How to Build a Pole Barn Pt 1 - Site Prep & Layout 

i'm a civil engineer, this method is precise without being complicated. beautiful!

I've been a builder for many years and have seen quite a fair bit of sheds. The plans in ryan's package ru-vid.comUgkxB7IXYxLzb_Ichhe45zM3Im5xfEiSp9vB have some of the nicest looking sheds i've seen in a while.

I've watched at least 50 different videos on squaring and grade and the light just went on. You're an excellent teacher. Thanks a lot for posting this. Bookmarked, saved, liked and subed.

"Some dude about a million years ago"...LOL! It's the 3, 4 5 principle, but it really helps to see you guys walk it out and explain it. Great set of videos, love watching them.

I just wanted to say...Thank you. I just finished my 40x72 building..took me about a year but watching the videos daily for couple weeks,I felt confident to attempt. Had very little help, truss day and a couple roofing weekends. Again thanks. Frank

❤l was looking and searching pole burn builds and landed back here again--this video is 10years old on my phone reading--but a blessing for me for 2024* l had started on my pole burn and made a mess so l came back to this video after learning l had no ideal what l was doing 😮 you have broken things down great for me. In my second maybe third go at it. Plus being in my 60ies l didn't know l needed an eye appointment and it was close to winter**l didn't stand a chance 😅 thanks for this video. I have to take down the 4 poles that l did put up and set up the triangle with string--l also want to apologize to the construction and frame workers but my money and family illness has taken my personal extra funding elsewhere 😢 so this for right now is my only option to try an diy the pole shed...thanks again🎉

Man this popped up in my recommended videos today. I have watched it about 100 times in the past 5 years. You are a RU-vid Classic!

Well..... here I am. 50 years old, newly single, and I purchased land in KY with plans to build a barn home. You will be my guru! Inspire me my friend!!

thanks for your plain ,commonsense , and practical approach to this layout procedure on a building site !!! I have built several buildings and my methods are very similar to yours except that I was stuck working pretty much alone on these projects , and I used a string and plumb bob to assign my post locations . I am pretty old now , by the world's standards, and I need to build a new pole barn and haven't done any of this in many years. Your video is very encouraging and straight forward in the way you present all the information necessary to do the most tedious part of this build which is the squaring of the foundation layout . Thanks again for your video !!! I will be watching the rest of your build to fill in the gaps of what I have perhaps forgotten from my last building project and hopefully pick up a few new tricks and tips from your wisdom and experience !! Greatly appreciate a hands on practical construct !!

I plan to build a very similar building to the pole barn you built. Your vids were very well done and I watched them all. You should be very proud of your pole barn.. Glad your tractor has a new home. The best part was your common man approach and straight talk. Thanks for the info and tips.

Use the 3-4-5 rule for squaring anything

I really like this guy. He is a good-ol-boy type and with he dry since of humor, his videos are really easy to follow. Thank you for making these.

Im starting a 5 bay 60x36 x 10ft, high, tool shed by my self , been watching every diy show i can find 👍🏻

Your series on building a pole barn is outstanding. I've watched all of them at least a half dozen times. Over the years I've built numerous things. However, at 60 years of age I'm still learning and I learned a lot from your videos. Many of the techniques you discussed were used in my 40'x60' barn in current development. Like you I'm building it alone and in my own time. It would've been finished but for wet winter weather which slowed the process. Thank you for taking time to share your efforts. They greatly contributed to the success of my project.

Nice job of explaining something complicated in plain English that the average man can follow. It's great to see a video with with some common sense thrown in. I plan to watch them all.

Really excellent. Everything is well explained. In particular, I appreciated the discussion of his reasoning for why he approached the project in the way he did. Pythagorean theorem was a good reminder. Bravo!

I have to say, you made squaring up the building so simple that a math-idiot like me even understands! Now, if you'd only taught me geometry/algebra in high school, I might have been an astro physicist! Thanks for the video series.

Built a beautifully level and stable pole building a few years ago with your help... so now that I'm fixing to do it again, I knew what video I wanted to watch

First of all, I just found this video and I wanted to see how you built the barn because my son and I are going to eventually build a pole barn at his house. I wouldn't have done the layout quite like you did, but the end results are what you need and your method gets the results. Good job!

I have to tell you - I really appreciate the time you put into recording your projects, and quality and level of detail you put into all of your work. Thank you for sharing.

You're a good teacher. In the past I've climbed the post to cut off excess height and knotch. I was younger then. This spring I will adopt your method of achieving a level plane in the hole. I too always mix the concrete with water in a mixer then place in the hole. Placing dry concrete directly in the hole tends to result in a weaker set. The one thing I missed from your video is anchoring the pole in the concrete. I usually screw in just one lag screw in one side of the pole to make it harder for wind to yank the pole out of the concrete.

Watching the series again just to make sure i got it! Hoping to start my pole barn just as soon as the cold weather turns to the better! Thanks again for taking the time to do this series I have learned alot.

Great job on these videos. My wife and I are going to build a pole barn ourselves and your videos are a great reference for us. Thank you

My Man, you are awesome. I have land in Northern California and land in Hawaii. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and want to build a small home and garage on both properties. A place to get away from the urban life. I bought these raw land properties to have a place to be with nature and just get away from the city. Pretty much both are off-the-grid. I don`t have much money to spend since I`m retired. I like how you explain everything and after viewing your video, I am sure I can do this. God Bless and keep it up.

Great series to help with planning and brainstorming. Gives you a good idea how to avoid pitfalls and includes excellent information that is often forgotten.

Thank you so much! My husband and I really enjoyed watching your video! Super helpful and your explanations are very easy to understand! Keep them coming!

so far So good ! looks like you got a good plan on the Pole Barn ! Years ago i met a guy in Construction that spent many years building Pole Barns throughout Pennsylvania for many of the Nations biggest Barrel racing competitors when i knew the guy he had retired from that business and had opened a construction company that Specialized in s site maintenance and containment processes he was a interesting guy with a very much Can Do Attitude although i,left that company myself over 35 years ago and haven’t seen him since

Pythagoras would be very proud of you! Brick masons use the common values of 3-4-5, measure 3' on one leg, 4' on the second leg and the diagonal will be 5'.

Wow.... If it wasn't for your videos I wouldn't have the confidence to finish my pole barn. Thanks for your videos. Awesome stuff!

Excellent, excellent video! I run a small business and have used the Asq-Bsq-Csq, or "3-4-5" method to find square many times. I'm always surprised how many contractors & builders are not familiar with such a useful formula. And I'm always impressed when I see someone who isn't afraid to tackle a project on their own. I need to build a structure to serve as a shop as well as a shed for my tractor, and I'm considering a pole building. I think I'll enjoy your video series. Thank you very much.

I've always wanted to build a pole-barn one day to honor my hero the late Frank Garrett from Stilwell, OK. I thank you immensely for the tutorial. Take care.

Man, I really appreciate the videos. I'm a student at University in Construction Science and I think I get more out of your videos than my classes! Keep it up brother.

We have watched EVERY video you made & must say THANK YOU for all your time !! We are on our way to building a barn, not as nice as yours, but similar. With your knowledge we will be able to do this project for our horses !!!!! Now on to your website !!

About to build a pole barn this week. Thanks for the tips on squaring a building!

Hi; wanted to say thanks for putting these videos together. Just finished a pole-barn style carport behind my house. Took many techniques from your videos which were very helpful. (Still took a whole lot of weekends and late nights.) Keep up the good work! It is appreciated.

Best video series I've found on this subject. Thanks.

Gonna be doing some building of my own soon. Thanks for the videos! Great job. Direct and to the point. Terry

I'm in the planning stages of building a pole barn and found your videos. Straight forward and down to earth. I usually use the 3-4-5 method but I'm going to try your squaring method. Great video!

Hi Feddie, just wanted to thank you for the great video series!! I learned a lot watching your videos. Last year I built a 12 X 24' pole barn to house our rabbit colony. I worked with my father-in-law getting the barn constructed.. When all was said & done the barn was only off by 1/4"!!

Very interesting. I enjoyed your accent and clear way of speaking

Well done sir. I haven't build a pole barn in a number of years and looking for a refresher and maybe some new ideas. Looking forward to watching the complete series.

great series. its the end of January here in NW Missouri and i just started my 32 x 32 pole barn project. was going to wait til spring but have the money now. I also wanted to take advantage of the 11 percent rebate at the local lumber yard. we had a warm spell yesterday so i marked out the post holes. i knew how to square a structure by measuring corner to corner however the pyagoryth therom made that real easy using two 100 foot tapes. i was lucky enough to have a neighbor with a bobcat and post hole auger. that made that job quick and easy. going to take your advice and get that dirt out of the way. snow and rain on its way tonight.

Thanks for the video, you explain very well a lot of others assume we already know. I'm inspired to start one!

😃 3/4/5. 6/8/10. 12/16 20 Then the corner corner check 👍. According to my Grandfather. Great content. Sent your playlist to my Son-in-law Thanks for your efforts in filming this. 🇺🇸

This is by far the best video tutorial I have ever watched. (several times I may add) Loaded with information and knowledge. Well done.

I bet I've watched this video 10 times. I finally understand. Just one of those silly things I couldn't get in my head. Thank you so much for going through the trouble to make this. You sound like you're from Tennessee. Go Vols!

Found this video because i need to replace some black wood rot in my pole barn. love the series.

I just got through this serious. I really enjoyed the information. I am just getting into building and I found a lot of your information very helpful. Keep up the videos.

thanks ,your a good man teaching something to others.

I noticed you said "Good Enough" for you and not the normal jobsite term "Close Enough". You are doing it right in my opinion and believe me that you are doing a better job than what I see on jobs I have looked at. I built 2 sheds and was cussed when I made measurements within 1/8" and famous line was "Were not building the Taj Mahal" ... well when you are the person paying for it you think you are... damn fine job

super helpful thanks for laying it out in easy terms

This has helped me immensely. We don't normally do remodeling stuff, and we don't even have a dozer so we can't do dirt work. We're out here in Stilwell. Give em hell buddy!

Thanks for this video series, just watched video one. I'm gonna have to watch em all now.

Thank you so very much for doing this series!

Thanks a lot! I'm working on a run-in shed that's 15 x 36. Your videos and tips are really helpful. You're quite entertaining, too. Fun to watch, very illustrative and super informational. Thanks!

Looking to build a pole barn for my plumbing business. I have never done such a project. I ran across your video, and have watched the first 2. Looking forward to gaining some information and confidence to do this. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Great job! Very simple to follow and well desplayed.

Thanks for the video some brilliant advice of how to level your pole bottoms with concrete first

Very thorough job and great explanation, looking forward to seeing the whole series. Keep um coming and thanks for sharing. And from one southern hick to the other, I can understand you just fine.

On the corners, instead of running tapes across, you can measure one wall at 3' and another at 4' and mark both positions on the string. Then measure the marks on both strings (makes a triangle) and it should be 5'. This is called the 3,4,5 method from what I recall growing up and being taught from my parents and grandparents. Hasn't let me down yet. This can be done on the initial string as well as the string from each batter boards.

I dig pools for a living and find myself using some of your methods, when I’m laying out a pool I like to use rebar instead of stakes because they’re smaller in diameter, also those soft tape measures your using will slip right over the top of the rebar. Or if you need the stakes for height, center a screw in it, and it’ll be tighter!

Brilliant well explained looking forward to part two cheers Larry Sullivan London

Like the way you did your layout and site prep

Last July we had my workshop built. My wife and I had walked it off and put stakes in the ground and even had colored twine to identify what was building and what was concrete in order to get a visual of where and what we wanted. Not knowing anything about how to make it square we set out and marked it off. It was a great reference for us and we could see how big it was going to be along with the extra concrete that we had poured around the building and extended our patio. The funny thing was just how out of square it actually was. The builder teased us a bit and we all laughed. What we did actually helped to give him a visual but he could not use what we put down. Watching you square your's up makes a lot of sense.

Great video, very informative and easy to follow along.

Thanks for the walk through videos finally got my building squared 41.25 by 45... Our old loft barn is in dire need of some help to that's my other project this summer it's well over 100 years old

Thanks very helpful. keep on teaching. JD. Texas

New channel name same great content! Keep up the great work man. Love the laid back teaching style.

I'm gonna build a pole garage next July. This is going to help a lot.

thanks brother for sharing and taking the time..much appreciated

Great video! I look forward to watching the rest.

Cole back there texting his lady. Awesome videos.

ok i used the math you showed me and for my 30x40 my diaganol line is 50,I used the back of my house as a reference point to get the front of the barn square with it.thanks for your help and this week i should have more progress made

Hey man I really enjoyed watching this video you taught me how to square a building cause I'm currently planning to build a 30x30

Enjoyed all 8 video's. Very helpful

You rock Mr. BlazingNailGun! ;) You said the "M word!!" And I didn't run.. that's my kinda of m..a..th.. lol, Finishing up a fancy chicken coop and needed a little extra confidence to go for my horse barn. It's just me, myself and I and any passerbys I can sweet talk into holding a tape or end of a board but thanks to your videos I am going for it! TY

Thanks for making this!

Thanks for posting this series! I look forward to using your tips in my project!

Nice videos, thanks for taking the time to make them.

Great video. It's nice to get a little guidance. A little rule of thumb to use in place of A^2 + B^2 = C^2 is the 3, 4, 5 rule. Otherwise the 24 (3 x 8), 32 (4 x 8), 40 (5 x 8). I hope this makes the math easier.

Thank you so much for this series! Very very helpful and great explaining!

Thanks for making the video series I'm really considering building a pole barn and find this helpful. Subscribed :)

Thanks for posting! We can all learn something from each other.. Good explanation of everything.

That Barn can POWER the whole farm with one of my Wind and Solar systems on it. I have barns powering entire farms and ranches all over the US.

That was great thanks! Onto the next video!

good video brother. I framed houses in my early 20's but a little rusty

I think you're doing great! You got a subscriber! I learned the purpose for the exterior corners allow me to set nails/points to cross strings that coincide with my vertices. Great job! Also I almost suggest you to paint the points of your vertices or whatever you'll be digging like every 8' you mentioned so once you remove your sticks to dig, you still have some paint on the ground. Something to consider for future if you haven't. As you said, you want to make your barn 24'x32'. Now, is that the interior or the exterior of it? Why I ask? In reality, once done you'll know where or how wide by how long interiorly and exteriorly speaking you make it but, let's say you want those measures inside your barn. If that's the case, you want to add to the 24', and the 32' the sides of your pole. Let's say you will be using 4"x4"s, then you'll go with your exterior measurements 28"x36", and you find the diagonal of that and do what you did, so from there on, your interior will get to be 24'x32'. In houses where you'll add sheetrock, baseboards, in areas like kitchens where you'll add cabinets, you want to consider that your interior space will decrease a 5/8" for the sheetrock, a 12" deep by top cabinets I believe, a 30" deep for bottom cabinets (feel free to correct me on anything), I think 1/2" baseboards approx, sort of, future additions to your structural walls to consider so what you want in the interior, gets achieved.

Great video....very informative & enjoyable.

Excellent job

Yo..Very nice job. !! I'll be viewing all the way to the end . GREAT INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS THUMBS UP...AGAIN!

I've always used the 3/4/5 rule! Measure from the corner one string and mark 3' or any multiple of 3'. From the same corner, measure down the other string 4' or the same multiple of 4' used above and mark it. Now measure between the marks and perfect would be 5' or the same multiple used above! Adjust your angle to get exactly 5' or the multiple of 5' used between the dots. You now have a perfect right angle and corner to measure from! Repeat the process for each corner! Then measure corner to corner diagonally, to double check your work! Very fast, and all but measuring diagonally can be done by one person! EXAMPLES: A- line 1=3', line 2=4', between the dots = 5' B- line 1=9', line 2=12', between the dots = 15'

Looking good Feddy really enjoyed your 1st 15 minutes on your Pole Barn project. Waiting for your next episode. Denny Grimes Phenix City, Alabama

Great set of videos. Very informative.

Awesome videos! Look forward to plenty more.

You're the man! thanks so much!

Thank you for making site prep simplified for me. I am tackling a 16 x 16 addition to my work shop so I can keep my lumber and some tools dry. After that I want to build a barn for my animals and a small green house.. I figure if one man can do it then one woman can do it. I have a 5 year plan.. wish me luck :)

Great video Freddie.

Told ya I'd watch your channel. l like what I see so far. Nice meeting you this weekend. I'll be working my way through all your videos.

Great job buddy

Great instructions