Steel building advice

I should point out that this is not for a machine shop. It is for a welding fab shop.

No milling machines or lathes. All that stuff stays in the house.

My jobs are getting bigger and I need space to assemble large steel staircases, and fab structural steel beams.

I know it needs to be insulated.

If you look at some of their pictures you will see their buildings can be assembled over gravel.

Ernie,

You may already know this and it may be a bit off topic. From my recent experience, in any dealings you have with the City and the in the permitting process you should never refer to your building as a shop. It should only be refered to as a garage. It seems that cities think of garages as storage units where as shops are much like commercial buildings in residential areas.

The City of Seattle required me to use the same foundation design required for a two-story dwelling for my garage. Renton may be different. Pole buildings seem to be acceptable without the foundation and I imagine this is the case because pole building manufacturers have engineering drawings that have already been approved.

Let me know if you want to talk about your project.

Cheers,

Kelley

(snip)

Suggest the concrete floor should be the first step! As part of the floor, place pipes, cables, ect !

James Kelsey (rainlover) put up a similar building last year. Just in case you haven't seen the blow-by-blow description it's at

Cheers,

Kelley

In my county, I found it was best to refer to it as a barn. The county planners understood barn, and the permits were much cheaper.

Gary

- Ernie Leimkuhler - spluttered in news:180120040059377209% snipped-for-privacy@stagesmith.com:

You replying to the concrete *first* post?

My only suggestion pertaining to concrete is about joints.

Concrete cracks, that's why there's always joints made in it. For the best floor, IMO, make sure that there's rebar pins *across* the places where the joints will be. Similar to how road concrete is poured.

And at the risk of sounding too elemental, for a nice, almost seamless floor, contractors literally cut the joints, the second day, with a concrete saw. While the stuff is still green, no water w/ the cut.

I've got a buddy that really screwed up his floor. Jeez. Huge floor, 40 X 50, no joints. (Yeah!) He wound up with joints he sure as hell didn't want.

Ed, tell me a bit more about the heating system in your shop. When you say that it runs off of a 50 gal hot water heater, are you talking about something made specifically for radiant floor heating, or did you put together a "home-brew" system using an off-the-shelf water heater?

|In article , steamer | wrote: | |> --Ernie, I'll sell you one that's 30x72ft for $4k; come and get |> it! :-) | |30' x 72' is longer than my backyard. |My yard is 58' x 65'. | |Could it be cut down?

Rex in Fort Worth

I just want to clarify that they have TWO web sites:

is devoted to "quonset" type buildings. is devoted to traditional I-Beam construction.

This second site has a nifty set of graphics which show the erection sequence of I-Beam buildings.

VT

Check insulation cost first. I have a 30' x 36' and the three co. I talked to wanted about $6,000 to foam it. Terry in Ohio

FWIW, my blacksmiths shop (The Edifice) originially had a gravel floor. I found it to be a major pain as a concrete floor makes life so much easier for laying out and welding up big items. i know you use MDF on sawhorses, but that is awkward with a 6 m beam or some assembly. It is also hard to move stuff, especailly with a hadtruck, trolley or roll aorudn crane. The gravel hollowed out and packed down as well. My big welders, cut off saw, etc are on wheels so I can move them to the job or to clear space. Couln't do that with gravel. I concreted the floor ~8 years ago and never looked back. Geoff

Some hot water heaters are spec'd for use as a heat source for radiant heat. I'm using a commercial duty 87% efficient tankless hot water heater for the radiant floor heat in my shop. It won't be running until next winter, but it's fine with the local inspector. If you want to get fancy, you can get potable hot water as well, but it's not worth the expense if you're only going to run a sink. Code requires the heat loop to be separated by a heat exchanger and the extra circ pump you need costs more than a small flash water heater.

Yes, quite a few of us have an interest in this.

|> > They don't have much feedback yet, but I was wondering if any of you |> > guys have had dealings with them. |> >

|> > Here is their store. |> >

|> >

|> > This is the one I am interested in. |> >

|> >

|> >

|> > Under $5400, including shipping, for a 30' x 40' x 14' peaked roof |> > building is quite affordable. |> >

|> > Plus with how this one assembles I can build it over a crushed rock |> > floor, and later pour a concrete floor.

Rex in Fort Worth

Thanks for the info, and thanks also to someone in another post who mentioned the

website -- some very helpful information as I think about future possibilities ...

Last night I created a MS Works data base file containing the particulars of each building AmericanDuro advertises in its ebay store.

The data fields are: Price Width Length Height Sq.Ft. Area Price per Square Foot Type Building (S-Quonset, P-Quonset, Quonset, I-Beam) and a Notes field.

By sorting the list different ways I was able to better determine which buildings give the most bang for the buck.

If anybody wants this data base let me know. No guarantees as to accuracy. But I think I got everything right.

Vernon

| |Last night I created a MS Works data base file containing the |particulars of each building AmericanDuro advertises in its ebay |store. | |By sorting the list different ways I was able to better determine |which buildings give the most bang for the buck. | |If anybody wants this data base let me know. No guarantees as to |accuracy. But I think I got everything right. | |Vernon

Love to see that.

snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net Rex in Fort Worth

I posted it at my web site. Click here:

You should be able to download it from there. If it doesn't work I'll email it to you.

By the way, I've been warming up to these guys:

They have a more informative web site as to construction details.

VT

Thanks, I'll check those out tonight.

Rex Rex in Fort Worth

I periodically get year-end pricing announcements from US Steel Buildings Direct (at

) - They sent me an email last week with this pricing:

G'Luck with whatever you choose.

Rex S.

A Model: A16X24X11'5.5" (ONLY 13 LEFT!) MSRP $7,307.00 NOW: $2,300.00

A20X26X12'.75" (ONLY 8 LEFT!) MSRP $8,404.00 NOW: $2,480.00

A25X30X12'10.5" (ONLY 9 LEFT!) MSRP $10,280.00 NOW: $3,075.00

S Model: S20X30X12'10" (ONLY 8 LEFT!) MSRP $8,400.00 NOW: $2,620.00

S25X40X14'.75" (ONLY 9 LEFT) MSRP $13,500.00 NOW: $4,270.00

Q Model: Q33X36X16 (ONLY 7 LEFT) MSRP $8,228.00 NOW: $2,990.00