sandy and I just purchased 18 acres, on the suwannee river in florida. we have to build eight feet above the flood plane, and would like to find books or plans to build a hexagon/pole structure. any one out there with info it sure would be apprecaited. Ansel

-- Ansel P. Briggs (ansel@xtalwind.net), January 02, 2002

Answers

I don't know of any specific books for a pole building of that design, Ansel, but they are about the simplest structures going to build so you should be able to pick up any book on pole buildings and adapt it for this shape. It's sure going to take some figuring, though. If you aren't set totally on an even sided hexagon, you might think about starting off with a square building and building it with two opposing corners sheared off, giving you the six sides. You'd have normal 90* angles on both ends of the building, and the other angles would be larger. The effect would be a more "oval" rather than "round" structure, which might be just as attractive, and the planning might be easier. Just a thought.

Sounds like it will be a fun building when you get done with it. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), January 03, 2002.

Checkout URL http://www.topsider.com/ as they construct nothing but hexagon home, any flavor. I personally like their ideas, stiles and their prices are not bad. Additionally, they will take your floorplan desires and architect the whole thing. Good luck.

-- CHARLES RATHBURN (psytest@pacbell.net), March 21, 2002.

Yes, think about the practicality of fitting furniture into a place which doesn't have right-angles. Actually, there is a very practical design used in tropical and sub-tropical parts of Australia called a "Queenslander". Similar climate to Florida in some respects. It's more or less a regular framed house built up on stilts (up to about fourteen feet, so you'd have a safety margin for "1 in 400" floods, which might just be becoming more frequent with global warming), so you have a big open shaded area underneath. This helps with cooling the house, and you can cage in some or all of the bottom and use it for garage, outdoor living in the shade and cool, kids play area and clothes hanging during rain, possibly put the laundry down there with HIGH power points, workshop (probably with 4'6" [half-height?] walls to hide things so people can't see there's anything worth stealing), storage, whatever.

Verandahs around the entire upper story, or at least northern (southern in your hemisphere) and western sides.

Do a search on www.google.com with the search phrase "Queenslander house" and you'll find plenty of examples.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), March 21, 2002.