ft tall by 16 ft wide sliding door at one end (i.e., two pieces of roughly 14 ft tall and 8 ft wide) and a 36 inch wide man door.
I know there is a long way to go, but getting started. As in most things in life, I expect there are trade-offs between cost, durability, and construction efficiency. Viewpoints and prior experience welcome.
Thanks.
Use
I have a travel trailer (assume 40 feet in length), a small power boat (assume 25 feet in length), small utility trailer, plan to have a compact tractor and implements, and a truck to store. I’d also like to have space for a bathroom, workbench, and storage lockers. I dream of having a concrete floor area with a lift. My initial thought is 30 feet wide by 60 feet long by 16 feet high.
Snow Load
It is not usual to have snow on the ground for four months of the year here, and it is fairly normal to have a good amount of snow where my property is. One year we got five feet of snow in two days. So the snow load requirements are pretty substantial. I see some steel buildings in the area – these are shaped like Quonset huts, or very similar to Quonset huts. I don’t recall ever seeing one collapse. I have seen pole buildings collapse.
Anybody have any view on steel Quonset hut type buildings?
I think if I do a pole building I need to consider perhaps increasing my poles and roof trusses; e.g., maybe poles on six foot centers and roof trusses on two foot centers rather than poles on eight foot centers and roof trusses on four foot centers. I think a roof pitch of 6/12 is required.
Foundation
It looks like a common pole building approach is to place a precast concrete circle at the bottom of a hole at a depth below frost line and set the pole on that. In my area, the hole would be such that the top of the concrete circle would be at a depth of five feet. To help reduce rot and decay, a plastic sleeve can be added to the portion of the post that is in the ground (https://www.postprotector.com)
Another approach would be to set the pole on a concrete pier. One thought that occurs to me is that of using the bigfoot system (https://www.bigfootsystems.com/index.htm) or the sonotube base system (https://www.sonotube.com/sonotubeconcreteforms/tubebase.aspx) coupled with a mounting bracket (https://www.ltcolumns.com/sturdi-wall). This gets the wooden pole out of the ground.
A cross between these two approaches would be to place the precast concrete circle at the bottom of the hole and set a precast concrete column with mounting bracket on the concrete circle (http://www.permacolumneast.com/PermaColumn/models.htm). This approach also gets the wood pole out of the ground.
A regular foundation is an option: reinforced concrete footer at a depth below the frost line and a poured reinforced concrete foundation wall with pole attachment brackets.
If I were to do a steel building, I wonder if I could use the concrete piers and tie-in a 12 inch or 18 inch reinforced concrete perimeter slab.
Framing
For a pole building, I did not assume anything unique apart from: (1) more closely spaced poles and roof trusses, (2) using 4 ply 2x8 poles rather than a 6x6 post or 4 ply 2x6, and (3) 2x6 girts rather than 2x4 girts.
I assume I will have a 14 ft tall by 16 ft wide sliding door at one end (i.e., two pieces of roughly 14 ft tall and 8 ft wide) and a 36 inch wide man door.
I know there is a long way to go, but getting started. As in most things in life, I expect there are trade-offs between cost, durability, and construction efficiency. Viewpoints and prior experience welcome.
Thanks.
I keep looking for deal on a wider and taller door to put in there. 
