Do you provide engineering for Post Frame buildings?
Yes that is exactly what we do! (In addition to providing other building code compliance services). We provide engineering advice, calculations, and drawings to document a structurally sound building for use by builders and building owners to obtain their building permit.
Are you a full service Engineering Firm... What don't you do?
Windows, for one! (Although the Microsoft kind I'm pretty decent with). But we don't offer engineering and design related to HVAC systems, electrical, plumbing, site grading or drainage plans, lighting plans, architectural landscaping plans, and we do not actually obtain the building permits. (So what's left? The building structure, finishes, and building code accessibility requirements... we focus on getting you the building information you need so that the local permit can be secured!)
What is Post Frame?
First of all, Post Frame Buildings are not the same as "Post and Beam" nor "Timber Frame" construction, although these are all types of wood frame construction. Post Frame is a specific type of construction that evolved from what used to be known as "Pole Buildings" or "Pole Barns" in the Ag Industry because of their use of round logs, or "poles", for columns. Today's Post Frame industry, by comparison, uses a significant amount of engineered components and can be properly designed to withstand the forces of nature and still create taller buildings with wider spans using less material than either Post and Beam or Timber Frame construction. At Halberg Engineering, we've designed Post Frame buildings with an interior height as much as 38 feet and clear spans as wide as 80 feet.
Post Frame Buildings typically use wood columns (posts) and trusses or rafters to create a series of “post frames” along the length of the building. Columns are typically made of dimensional lumber either nail laminated (NailLam) or planed and glued together (GluLam). The columns are often treated with preservative and embedded directly into the soil or supported on, and connected to, the top of a foundation. Other framing members include roof purlins and wall girts which are attached to the post frames to provide lateral support and to transmit sheathing loads, both in-plane and out-of-plane. Post Frame Buildings are finished on the exterior and interior with a wide variety of materials, including metal and wood structural panels and siding, or any other suitable materials. The defining characteristic of a Post Frame Building is not what you see on the inside or the outside; it is the framing system, which you normally DON’T see that defines the building as Post Frame.