Got trees, need pole structures

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I have a forest that needs thinning and I need a pole structure to put hay and equipment under (what do you call those things that have a roof but no walls?)

What do I need to do to convert a few trees into this structure? I'm guessing that if I cut some trees this year, I would need to lay them in a dry place for a year while they cure?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

They call those things 'ricks'. Use em for hay or corn. Most of the old ones were made smaller at the bottom than they were at the top. Some were large enough and built so that you could drive a tractor through them with a wagon on the back.

Let them season just like firewood but I have no idea how they fastened that suckers together.

If you could get a hold on a farm manual from 1700's or 1800's it would probably show you how to put them together.

-- stephanie nosacek (pospossum@earthlink.net), August 22, 2001.


Are you talking about machine sheds? Roof, three walls closed, front side open, you build them long and narrow, ours is 80 feet x 24 feet, and made out of locust trees, except for the roof trusses, there we used rough cut hardwood 2 x 4's, roofed with metal barn siding. If you are using whole trees for the uprights, you can use then as cut, or green.

Not much to them, but go to a lumber store that sells pole barns and have a look at their free plans, that will give you the idea.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), August 22, 2001.


I've seen one of these which was recently built at the entrance of a tourist information center (perhaps 100 feet by 30 feet). Round debarked logs used for all the support columns. The logs were flat spotted on both sides for about 1 foot top and bottom, steel plates formed brakets and rather large bolts held everything together. There were also certain logs which were not only flat spotted, but had a cut perhaps a half inch wide through the center of the log and parallel to and the same length as the flot spots. Steel plates were inerted into the cut to form more brackets. The roof was supported with large exposed trusses (sp) which spanned the headers, the headers were supported by the columns. All this sat on a concrete pad, but I'd assume there were rather large pier type column footings below grade. I'd assume curing time would depend on the type of tree, and would be much longer for logs when compared to say firewood or dimensional lumber.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), August 22, 2001.


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