After working late into the night, the crew was finally done with the pole barn.
But I came to understand that “done” didn’t mean “completed”, it meant “ready for the next step”.
The next step included:
- Pouring a concrete floor, surrounding walk, and garage apron.
- Attaching gutters and downspouts.
- Putting in roll-up garage doors.
Happily for me, these could all be completed with me off site. The only thing I needed to decide was whether to reinforce the concrete with rebar, or reinforce the concrete with fiberglass particles mixed into the concrete. I was advised to use the fiberglass as it would make the concrete a little more pliable, more resistant to freeze-thaw cycles, and I wouldn’t need the high strength that rebar would provide. OK. Let’s go with the fiberglass.
In retrospect, I’ve made plenty of mistakes with this project, but one very smart thing that I did was to put window panels in the shed, just underneath the eaves.
![One good idea was to put window panels just below the eaves.](https://brooksidepress.org/the_reluctant_forester/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC00561-300x225.jpg)
The “window” material is polycarbonate that has been molded to duplicate the shape of the steel panels. It fit perfectly, and I had it run the length of both the north and south sides of the shed.
This did several things:
- It lets in an incredible amount of natural light, minimizing my need for interior illumination.
- During the winter, with the sun low on the horizon and the leaves gone from the trees, it lets direct sunlight into the interior of the shed, warming it.
- Because the windows are so high off the ground, I don’t have to worry about animals or anyone elseĀ using them to enter the building.