Leveling lot for pole barn
 

I have been working over the last few months an area for a 24x32 pole
barn. I have been tilling with a tractor tiller and scraping with the
tractor bucket.

I am wanting to start on it again. It seems about 7 inches off from the
highest spot to the lowest. The ground is hard now.

What would be the best way to do this? It is hard for me to eyeball. I
am using string and a line level.

I guess what I am asking is should I keep using the tiller or should I
have dirst brought in and try to build it up to level? Expense is a
major concern as I have a new baby at home and we are going to have to
buy another vehicle soon.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I have been working over the last few months an area for a 24x32 pole
barn. I have been tilling with a tractor tiller and scraping with the
tractor bucket.

I am wanting to start on it again. It seems about 7 inches off from the
highest spot to the lowest. The ground is hard now.

What would be the best way to do this? It is hard for me to eyeball. I
am using string and a line level.

I guess what I am asking is should I keep using the tiller or should I
have dirst brought in and try to build it up to level? Expense is a
major concern as I have a new baby at home and we are going to have to
buy another vehicle soon.


You have a couple of options: You can fill the area and compact the earth,
using a level of whatever sort you're comfortable with. Unless drainage is
a real problem, having a pole barn's floor a fraction of an inch off-level
won't hurt anything.

Or, you can build the barn on the stand as-is, and proceed to fill and level
piece-meal as you have money and time. One of the advantages of a pole barn
is that it's an open structure until you decide to close it in. That means
you can do a lot of the work normally done up-front after the structure is
up. Leveling, placing a slab, enclosing bays -- all can be done after the
poles and roof are in place. You can even do it one bay at a time, if
you're so-inclined.

You probably won't be able to accomplish much with the tiller, unless you
loosen up the dirt with it, then MOVE it to the low spots with your bucket
(scrape box, or front-end loader?). Even if one end of the barn ends up
below normal grade, you have the option of contouring the ground outside the
drip line, and providing drainage swales around the barn to move water away.
But still, the best option is to get all of the barn's floor area at or
above grade at the "high" end. On a sloped lot, you'll STILL have to
provide swales at the high end to move water away as it comes down the
slope, toward the barn.

Building a pole barn on an out-of-level lot is a lot easier than it sounds.
You get poles that are longer than you need by at least the greatest height
out of level. You sink them all to the prescribed depth (as discussed at
length in other threads here).

Then you secure your collar beams level on the poles, and cut off the tops
of the poles after the fact. You'd end up doing that anyway, even if the
lot were perfectly level, because it's hard to get all the poles buried so
precisely that all the pole tops are level with one-another. Better to seat
them without paying too much attention to precision depth, but well and
hard - so settlement won't occur unevenly - then trim them all to finished
height.

LLoyd

wrote:

What would be the best way to do this?

Don't know how you call it, but in German we call it "hose level". fill
some transparent plastic hose with water and you have a level with
unlimited length. That is if you hold the ends upright and don't close
the ends. Ancient Roman technique.


HtH,
Nick

--
Motormodelle / Engine Models
http://www.motor-manufaktur.de
todays SPAMfeed: 

It will be gravel. I hope to concretel later.

I am tilling the ground then scraping away the loose dirt with a front
tractor loader.

I have read about this and I must be stupid but I dont understand how
to make it work. People have tried explaionging it. Is it messey?

wrote:
I have read about this and I must be stupid but I dont understand how
to make it work. People have tried explaionging it. Is it messey?


http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair/WaterLevel.htm

On 22 Jun 2005 13:03:56 -0700, wrote:
I have read about this and I must be stupid but I dont understand how
to make it work. People have tried explaionging it. Is it messey?

Nobody knows what you mean by "read about this" because you don't
include any context to show what or who you're responding to.

What is that supposed to mean?

What is that supposed to mean?

What is that supposed to mean?

Not really. Might be able to buy a box blade. What is a leveling blade
and how do you use it?

Duane Bozarth wrote:
wrote:

I am tilling the ground then scraping away the loose dirt with a front
tractor loader.


You'll never (or at least are unlikely to) get a good final grade until
you get a leveling blade or at least a box blade you can put some skids
on. Got a neighbor you can borrow from?

Don't feed the trolls. You'll see what I mean.

On 22 Jun 2005 13:46:48 -0700, wrote:
What is that supposed to mean?

Who and what are you responding to?

Duane Bozarth wrote:
wrote:

I am tilling the ground then scraping away the loose dirt with a front
tractor loader.


You'll never (or at least are unlikely to) get a good final grade until
you get a leveling blade or at least a box blade you can put some skids
on. Got a neighbor you can borrow from?
The cheap answer is to tow a length of old railway iron or a section of old
chain link fencing dehind your tractor to level the ground. You still need to
compact the ground. The simplest way to do this is to drive a mob of cattle back
and forth over it for an hour or two although if you feel rich you can hire a
sheep's foot roller to do the same thing.

Don't feed the trolls. You'll see what I mean.

So how deep should you dig the post holes? VBG

Karl Townsend wrote:
Don't feed the trolls. You'll see what I mean.


So how deep should you dig the post holes? VBG




Dpends upon the building height, but standard for troll bridge supports
is 36".

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote
Or, you can build the barn on the stand as-is, and proceed to fill and
level
piece-meal as you have money and time. One of the advantages of a pole
barn
is that it's an open structure until you decide to close it in. That
means
you can do a lot of the work normally done up-front after the structure is
up. Leveling, placing a slab, enclosing bays -- all can be done after the
poles and roof are in place. You can even do it one bay at a time, if
you're so-inclined.

Building a pole barn on an out-of-level lot is a lot easier than it
sounds.
You get poles that are longer than you need by at least the greatest
height
out of level. You sink them all to the prescribed depth (as discussed at
length in other threads here).

Then you secure your collar beams level on the poles, and cut off the tops
of the poles after the fact. You'd end up doing that anyway, even if the
lot were perfectly level, because it's hard to get all the poles buried so
precisely that all the pole tops are level with one-another. Better to
seat
them without paying too much attention to precision depth, but well and
hard - so settlement won't occur unevenly - then trim them all to finished
height.

Bingo

Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...

I have been working over the last few months an area for a 24x32 pole
barn. I have been tilling with a tractor tiller and scraping with the
tractor bucket.

I am wanting to start on it again. It seems about 7 inches off from the
highest spot to the lowest. The ground is hard now.

What would be the best way to do this? It is hard for me to eyeball. I
am using string and a line level.

I guess what I am asking is should I keep using the tiller or should I
have dirst brought in and try to build it up to level? Expense is a
major concern as I have a new baby at home and we are going to have to
buy another vehicle soon.



You have a couple of options: You can fill the area and compact the earth,
using a level of whatever sort you're comfortable with. Unless drainage is
a real problem, having a pole barn's floor a fraction of an inch off-level
won't hurt anything.

Or, you can build the barn on the stand as-is, and proceed to fill and level
piece-meal as you have money and time. One of the advantages of a pole barn
is that it's an open structure until you decide to close it in. That means
you can do a lot of the work normally done up-front after the structure is
up. Leveling, placing a slab, enclosing bays -- all can be done after the
poles and roof are in place. You can even do it one bay at a time, if
you're so-inclined.

You probably won't be able to accomplish much with the tiller, unless you
loosen up the dirt with it, then MOVE it to the low spots with your bucket
(scrape box, or front-end loader?). Even if one end of the barn ends up
below normal grade, you have the option of contouring the ground outside the
drip line, and providing drainage swales around the barn to move water away.
But still, the best option is to get all of the barn's floor area at or
above grade at the "high" end. On a sloped lot, you'll STILL have to
provide swales at the high end to move water away as it comes down the
slope, toward the barn.

Building a pole barn on an out-of-level lot is a lot easier than it sounds.
You get poles that are longer than you need by at least the greatest height
out of level. You sink them all to the prescribed depth (as discussed at
length in other threads here).

Then you secure your collar beams level on the poles, and cut off the tops
of the poles after the fact. You'd end up doing that anyway, even if the
lot were perfectly level, because it's hard to get all the poles buried so
precisely that all the pole tops are level with one-another. Better to seat
them without paying too much attention to precision depth, but well and
hard - so settlement won't occur unevenly - then trim them all to finished
height.

LLoyd



That's a lot more constructive and useful answer than some..

As has been suggested, you're wasting your time with the string level.
7" over the area you're working with is more than your present tool can
determine- use something worthwhile or just live with what you've got.

Set the posts as you've been advised to in other strings. You say you've
got a new baby- if he (or she) is ever going to be in this barn do you
want it built to some bare minimum that you may not be qualified to
judge? Don't be ****ing around with this sort of thing, it'll be a waste
of your time and the time of those here who have tried to help you (and
you'll also be a menace to yourself, your family and anyone else who may
enter your building when the wind is blowing). You'll have a hard time
finding more qualified advice than some of the people here, take their
word for how to do things.. like the water level instead of that lame
string level.

John

I have been working over the last few months an area for a 24x32 pole
barn. I have been tilling with a tractor tiller and scraping with the
tractor bucket.

I am wanting to start on it again. It seems about 7 inches off from the
highest spot to the lowest. The ground is hard now.

What would be the best way to do this? It is hard for me to eyeball. I
am using string and a line level.

I guess what I am asking is should I keep using the tiller or should I
have dirst brought in and try to build it up to level? Expense is a
major concern as I have a new baby at home and we are going to have to
buy another vehicle soon.

Google around March 10 by Ignoramus for this very same subject - lots
of posts.
Ken.

G Henslee wrote:

http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair/WaterLevel.htm

Water level, exactly what I meant. Gonna remember the word.

Nick
--
Motormodelle / Engine Models
http://www.motor-manufaktur.de
todays SPAMfeed: 

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have read about this and I must be stupid but I dont understand how
to make it work. People have tried explaionging it. Is it messey?


Y'know, Stryped, a lot of people have given you the time and effort to make
detailed and constructive suggestions. But you knock off every idea with
either "I don't want to do it that well", or "I don't know how to work wunna
dem things."

This response is typical. You've received at least eight or ten suggestions
that a water level is the way to go. I posted a _long_ diatribe on how to
use one -- in detail.

Now, you say, "I don't unnerstan." Try reading. If not our posts, maybe
one of those archaic things they call "book".

Sorry... It _kinda_ sounds like you want to build a barn. But other times
you sound like a traditional troll.

LLoyd

wrote:

I must be stupid but I dont understand how
to make it work. People have tried explaionging it. Is it messey?

No, there is a very easy -not to say idiot-proof- way of a water level
modification.
Build a wall out of concrete (at least 3 foot thick) around the place
you want to level. fill the pool with water, until the whole aera is
covered. Wait until it freezes and put a marking line around where the
ice touches the wall. Next summer you can continue work and in the
meantime leave us alone.


HTH,
Nick
--
Motormodelle / Engine Models
http://www.motor-manufaktur.de
todays SPAMfeed: 

I am going to use it for a garage.

I read on that buildeasy site last night and now understand the concept
but what I dont understand is I am guess ing you drive several rods and
check each rod with the water level. So, I am guessing the water level
is only good for that exact "spot" which means, for a 24 x 32 area, you
will have to drive alot of rods to get any idea on how to get it
perfectly level?

On 23 Jun 2005 05:25:47 -0700, wrote:
I am going to use it for a garage.

WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO AND WHAT ARE YOU RESPONDING TO? Put some context
in your posts if you want to communicate. Let me guess - you're posting
via google, and are too lazy or clueless to find the little clicky-box
that says "include context so people know WTF I'm responding to", right?

wrote:

you will have to drive alot of rods to get any idea on how to get it
perfectly level?

Yes, but toothpicks are cheap!

Nick
--
Motormodelle / Engine Models
http://www.motor-manufaktur.de
todays SPAMfeed: 

wrote:

you will have to drive alot of rods to get any idea on how to get it
perfectly level?

No, you do it with four, and some mason's twine. You could do it with three,
but that would confuse you WAY too much.

(didja ever hear that three points define a plane? Nah... I didn't think
so.... Basic, junior-high geometry... way, way outa your league.)

LLoyd

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 12:18:33 -0500, Robert Swinney wrote:
Bam! Dave, you nailed another one.

Heh... even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while...

Bam! Dave, you nailed another one.

Bob Swinney

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On 23 Jun 2005 05:25:47 -0700,
wrote:
I am going to use it for a garage.

WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO AND WHAT ARE YOU RESPONDING TO? Put some context
in your posts if you want to communicate. Let me guess - you're posting
via google, and are too lazy or clueless to find the little clicky-box
that says "include context so people know WTF I'm responding to", right?

WOnt the string get in the way when you dump the material?

The high side is on the right and the lower side on the left. The door
is in the middle? Is that bad?

wrote in message
oups.com...
The high side is on the right and the lower side on the left. The
door
is in the middle? Is that bad?


Is that looking from the inside out or the outside in?

wrote:

WOnt the string get in the way when you dump the material?

This will never happen. At least if _you_ make the pole barn.

For your convenience some questions you might ask now:
- Why me?
- Would using a chain make things better?
- What will never happen?
- Do you have other questions, or could you make check boxes, please?


Nick
--
Motormodelle / Engine Models
http://www.motor-manufaktur.de
todays SPAMfeed: