Metal Building

yooperdave · Mar 10, 2003

I was very close to buying and erecting a steel arch building myself.

After the numerous complaints from so many people, I guess I will look at my other options.

Thanks for all the input from everybody.

Yooper Dave

Anonymous Poster · Mar 10, 2003

I'm still figuring on a steel arch for myself - but I need 40x70 or bigger farm storage, and there the stick built or pole buildings get a little more $$$ for that size. I also have some farm machinery to help with the construction. But, that will be a few years off yet.

For a smaller shed or anything you ever want to consider heating, I would look to something other than an arch.

---->Paul

utahmule · Mar 10, 2003

Bill,

Who did you get your building from? I need a 36x60, and it seems the choices in UT are a little limited.

Thanks,

BB_TX · Mar 10, 2003

I got mine from <font color="blue"> Mueller Steel Buildings </font>. They go as far west as Albuquerque but that is still a long ways from Utah.

Estif · Mar 20, 2003

I'm living in a 20x50 steel frame - not steel arch - building while I prepare to build the house.
All framed out "normal" inside into an apartment and a shop. Had a crew of six or eight helpers
the first day to get the red iron up, then two or three for three or four more days to get it all
dried in. $7000 for the kit, about $3000 for the slab. Had the slab done by pros. My assessment
now: I'd go with the same building again if I didn't plan to frame it out inside. They go up really
fast and cheap. If I wanted it all framed out with finished walls, it would be cheaper to go stickbuilt.
But the shell probably wouldn't be up and weathertight quite as quick. Just my thoughts.

Steve

Anonymous Poster · Mar 21, 2003

We ordered a barn fom All Wood Construction in the back of the Auto Swapper. Just delivered the wood last weel supposed to assemble it next weel. I'll post some pics as it goes up.
56" x72' was 25 k +- .

moeh1 · Mar 24, 2003

My 2 cents from only 1 personal experience. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gifI built one of the S----masters 25 by 40 "A" arch buildings 4 or 5 years ago. I can see a lot of experience here on the previous comments. We had about 10 people and we needed all of them. The building was extra high and that made it tougher. I did not use the channel approach, they sell an optional steel piece that gets embedded in the cement before it dries - this is the only way to go if you put one of these up, well worth the extra money. I did the trenching, stone and forms one weekend, poured concrete the next, put the barn up the follwing weekend, and installed the end panel and re-tightened all the bolts the following weekend, but it was tiring work! Now that I know how, I'd do it again, but I would pick warmer weather, preassemble all the arches ahead of time, and get a big crew of friends. My neighbor who helped me, wants to put up 2 of these for horses and hay. It is a great garage/storage, but you could never heat it. My final investment was about $6,500 for 1000 sq ft. with 9 to 16 ft of headroom and no interior posts. I couldn't touch that with regular construction.

SteveBenson · Mar 24, 2003

I put up the shell of my 1600+ sq. ft. horse stable (pole barn) for about $8k (34x48x10, with double sliders at both ends, 29 ga. steel) with 2 guys in about 4 weekends. Adding some extra height wouldn't cost must more.

gerard · Mar 24, 2003

No personal experieince with General Steel but have been hearing a lot of radio commercials lately for them. Advertising a 50 x 100 for $25000 or 5 a foot which is pretty inexpensive. (I'm assuming this is erected cost, probably your job to provide a level site.)

shado · Mar 26, 2003

Well Daryl, it's like this...
I contacted a fellow advertising steel buildings, he was nothing more than a middle man selling for Star Manufacturing that has two or three plants in the U.S., they will just about deliver anywhere to the lower 48. This guy was supposed to be an expert on local code requirements, concerning wind & snow loads. After signing on the dotted line and assuring me things were honkey-dorey, turns out my county required just a little more support (additional 5 pounds per square foot) of snow load than the county the dummy set me up for. I had to pony up another $330 for the change. Then the semi-flat bed shows up with all the materials which you have need of an all-terrain fork lift (7-8K lbs. capacity) to remove the metal with, while the semi-driver glares at you for taking up too much of his time (four hours are allotted by contract, but he still sneers) But one of the beauties of the design of this structure is that you don't actually need a complete footer all the way around the perimeter, just footers big enough for where the main posts bolt down to. I've seen one place use cement blocks solid-filled to make-up the outer boarder of the floor and to were the outer walls would attach. One option for supporting the base of the outer metal wall is a 'Z' strip that hangs over the edge of the floor, allowing for support of the metal sheeting until you get in screwed in place (which I wish I would have done). Everything can be erected with a warehouse-type forklift (as long as you have the cement floor done). The insulation is simply laid over the frame of the building prior to screwing on the outer sheetmetal (which I wish I would have done that also). This is not an 'arch' style building, but a clear-span rectangular shaped, you get more usable square-footage if you build a second floor that way. I did not want to do a pole barn, did not want to have 'rafters' to deal with, wanted maximum ceiling height. You can get the sheetmetal to be all galvanized also instead of painted, less outside maintenance and termite proof. Also helps out with sheilding from EMP blasts.
J.W.

yooperdave · Mar 26, 2003

Hi J.W.

Did you check your contract regarding load requirements conforming to your local building code?

I would think that they need to make up the difference and not you.

Loading requirements should be a no brainer for a company that needs to do this on a daily basis.

Yooper Dave

shado · Mar 27, 2003

Well, that's just the way things get done to me, one problem after another. The contract, from what I can remember, did state the wind & snow loads AS SPECIFIED by the middle-dummy. He actually set the contract up for a neighboring county, not the one I resided in (we met him in another city at a restaraunt to make the deal). So therefore using standards of some other district. The amount of money was really not going to do me in, it's just the principle (as it always is). I also had my contract state that I could take delivery as late as I wanted, that way, I would hopefully have enough time to get the site prepared before it was actually brought out. But Murphy lives next door to me, so after $1500 in repairs to a S-10 Blazer, I did not have the money on hand to get the site ready, the manufacturer wanted to get it out of their way, so it got delivered and sat for almost a year before I could get construction under way. But as a side note, nowadays our really 'hard-working' inspectors want a structual engineering seal on any steel structure built in our county & I can't recall my original drawings from the manufacturer having any. So that's an important item to make sure it comes with the drawings. Now if I could just get my geodesic started, I'd be happy.

jtcweb · Apr 1, 2003

Where did you get your kit from?

skid mark · Apr 5, 2003

Hi Daryl-

I took the looong, but cheap route and built a 30x42 metal equipment storage building using home made metal trusses. It was a lot of work, but was a fun project to work on. I wrote up step-by-step instructions for a welding email group that I'm a member of: http://users.arn.net/~usnick/welding.html

Total cost was a little over $4,000.

Mark

JohnMiller3 · Apr 5, 2003

Hi Mark,

I'd seen your truss project and barn building before and thought you did a great job... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Now, I just saw your custom bed... and WOW! you have some talent buddy... (and your wife Sam did a pretty nice job too!) /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Mark's bed and dog Rocky...

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Taylortractornut · Apr 5, 2003

When we had our trcking company we needed a building tall enough to raise a rolloff truck in the shop. we had a wood frame shop built that was 40 by 50 with 14 foot sides and i thin 20 feet to the peak between the rafters. its all metal outsides and is very sturdy. i think it cost 12 000 to have built and another 2000 for a 4 inch floor. Its got the shiny bubble insulation on it and its cool in he summer and holds heat pretty good in the winter. I use a 150000 BTU kerosene/diesel heater takes about 15 minutes to need the heater. we lined the wals with white house trailer tin on the inside and shiny insulation to the top. It helps with the lighting. Most folks think its an all metal building but they get a surprise when i mention the low costs.