OP
hayden
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2000
- Messages
- 2,475
- Location
- VT
- Tractor
- Kubota L5740 cab + FEL, KX121, KX080, Deere 6120M
Well, I suppose I can tell the foundation saga while I'm waiting.
At first I hired a local engineer to design the foundation, but after the first meeting got pricing that was 3x what he originally told me. I interpreted it as "if you want to help" pricing, so I cut him loose.
The building company (Worldwide Steel Buildings) offers foundation design services, and in my meeting with them I hired them to design it. In the mean time, I lined up a guy who I have used before to built it.
My concrete guy and I met after I signed to purchase the building to look over the site and the various foundation styles that Worldwide uses. We picked one that made sense, and was actually the only approach that was plausible. You may recall from earlier in this threat that the building is dug into a hill side that is pretty much all rock. So a little over 2-1/3 sides have an 8' stem wall, and the remaining 1-2/3 sides are "walk/drive out". I documented everything and sent it to Worlwide as "guidance" for the foundation design.
A month or two later I got the final engineering drawings for the building, then maybe a week later I got the foundation design. The foundation design was ridiculous and bore no resemblance at all to what I had sent them. It was pretty clear that the info had not made it to the grunts who cookie cuttered the design. Plus, it was massively overkill. I showed it to a friend of mine who is the principal in a large commercial engineering firm is Vancouver, and he said it's more like you would build for a 20 story building. It all struck me as a case of an engineering firm doing cookie cutter designs with no consideration for the people who have to build them. And they are massively over designed to ensure they never come back to haunt them with structural problems.
I sent them back to the drawing board and they came back with a design that was in line with what we asked for, but still massively over designed.
In the mean time, my concrete guy said he would only do the project if it was massively simplified. Instead of stem walls with pilasters to support the steel frame posts, he wanted to just pour a really thick stem wall with no pilasters. Well, it would have to be at least 16" thick to provide a sufficient landing pad for the posts, so I said no to that. Meanwhile time was ticking away with winter approaching, and a complete shutdown for concrete work.
We then showed the new plans to another concrete guy who does more commercial buildings, and he also baulked at the plans. He said for similar buildings they always just do a thickened edge slab, then pour the stem wall on top of that. I asked him to price it and he came back with $80k (yikes), and could only do it next spring/summer. Now we are talking to a third concrete guy who comes highly recommended, but he's booking out next year too. So I finally called it, and we will sort out the foundation plans over the winter with a late spring start once the roads are no longer posted from mud season.
But I have the building kit - maybe. The truck still isn't here....
At first I hired a local engineer to design the foundation, but after the first meeting got pricing that was 3x what he originally told me. I interpreted it as "if you want to help" pricing, so I cut him loose.
The building company (Worldwide Steel Buildings) offers foundation design services, and in my meeting with them I hired them to design it. In the mean time, I lined up a guy who I have used before to built it.
My concrete guy and I met after I signed to purchase the building to look over the site and the various foundation styles that Worldwide uses. We picked one that made sense, and was actually the only approach that was plausible. You may recall from earlier in this threat that the building is dug into a hill side that is pretty much all rock. So a little over 2-1/3 sides have an 8' stem wall, and the remaining 1-2/3 sides are "walk/drive out". I documented everything and sent it to Worlwide as "guidance" for the foundation design.
A month or two later I got the final engineering drawings for the building, then maybe a week later I got the foundation design. The foundation design was ridiculous and bore no resemblance at all to what I had sent them. It was pretty clear that the info had not made it to the grunts who cookie cuttered the design. Plus, it was massively overkill. I showed it to a friend of mine who is the principal in a large commercial engineering firm is Vancouver, and he said it's more like you would build for a 20 story building. It all struck me as a case of an engineering firm doing cookie cutter designs with no consideration for the people who have to build them. And they are massively over designed to ensure they never come back to haunt them with structural problems.
I sent them back to the drawing board and they came back with a design that was in line with what we asked for, but still massively over designed.
In the mean time, my concrete guy said he would only do the project if it was massively simplified. Instead of stem walls with pilasters to support the steel frame posts, he wanted to just pour a really thick stem wall with no pilasters. Well, it would have to be at least 16" thick to provide a sufficient landing pad for the posts, so I said no to that. Meanwhile time was ticking away with winter approaching, and a complete shutdown for concrete work.
We then showed the new plans to another concrete guy who does more commercial buildings, and he also baulked at the plans. He said for similar buildings they always just do a thickened edge slab, then pour the stem wall on top of that. I asked him to price it and he came back with $80k (yikes), and could only do it next spring/summer. Now we are talking to a third concrete guy who comes highly recommended, but he's booking out next year too. So I finally called it, and we will sort out the foundation plans over the winter with a late spring start once the roads are no longer posted from mud season.
But I have the building kit - maybe. The truck still isn't here....
