VIDEO TIPS FOR BUILDING WITH POLES*

In this video I want to give you a few tips for setting those posts that will

form the walls of the smokehouse. Now what you see going on here is the

construction of a pole barn, one wall of the pole barn. So it's a lot bigger than

a smokehouse, but the techniques for setting the posts are similar. So these

posts extend down about four feet or so, and they were set into holes that were

larger, somewhat larger than needed to be for the size of posts. But the thing to

understand here is the bracing. So we have the diagonal bracing that holds the

posts straight up and down in this direction, and then we also have a

temporary piece of wood fastened on the bottom that ensures that the posts are

spaced evenly from one to the other. The diagonal braces go on either side, and by

connecting the posts together with a horizontal piece here and here, you

basically make it one big continuous hole. So it's not going to want to come

back and forth. Once you've plumbed one straight up and down, they will all be

plumb because they will all be the right distance apart. And you can see here

looking on the side, look at this gap here and here and here and here. There's

a slight difference. Maybe these two posts are slightly farther apart than

they should be because the gap is wider there, but you can see that they're quite parallel. And it's important to have this setup created before you fill in

the soil around the posts. So you want everything to be plumb and square and

straight and properly spaced, and then you start filling in the holes. And it's

not just enough to shovel dirt in because that dirt is going to be far

from compressed, so you'll need to pack it down around the posts. I like to use

the handle end of a sledgehammer. So you hold the head of it in your hand and

then you poke down with the butt of the handle every six inches or so of fresh

soil that you put in, and that helps to firm it up. You're also going to want to

put a little bit more than the usual amount of soil around the posts because

even if you're pounding the soil in, there's still going to be some settling

But this is basically how the process works. You've got the braces and the

diagonal pieces, and that holds everything plumb so that you can fill it

in and get a nice even sort of result. Now as I mentioned before, as with all

pole buildings, the poles are longer than they need to be. They have to be because

there's only one way to get them in the same plane and level, get the top of them

in the same plane and level, and that's to do your cutting to overall height

after the fact. You choose one post and then you basically extend a level point

all the way around to all of them, and then cut to that spot