Walls for a Pole Shed

by Char
(North Carolina)

Hi John, I am building a 10 x 12 pole barn structure. This is going to be a little workshop for me about 50 yards from the house. I have some woodworking tools that I need room to set up in, I hope to have storage shelving as well

The barn has a 6x6 post on every corner and one in between on the 12' lengths.

It will be a dirt floor or floating floor of some sort. I have the poles and roof up and am ready to put the wood siding on. What would be my choices for the bottom perimeter (ground ready) of boards that I will be nailing the wood siding to?

I have some used 3/8" thick 8" on centre B&B siding 4x8 sheets I hope to use. With a bank of windows on the tall side of the shed.

This is a western NC setting.

My major interest at this point is how to support a window in a pole barn structure where there is no footing to get the support from.

It has horizontal banding around the building to hold the wood siding. This does not lay the typical box style to frame in for the window and door openings.

The building will be all enclosed with a double 4ft door on the front.

Yours
Cheri



Reply: John – Admin

Hi Cheri,

I have attached a quick sketch of what I think you need. The window position/size will most likely be different from what I have indicated. But you can adjust this to suit.

The wall framing is 4x2 timbers. With the sheets of 8'x4' siding nailed to it, the wall unit will be quite stiff and span between the corner posts. The wall itself will be supported vertically on cleats screwed to the 6x6 corner posts.

The cleats will be fixed to the bottom of each post and will support the vertical load of the wall. You will also need some other fixings to fix the panel to the post further up, but they will just be taking wind load.

Beneath the wall, you will need a treated timber ‘girt’ (maybe 6x2) but this will only be to fill in the gap between the ground and the underside of the wall. The girt will need to be of treated timber to prevent/delay the onset of timber decay. I would also insert some sort of damp proof membrane between the girt and the underside of the wall to keep the bottom of the wall as dry as you can.

I hope that this helps and please let me know how you get on.

Regards

John