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Metal Buildings

m016324

Well-known member
Joined
May 20, 2020
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629
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So I have a detached garage on my property that I've used as a shop but I'm ready to finally turn it into the shop I've always wanted. It's current has 8' ceiling and I want to put a lift in. After doing quite a bit of research it looks like for me to raise the roof high enough for a lift, with current wood prices, it's not much different than dropping a metal building on the current pad and automatically have the height I want. Since I'm doing the work anyway I'd also like to extend the current pad (22'x30' pad) and would like to add 10 ft so I have a 32x30 pad. The added pad is also where I'd like to add in the lift, so I can get the required thickness (not sure of thickness on current pad) for the 10k lift.

There are a ton of metal building companies but I'm curious of other's experiences in doing something similar. What options did you get? Did you have the same company assemble and you bought it from? Did you have the same company pour the pad? Those seem to be the three options I've found; a company that will drop the metal in your yard, a company that will assemble on your pad, and a company that does the whole thing. I'm also thinking of getting it insulated just to make it easier to be a 4 season building.

What else should I be looking at?

-ben
 
Just a heads up, I was full on getting a metal building. Got about five or six companies in my area. All have a 2+ years wait time. The most desirable one, Morton, isn't even taking calls anymore until the demand goes down.
 
There is a metal shortage right now and a lot of company's are hurting from it.

Its really not a good time to build with anything other than possibly block or concrete.
 
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How much work are you wanting to do? A 30x32 building isn't much work if you wanted to build it yourself and not deal with waiting a year for a company to make it.
 
I can do all the work short of finishing the concrete. Not sure that’s the route I’m looking to take. I can definitely erect the building and can get all the inside stuff complete was looking to see what experiences others have had with different options.
 
I was lucky when I did my 50x80 shop there was a 12 week lead time is all. Really helped with sale of house/shop when the same MFG now has a 18 month lead time and the price of building went from 59K to almost 90K now. I also am looking into building a shop for a new property I have and it's crazy how long the lead time is AND the cost of everything. Wood and steel prices need to settle down.
 
Maybe this will help first is a general idea of the property. The detached garage sits almost on an isthmus with water curving with in 25 ft or so of
the back wall (topo doesn't have the resolution to show how much it twists and turns next to the building. The large open area to the right of the garage (you can see the general height differences on the topo) it's about ten feet and is in a flood plain currently. To the left of the garage there's another flood plain between it and the house. It would take an incredible amount of fill to raise the area around the garage high enough to make it useful for the garage and there aren't any other areas where I could drop a similar size building on property that wouldn't ruin the view . So I need to work with the area I have. Hope that makes more sense.


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Metal buildings typically require a different kind of foundation footer than do your standard stick-built garage as an FYI. You can't just anchor the columns to a 4" slab.

You effectively pour casings in the ground for each of the columns - and depending on your local building codes you then link those with a perimeter wall and ultimately tie that perimeter wall together with a slab.

For reference, mine were 4x4x4' cubes linked by a 2 foot thick perimeter wall.

My building is a WorldWide Steel building. Its a steel inner structure with a wooden outer structure. Outside it looks stick-built, but inside it means I get trusses and open spans upstairs and downstairs. The lead time in early 2020 was 75 days. No idea what it is now however. They were pretty easy to deal with - PM me if you want a contact there.
 
I can do all the work short of finishing the concrete. Not sure that’s the route I’m looking to take. I can definitely erect the building and can get all the inside stuff complete was looking to see what experiences others have had with different options.
This is my plan. But even getting a building at reasonable cost is getting harder to do. Watching one semi local at an auction and stupid Fkn people device to sky rocket the price. :mad3:
 
Check out my shop canopy build. Mostly simple bolt together and no special concrete design other than frost/knee wall with piers. Your spans are smaller so it will be much cheaper. I will always suggest running a taller concrete wall so the bottom of the building is 3'-4' of concrete. Keeps the building protected from hits and out of the wet/snow/leaf/bugs along with much less steel and siding.
 
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