The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: countrygirlatheart on September 08, 2008, 12:09:42 pm
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Hi I need to put up a building to provide shelter for sheep and somewhere to keep them in for lambing. Have had a few quotes from steel portal frame manufacturers which are expensive so wondered about constructing a pole barn using ex GPO poles. Not sure where to start ! Will only have 4 breeding ewes plus three ewe lambs this year but may end up with a max of 12 breeding ewes (if I survive the first lambing !!)
any help appreciated, thanks
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depending on the area how about a 'stormed gazebo'?
This does depend on the wind weather etc.
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intrigued ! what's a stormed gazebo ?? love to hear more, thanks
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A Gazebo which has been stormed with ropes (girl guide styley)
Possible putting two sides on it to help with shelter and bail of straws around it then rope(criss crossed) it over the top and peg/contrete in to the ground
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aah ! sounds good as a temporary set up what about the large pig arcs I've seen advertised ? - presumably not enough ventilation but just wondered ....
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If you're going to use them for lambing, you'll need to get access easily to see what's going on. Maybe a pig arc would be too low - don't want you getting a bad back!
I think we're going to have something very similar to a field shelter - three sides and a roof - and we'll cose it off at the front with hurdles and straw bales for shelter. I'm going to use rubber horse mats for the floor, on gravel, since I happen to have some spare. That's today's plan, anyway.
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aah ! sounds good as a temporary set up what about the large pig arcs I've seen advertised ? - presumably not enough ventilation but just wondered ....
No idea about this sorry but you might beable to pick up gazebos quite cheaply as we are going out of season for them.
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if you are going to use telegraph poles for the uprights , you will also need some 4"x2" , for the cross members. These will do for spans of upto about 10' after that you would really need 6"x2", or maybe 4"x3" . It really depends on what you can get hold of . If you want a small open field shelter type thing, which is just 2 sides a back and a roof, then 10'x10' may be big enough , if not just make it longer 10'x20' or whatever suits. a 10'x10' you would need 4 tele. poles and 3 10' x4"x2" for each of the 3 sides , and 3 for the roof. The front would remain open and you can fit some sort of gate if you want to close animals in .The poles would need digging in about 2' ish at the corners of the shed, make the size to fit what type of covering you are going to use , so there is minimum waste . once you have got the pole in and they are upright !!! and square, you can fit the 4"x2" side and back members. Fit the bottom one about 1' from the floor and then one in the middle and one at the top on the 3 sides. Use either 4"-5" coach screws or 6" nails to fix them on with . The front of the shed should be taller than the back , say 8' at the front and 7'-7'6" at the back . The top 2 side members should go on at an angle, 4" from the top of the back pole to 4" from the top of the front pole on the outside, then you can fit the roof beams from side to side ontop of the side top members. You put one top beam at the front, one in the middle and one at the back. You can now cover the framework with corrugated iron , if you going to use something else you may need to add extra timbers to fit it on to , but this setup would do for corrugated iron or even box section steel sheeting and even plywood or flake board .
I can never tell if what I have written makes sence , so hope you can understand what I mean !!
cheers anyway
Russ
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Hi Russ
Thanks for the fab answer, great to have the detail. Have now visualised how it will look from reading it through. Have read so much about the need for ventilation was going to go for what I think is called 'yorkshire boarding' for the top half and perhaps plywood for the bottom half. Probably wouldn't get away with corrugated iron as it would be in view of a set of listed buildings so neighbours might complain if it doesn't blend in ! (they might complain anyway !)
Will need to think about the size a bit more. The site is on a slight slope so presumably the longer the building the more of a problem this will be
thanks again for your help