Anyone have experience with selecting/erecting a pre-engineered steel building?

So I am planning on building a 24x36 garage this spring. I have seen a few "garage kits" on ebay, and there are quite a few steel building manufacturers on the net that sell pre-engineered packages.

I'm also contemplating building the garage from scratch out of traditional building materials.

Anybody here used a pre-fab building kit before? If so, who did you use, and were you happy with the result?

I don't have any doubt that I can erect a garage myself, but I am weighing all the options for economy and ease of the project.

 

same boat

 

One thing for you guys to think about, don't buy a "used" metal building and plan on reassembly with out a whole lot of hassel with your local inspectors.
They will require you to have your new old building reengineered along with all the paperwork, this will be VERY spendy! Rick

 

Pre engineered metal buildings are fairly simple to erect! Two companies to check into would be General Steel and Miracle Truss. These two require virtually no welding whatsoever and are extremely sturdy. Miracle Truss has models that can withstand up to 100 mph winds if this is a factor!

We have erected small (500-2000 sq ft) metal buildings with no problem and were able to keep the cost down as well so you might try to find a small but competent welding shop in your area and see if they are willing to take on the work. Its amazing what you can construct using just leverage! A freind of mine built his own welding shop and lifted 200 lb beams up into the rafters by-himself! So dont think you need a crane, just a couple of strong backs

 

Right - My wifes uncle inherited a family business from his dad that had been up and running since time. The county bought the property he was on causing him to relocate a few miles. The main building of the business was a friggin HUGE pole barn style building. He took it down and hauled it to the new site only to learn that the same group of county assholes who bought him out and made him move - wouldn't let him put his SAME building back up the SAME way unless he could provide architectual plans for it - which were not even provided when it was build decades before. It can get retarded and unreasonable in a hurry.

 

www.garagejunkies.com go there lots of guys are doing it with both new AND used.

1 guy had only 5 k into his used building and that included everything including pouring the slab.

 

There are lots of things to be considered. First, contact your building inspector to find out the loads for your area. Wind, snow, etc... If you buy a kit, pay for the engineered drawings. They'll come with a seal for your state.

The slab will most likely need to be engineered also. Some building officials will have standard details for you. Others will require you to contact an engineer.

If you buy a building, you need to decide the orientation. Are the doors going on the 24' wall or the 36' wall? The most economy in the buildings is keeping the column sizes to a minimum as well as the number.

24' is within the max length of roof purlins so you can do a single slope if you want. It might not look the best to you but it will be the cheapest. You won't have any major rafters. You can use smaller end wall rafters.

Another thing to consider is expansion. Do you ever want to add on and in which direction?

Do you want to make it tall enough for a mezzanine level inside?

Do you want to pull motors or run a hoist? Purlins aren't designed for that.

Also, my experience is that if you don't have local codes to deal with, a fabbed building will be less expensive than a kit. But if you pay someone to fab it, get references and go look at what they've built. And in your area, pay particular attention to flashing and waterproofing.

PM or email me if you have any questions.
Dan

 

I have a 38x40x15 American steel span (also sold under several other names) . It is a free standing (no steel breams) all bolts together, wind speed up to 130mph. Building was reasonalbe but the concrete is a "industrial" heavy duty lots of extras style and ended up costing more than the building did! Overall I am happy with it.

 

I just finished a 24 x 38 No completed pictures yet but here's the post regarding it.
I found a contractor here in ohio that built this tradition material post building for the same that you would expect a steel building to be.
I have been spending the last few weeks with drywall, electrical and installing a furnace and drywall. I was totally amazed at this guys workmanship. I will give you my weeks paycheck if you can find a split piece of wood or an out of plumb board anywhere in the building.
This building went up for 17 grand including windows, insulation, doors and roof but not the cement. This building has real tongue and groove 6 inch siding.
He is slow right now and single. He may consider an out of state job. You more than welcome to come see the final product. let me know if you want his number.
Morton buildings, made and orignally started here in Ohio. Have been exellent steel buildings.
Here's my post.. sorry no new final pics yet. PJ
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81710&highlight=yellow

 

I built a 30 x 40 x 12 kit from Metal Mart . The main beam took a frontend loader to lift up but the rest was not too bad. Just make sure the pad is level and square , it will give you hell if it is off. Mine turned out to be not square ,I was ready to kill a concrete contractor!

 

Thanks fellas. I called a local lumber yard to see if they could put together a quote for a traditional framed building, and they'll get back to me later this week.

There are a few packages on ebay that come with wet stamped plans that I have been looking at. One of em is a 24x36 with doors and hardware delivered for 7900.00. The only issue I have with it is I don't know this company from adam and they are out of Florida so any recourse for warranty/workmanship would be a nightmare.

I can only go with a 10' wall max as the building cannot be any higher than my house here in town. 900 square feet is the max size as well, so I can't add to it later.

I'd like to purchase a pre-engineered kit if I could for ease of installation. I think I'll form the concrete pad myself and then pay to have it poured and finished by a contractor. I've only got about 12k for everything, so I gotta do most of the work myself.

There is a local company here that advertizes a 24X32 with concrete pad poured and erected for 14,900. While this sounds reasonable, I can't afford 14,900.

 

www.steelbuilding.com

Great folks to work with, I wanted a bunch of extra features in mine... great service after the fact as well. You can design and price online...

Brian

 

Is the company in Florida.. Ameri-built steel and the guys name Jim? That is who I got my building from.. He basically puts it all together and then a local to you steel company cuts and ships everything to you.. They do take some onsite engineering.. Not too bad to erect though. The kind of buildings you are looking at require no welding.. The red iron buildings require welding...and welding inspections... With the building, slab, wiring and some upgrades mine cost 17,000...complete... Get the roll up doors with the low roof height.. I have two roll ups and 1 normal garage door.. The roll ups are much nicer and save you lots of headroom....EVILT.. I do have pics if you want to see em..

 

Yeah EVILT, I think it is the same guy. At least his ebay name is Ameribuiltsteel and he is from Florida. I'd love to see some photos of the building.

I also emailed a few of the other builders mentioned for quotes, we'll see what happens.

 

Here are some pics...EVILT

 

hudsoncustom, I can get you in touch with concrete guys. Car guy too, been doin concrete forever, its all he does. Both of my nextdoor neighbor kids pour all day dowtown Seattle. You still in Mt. Vernon? These people are near Arlington..............Beetle

 

In the last year I put up a 20 x 36 steel building that was removed from one sight and reassembled in my back yard. This required an outlay of about 9k in cash, a boat load of help from family and friends and some creative building.

I checked with local code enforcemnt and since I was tearing down an existing structure and replacing it with a structure that was theoretically up to code already (the building was also in Memphis) they were pretty lenient with everything but the slab. I think just going down to their office, admitting my ignorance and asking for help went a long way.

I splurged on a couple of items that seriously increased the cash outlay I could have tried to use more salvage materials and did a few things myself, but it would probably still be a pile of rusty metal in my back yard instead of a shop. Here is roughly how the cash broke down:

Salvage 20 x 36 building $1200

slab $3200 started this myself and learned quickly that it was best left to the proffesionals

New roof purchased from local steel building supplier as a return from a customer $600

New walk through door and frame $200

New 12 x 12 sctional door $700 installed

Electrical run by Electrician with all apropriate permits and 200 amp service upgrade to house $2500

Everything else was beg borrowed or stolen (not really). We used my dad's gas powered welder and his small kubota backhoe to raise the beams into place, so I saved some there. I also didn't factor in how much beer my friends drank, because it was a lot of weekends with a lot of friends. 9k sounds like a lot, but I ended up with about $12.50 per finished square foot in the place, and learned alot in the process.

My point is that it can be done by the average fellow who doesn't mind getting dirty. This was pretty much the only way I would be able to get a shop of my own in this lifetime. I have seen used buildings in the classified ads around here since that could be had for similar money. There is a salvage company here that has one on the ground now that could be had for a reasonable price. I would give the used option serious consideration if your local building inspector will let you get away with it.

Sorry for the long winded post.

 

Yeah Beet, I'm still in Mount Vernon. I do have some limited experience in forming (I worked for a construction company about 10 years ago), so I think I could prep the site and form the slab up. I'd like to have it actually poured and finished by some fellas who really know what they're doing so I get a nice level surface.

If you could shoot me their contact info I'll give em a call.
Thanks..

BigT...
I think I want to go with a new building so I don't have to mess with disassembly. They were tearing down 15 houses here recently to make a new addition on the hospital and damn near every one of them had a garage. They were all 50+ years old though and I think it would have been more trouble than it was worth to try and move them....

I would like to upgrade to 200 amp service though...

EvilT...
Thanks for the photos, that must be the same fella. I was leaning toward his kit in the first place, and if you had a good experience with them, that makes it all the more attractive. I am waiting until I get the cash from my refinance (should be another week or so), and until I have heard from the local lumber yard on their pole building price....

 

Tell Jim that you are a hot rodder... I talked to him in length about cars a couple times...You can tell him that Jason in Los Osos Ca.. had good things to say about him..He should remember..... You should see that your building pays for itself within a year or two..In My area by the time I was done with the building, values had gone up so much I didn't even worry about the re-finance... I love my steel building.. It does get a little chilly late at night and early in the morning though..Even in Cali....EVILT

 

For us in the 4 season territories:

How's about's the condensation problems with an uninsulated or unheated buildings?.

I believe there are two different concerns:

1> What happens when the cold damp building gets sunshine on the metal (outer/inner) walls. On the Tractor forum I belong to, the complaint was that the roof actually would drip condensation under some conditions.

2> What about detatched semi-insulated building with heating units that are only turned on for weekend/occasional work in winter. I hadn't thought about this unil I read here about the problem with tools and anything metal passing the dew point and being subject to condensation-corrosion.

I have two steel "carports" 21'x20' I paid less than $3K that protect my projects from sun and heavy precip.. These carports are sold by landscapers and car shops all over the N.E.. They are square steel with thin tin 'roofing' panels. I requested and was supplied with the proper engineering stamped prints to satisfy strict NYS building inspex. I was worried the first winter about snow load and wind but so far-so good.

I am considering one 24x21 with the sides and ends "closed in" with a 10x12 door on one gable end for @ $3500 but am concerned about the condensation situation. Obviously the cost of the slab will be significant and I was wondering about a blacktop pad instead of cement since the structure is considered "temporary".

 

Powerband - I thought about doing something similar with the "temporary" carport structures, but I want to build equity in the property, and really want a good space to store all my projects. It rains so much here that i would have to pour a slab even to put the carport on, so why not build a garage?

I plan on insulating the shop, so I don't think condensation will be an issue. Besides, all my buddies here have non-insulated shops and I dont think any of them experience condensation issues....

 

My Nephew tried this. After about a year of struggling, he comitted suicide. Not sure that was the reason, but just before he did, he burned the SOB down.

 

I've been working with the company https://www.sunwardsteel.com/ They have builders and designers who've been building steel building kits for over 20 years. They have 3 locations to make for easier shipping costs.

 

joined today to hype a product on a 12 yr old thread

 

I have found that A stick framed building under 3000 square feet is a bit cheaper in the long run than a pre engineered metal building . With that said another thing to remember that with a stick framed building you will loose a lot of ceiling space due to the trusses , so a guy would need to make his side walls taller to accomidate the loss in height . As a real precaution is to make sure if going with a metal building that the drawings are stamped by a licensed engineer for your area not just a stamped set by any engineer. My building is 60' X 100' pre engineered metal building and I built it with one other guy and a snorkel fork lift and a scissors man lift . As mentioned of the moisture . I have a vented roof as well as vented walls to keep the skin dry with air movement , no insulation is touching the metal skin.
Vic

 

Good topic for GarageJournal.com