The day finally arrived and the construction of the actual pole building began. I’m usually one to take on a good project but building a garage is out of my reasonable ability. Doing this myself would be near impossible and would take forever. To show how quick this building went up the Zawada crew started on July 24 and completed the initial build on August 4th.
The garage doors are a final construction item that will not get installed until after the concrete work is completed.
Footers
A pole building doesn’t rely on a traditional footer or foundation, the poles are placed directly in the ground. Depending on the size of the building and builder preferences the posts may or may not be concreted into the ground. My 24×30 building has the poles in the ground sitting on thick concrete disks that provide a solid surface for the pole to sit on.
Once all the holes were dug in their proper places it was time for an inspection to make sure the posts were deep enough.
Construction
The first step of construction was placing the poles into the ground and beginning to attach the poles to each other with horizontal pieces of wood called girts.
Post Protector
I opted to protect the posts with a Post Protector which is a plastic sleeve that the bottom of the post goes in. This option protects the wood post from direct contact with concrete or soil drastically increasing the life of the wood.
Roof Trusses
In no time the roof trusses were placed and the building was really starting to take some shape. The roof trusses were lifted into place upside down then with an expert motion they were flipped upright and attached. Roof trusses are attached to each other with wood called purlins.
Outer Walls and the Porch/Shed
The side of the building that will be the porch/shed were framed. Shortly after the outer walls were going on. I opted for the wrap and bubble insulation for the roof to help keep the garage air tight.
The Build Wrap Up – But Far from Finished
The build finished and I was extremely happy with the attention to detail and the workmanship. I appreciated that the crew tolerated my requests and questions. They made sure to not assume anything and asked me when it came to where to place the window and side door.
Now that this phase is complete it was time to move to concrete and so many other phases toward completion. It felt good to stand inside and see my dream coming to reality.