For Patty or Mike: Pole-built garage

[Elle]

This is a crazy question.   

I ran across this line in Moon Called: Mercy didn't bother parking the van in it's usual place the pole-built garage.

I thought I knew what that was...except when I went looking for a picture of it. Is a pole-built garage an actual enclosed building with four walls or is it open to the elements with just a roof held up by poles at the corners?

Like this:

[FH]

No, it's not a crazy question! Thank you for asking this and putting up the photo, Elle. I'd like to know the answer, too. I did wonder when I first came across the phrase. But then I found that the warehouse where Adam and Jesse were held was 'a huge pole building', which seemed to be an enclosed building with four walls. So I just assumed the pole-built garage has walls as well.

[Mike Briggs]

Pole Buildings are just an alternate method of construction.  Traditional buildings use a concrete or brick foundation, with stick-frame walls attached to it.  The walls bear all the load of the roof etc, so doorways and windows require additional supports. 
A pole building uses posts or poles set into the ground (often using concrete footings) as the foundation and as the primary support for the roof.   Because the poles provide the structural support, it's easy to include fairly large openings without additional support.  In extreme cases, they may be nothing more than a roof suspended on posts, with no walls whatsoever.  Hay barns are frequently built this way.  However, there's nothing preventing the builder from adding walls, doors, windows etc. and building a fully-enclosed building.  It's also possible to pour concrete floors etc. and soon the building is nearly indistinguishable from a traditional building. 

Because they don't require concrete foundations, which typically involve excavation, forms and various specialists, pole buildings are generally cheaper to build that other buildings, and are frequently encountered in agriculture, farms and other areas where large, inexpensive shelters are desired.   Some states or cities prevent or restrict their use as residential buildings, because the pole foundation is not as durable.


If anyone's interested, I've built two pole buildings on the farm -- one is largely complete and enclosed, and the other is under construction.  I could take pictures of them if it would help.   

[FH]

Thank you Mike! I'd like to see the pictures very much (I'm much impressed you have built the pole buildings yourself.)

Your explanation is very interesting. I'm no expert, but I'm resonably sure the buildings (or at least, most residential houses) in Japan are built like pole buildings (whose poles provide the support for the roof) though I believe they do have some kind of foundation. My sister, who studied shipbuilding or something like that in college, once said that the  traditional European buildings (traditional buildings in the US originated in Europe, didn't they?) cannot withstand earthquakes well. That's why the method of using poles as the primary support developed in Japan. Since they have foundation for reinforcement, I'm not sure the Japanese houses can be called pole buildings. Probably not in the strict sense, but I don't know the technical term in English.

PS: Thank you again for the information! I've found the Japanese word for the method.

[Elle]

If anyone's interested, I've built two pole buildings on the farm -- one is largely complete and enclosed, and the other is under construction.  I could take pictures of them if it would help.   

Thanks for explaining that Mike.

I'd like to see a pictures for sure, I've only ever seen a stick-frame building in construction, never a pole-built one.


   (just fixing the broken quote-GreyDrakkon)

[Mike Briggs]

OK, here's a building I'm currently working on, where you can see the skeleton of the building.  The horizontal boards (called "girts") will support the siding.  (And that's a very old mare in front!).  This photo was taken on October 27, and I'll try to post a picture of it tomorrow so you can see what a difference siding makes.



Here's the same building a week later.



And here's one that I was working on earlier in the year.  It's our hay-barn, and most of the front stays open (to facilitate loading it full of hay),  but the other section is my shop.  I'll eventually put a large garage door in the front, which is currently boarded up with nasty-looking plywood. The rest of the building has cedar siding, which still needs to be stained.     However, with the cement floors and wiring, the shop section looks pretty much like a stick-framed building.