Questions for Metal Building Owners

[Keith]

We are looking into building a metal building in the future to store the mower, utility tractor, Jeep, etc.

For those who have built one;

How big is it?
Cost?
Who made the building?
Did the contractor who constructed it do the slab or did you have to find foundation work yourself?
What would have done different?

Don't put it in a low spot in the yard, even in severe drought conditions... (Sigh) Go with a concrete pad - a dirt floor gets its own little rain forest ecosystem going on inside when it DOES rain!

A two-car garage, my caliche pad, assembled in one day... $3,500

[Wendy]

We just had a building put up this spring. It is 26' x 32'. The building cost us $8,200. It was put up in a day. My nephew did the concrete work & landscaping. That cost us another nice chunk, but it was well worth it. A local contractor did ours. They make their own trusses & also own the metal company. They would have done the slab, but we got someone else to do that as we had other landscaping we wanted done. Things we would have done different...would have made it a little bigger.

[defenestrate]

Pretty much what Traci said. Most metal building contractors will have reasonably priced options for slab foundations, but some will want to DIY it if they enjoy laying foundations. Building will last much longer on a slab as even if the inside has a floor and vapor shield simply the washing of dirt particles on the base over time will abrade and in the case of steel likely eventually corrode the base of the building. Slab construction with proper care should provide good insurance against that, not to mention the rainforest effect as mentioned above.

[doomas]

worked on a farm that had 4-5 metal buildings of all sizes. from one car shed to a huge shop.. the only one that did not show rust working at ground level was one that had 4 treated 2x6 at the bottom,and the building started above them.

[rambler]

48 x 81, concreted 1/3 of it a year later., electrical also that summer.

Wish it was a tad wider, wish the doors were a tad wider, at 24 feet, the opening is closer to 23 feet, and as big as that might sound, its a bit crowded 3 years later.....

At least I made it tall enough, 15 foot 9 inch doors.

Not sure really what you are looking for, I'd imagine a more modest building like some pictured here.

Make it tall enough, think 12 feet anyhow, 14 feet you can put a loft in some of it and use much more space. Doesn't often cost very much to add 2 feet, and when you get that tall camper or backhoe or etc, you sure will be glad.

A little bigger that you can afford is always needed, in hindsight, so try to plan big.....

A big enough door, it costs about the same to build wall or build door, so think bigger on the door...

Paul

[IowaLez]

We have a 50x100 foot Morton Bldg. Morton is a common brand here. Ours is about 25 yrs old, with half of it having a concrete floor, and it has electricity in it. We don't have any problems with the dirt portion getting funky. The doors on ours are at least 15 feet tall, with the rafters higher yet; we built a mezzanine level above a 600 sq ft enclosed, heated workshop we built inside part of it. Ours will fit a combine in it for off season storage. When we bought this place, $30,000 was allotted for it's value. If we had built it ourselves, today, it would have cost much more. We don't have any rust issues or anything bad going on with it. Ours has a wind vane atop it, which is useful. It is amazing how easy it is to fill up the space with stuff.

[MO_cows]

We put up a 30 X 40 pole barn. Sides are 14 ft high so we could keep our RV out of the weather. We built it ourselves but used manufactured trusses for the roof structure. Gravel floor for budget reasons, we plan to concrete it later. Cost $7000 and change. We wish it was bigger...

[salmonslayer]

We built ours a couple years ago, 24'x32' on slab, lean-to, covered front porch, two 6 light windows, man door and a roll up door for $9800. Built by a local contractor friend.



We have two other garages, a separate storage building, and a large dairy barn with a drive in hay mow so when we built this as a dedicated shop we thought 24'x32' would be plenty big....ahhhhh no. We wish it were bigger and will now be building a machine shed by it and eventually we will put a shipping container up there to function as parts and tool storage.

If I were to do it over, besides being larger and taller I would have had it insulated during the build. I have almost completed a double bubble insulation job myself after the fact but it would have been a lot easier if it had been done during construction. Siting is also important, we have good drainage up on this pasture over looking the barnyard, we get a good breeze and the view is terrific.