How to Raise a Pole Barn

Level the site by excavating a pad a few feet wider than the dimensions of the barn. Use a laser level to ensure that the pad is flat. Layout the footprint of the barn. This is done using the Pythagorean Theorem. Measure a square with the perimeter dimensions you require of your barn and drive in stakes at the four corners. Square the footprint by measuring diagonally across the two hypotenuses and adjusting the corner stakes until the lengths of the two are equal. This assures your barn is square.

Run a string line from each stake to the next around the perimeter. Drive a stake into the ground every six feet around the perimeter. Plumb the stakes directly below the string. Remove the string. Remove the stakes one at a time digging a hole with the auger before moving on to the next. The depth of the holes must equal 20 percent of the height of your poles. Drop posts in your holes. Level them up and down, drop a few inches of dirt in the hole and compact it with a hand tamper. Check the level of the post, pour in a few inches of gravel, tamp it, add a few more inches of dirt, compact it and check the level. Continue until the hole around the post is full.

Brace the poles by nailing boards horizontally to the ground, from one pole to the next, around the entire outside perimeter of the barn. For every two feet of pole height, add another level of bracing. Stop two feet or so below the top of the poles. Add bracing to the inside of the barn on the top level. This doubled up layer of bracing adds joist strength.

Span a truss across the top of the girts at every pair of adjacent poles. Square and plumb the trusses and nail them to the top 2 feet of post. Plumbing the trusses may require you place shims between the trusses and the poles. Cover the trusses with plywood. Tack your roofing material to the plywood.