Pole Buildings for Dummies

pole building framing

We'll admit to a little laziness here at the Antisocial Network: when we find a post by someone who is clearly clueless about their topic, we'll run a quick search on the author's name to determine whether the post in question is a one-off or we can mine this moron for more awards. That happened not long ago with an eHow.com freelancer named Katherine Kally. She's back... this time with the Hunker.com post, "How to Frame a Pole Building."¹

The rough outline Kally provided was more or less correct: set the posts, install girts, lay on top plates, add roof trusses, and then put on a skin. Well, most of it was in the right order, anyway. Back when she still called herself R. Lindley, Katherine made a few mistakes...

...Mistakes like,

• "Whether you use poles or pressure-treated wood..." – If you don't use poles/posts, it isn't a pole frame.
• "Dig the holes for your posts or poles... A depth of 18 inches to 2 feet is sufficient for most locations." – Uhhh, no, it's not. In cold climates, you may need to bury the posts as much as four feet.
• "Posts should be located every 8 to 10 inches..." – No, Katherine, it's every eight to twelve feet!
• "Place your posts or poles... Check to be sure that the posts are level." – No, dumbass; they need to be plumb, not "level"!
• "Frame the outside of your pole barn with the treated wood beams." –Now's when you should be talking about spacing, etc... but you aren't!
• "Attach horizontal nailing boards to the posts in accordance to your local building code specifications. These will add security to your frame." – WTF are "horizontal nailing boards," anyway?

Here's someone who may have never even seen a pole building and certainly has never built one pretending to explain the process. She never mentioned cross-bracing, never mentioned framing doors and/or windows, never mentioned leveling the top of the poles. Wonder what else she left out?

In other words, the home-décor blogger was woefully unqualified to write the post... but she is eminently qualified to collect another Dumbass of the Day award.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_4706477_frame-pole-building.html

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