Recent content by Altair Sinclair

Mother nature already provided one for me, and my house sits on top of it. 200 feet above sea level.

I would never sign a contract like that unless it guaranteed me copies of all materials invoices, and the option to purchase those materials myself. If you're a contractor heading down this route, realize that it means the end of "it costs what I say it costs" and hiding your profit margin...

The IBC Seismic Design Categories are letters: A, B, C, D, E, and F. D has two subcategories, D1 and D2. IBC 1613.2.3 This seems to be taken from ASCE 7, which is not online in a linkable location as far as I can tell. Holy cow. Was this in Orland, CA like your profile says? That seems...

This is a pretty remote area. Very, very little here is "local". There were no authorized builders for any of the major brands (Butler, Star, Nucor, CBC) within 30+ miles of Humptulips, WA when I checked three years ago. Closest was a Star dealer in Olympia who said the only project he'd done...

I called the concrete plant that they order from. Getting contractors to call you back before you are ready for a bid is difficult.

Yeah, this is where I think I luck out -- we have effectively zero-inch frost depth and almost no snow load here (snow is only possible for about three weeks out of the year here, and it all melts at sunrise). The county specs are 12 inches of frost depth and 25psf snow, and even that is...

Thanks again so much, Scott, you are the best! That is a really smart idea.

Hey, please let us know which building supplier did this, so we can avoid them. That is not cool. Once a manufacturer quotes a price, accepts a purchase order, and takes a deposit, it is their job to hedge any pricing risk from that point until delivery. This is why futures and derivitaves exist.

Wow, Scott, thank you so much, this was an immensely helpful reply! Three quick questions: What was the eave height on your building? Do you know what seismic zone this was for? The coastal areas of CA are D or E which are similar or worse than where I am. But the inland areas are more...

But not until after I make the non-refundable down payment on the building manufacturing. I mentioned this in my original post. Obviously. But without specifications from the building manufacturer they won't be able to say anything useful about cost. This is the catch-22.

Hey, Planning a 60ft*60ft*20ft eave, red-iron building in coastal Washington. I'm about 10 miles inland surrounded by thick forest, so the really nasty wind requirements don't apply (yes I verified this with the county), but it's still Seismic Zone "D" due to the offshore subduction fault...

Can't explain those parts, but (a) cool building! and (b) was there a reason why you chose tapered columns but untapered rafters? Tapered is slightly cheaper but not much. A lot of people go with untapered columns so they can build a wall just inside the edge of the columns (and not have the...

Your permitting agency is likely to be very suspicious of a toilet wastepipe without a septic system. Heck I'd be surprised if they allowed you to run water to a permitted building without any drains leaving the building. You're basically admitting that any wastewater will be going into the dirt.

The tapered rafters are more common simply because they involve less steel (=cost) and weigh less (=shipping cost) for the same bearing strength. But it usually isn't enough to matter until you get into truly gigantic airplane-hangar size buildings. For the 60x60x20 I'm working on the...

That is a really beautiful building there, especially the beefy mezzanine. May I ask who the manufacturer was? I've seen a lot of proposals with rickety/flimsy looking mezzanines, which this definitely is not. Also, any particular reason you chose tapered columns but untapered rafters? I had...