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I am familiar with pole barns and milking parlors for 100 – 300 cows and I have seen a lot of poles set for them with a block of concrete at the bottom of your hole, anywhere from 4-5 foot deep. The block measures 6x12x12 inches and yes is heavy as hell, so aim well when placing in the hole, make sure there are no roots in the way and that the bottom is relatively flat. You’ll be able to shift it around so that your pole is centered and plum, just leave enough room to work around the pole. If your going to surround the pole with a concrete walkway, work surface, alley way and so on, the amount of concrete or rock for drainage will be up to you and what type of soil you have and drainage in the area now. Sounds like the recommended dosages given already will work. In the end, be careful, those PT 6×6 posts are heavy and they will jack you up in a mighty hurt. Putting your trusses and any framing on will be just as much fun to look forward to. Good luck.
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I saw a post regarding the best material for a fence post footing, and it brought up a similar question. I will be building a pole barn in the spring with PT 6x6 posts as the frame. I have to have the posts or footings 42" below grade for frost considerations. My plan was to put 12" wide 4' high sonotubes in the ground, fill the first 1' with cement, then add the posts and backfill with cement. After reading about the drainage issue, should I instead put in 1' of gravel instead of cement? I did not know if gravel would let the posts settle too much. What is the best way to do this? It will be a 50x30 pole barn for storage, with 6x6 posts 10' on center. Thanks,
Dave
*drI am going to start a custom built home on the river here in Louisiana in a few days. Although frost depth is not a problem the river can flood the area 4 - 8 feet deep where the house is. The parish is requiring us to build appx 10' above existing grade. I am going to use 8x8 posts with LVL beams for the foundation. The owner wants a 6" concrete slab under the house to park on. My plan is drill 18" diameter holes 6' deep. Then pour 16" of reinforced concrete in the bottom of each hole. Then set the posts and pour concrete around them. Sono tubes will not be used as the soil is clay and will stand alone. The owner has discussed wrapping the posts in metal as he heard concrete deteriorates the treated wood. We are leaning to automobile undercoating or 30#builders feltThe slab over the posts and the roof overhead should keep water from getting into the foundation except for ground water. In this clay I dont think gravel or a french drain would do anygood. If you find out any tips let me know. I built a pole barn 10 yrs ago and just poured a little sakrete in each hole before i set the posts. Then backfilled with ready mix. The barn hasnt budged and neither has the catch basin i poured with sakrete and run over all the time with the tractor.
*drptop....look up pole barn construction again..a lot of the racking resistance of the posts comes from their being buried in the ground... from your description it sounds like you are going to set your post on top of a 48 inch high concrete pier..no racking resistance ...and you have to use a mechanical means of tie-down to prevent wind uplift..DEPENDING on your soil bearing capacity.. dig a post hole 42 inches deep .. about 12 dia... mix one bag of quikcrete.. drop it in the hole and level the pad with a small tamper on a stick...set your post on top of that pad... its flat so you can adjust it laterally...backfill with good draining compactible material.. AFTER you have final alighnment of all your postsBTW... your posts have to be treated to .060 retention..brian..the metal will act the same way as the concrete... and forget the waterproofing..use .060 treated..backfill with compacted crushed stone for good drainage...or go a head an encase them in concrete.. with 6 ft. of bury.. i don't see what you are gaining with the concrete though..b but hey, whadda i no ?
*thanks Mike, sounds like what I had in mind, and Id rather backfill with the gravel rather than cement anyway, quite a bit cheaper! Thanks again,Dave
*I am familiar with pole barns and milking parlors for 100 - 300 cows and I have seen a lot of poles set for them with a block of concrete at the bottom of your hole, anywhere from 4-5 foot deep. The block measures 6x12x12 inches and yes is heavy as hell, so aim well when placing in the hole, make sure there are no roots in the way and that the bottom is relatively flat. You'll be able to shift it around so that your pole is centered and plum, just leave enough room to work around the pole. If your going to surround the pole with a concrete walkway, work surface, alley way and so on, the amount of concrete or rock for drainage will be up to you and what type of soil you have and drainage in the area now. Sounds like the recommended dosages given already will work. In the end, be careful, those PT 6x6 posts are heavy and they will jack you up in a mighty hurt. Putting your trusses and any framing on will be just as much fun to look forward to. Good luck.