After 6months of planning - Finally some progress!

[scott93]

Well, i must say thanks to all the members who have contributed to this message board. I've been watching some of the projects here for the last year and have learned a lot, and gained some great ideas! So finally after 6months of fighting with the town about size (they never will let you build it as big as you want), getting variances approved and all the other red tape that comes along with getting permits i'm finally ready to start.

My project is a 40x40x16 steel building.

First things first - need to get the site cleared. So my neighbor came over with his skid-steer and we picked up the old garden shed and moved it out of the building area.

Also dug up the existing garden that was around the shed and put the plants into pots to use once the new building is up.

 

[scott93]

Next up was to remove a couple trees that were in the way. First was a maple tree that was right near the front corner of the building, the other was a large spruce that was right in the way of where the access driveway to the shop will be. Both had the come out. So i borrowed a chainsaw form a friend and started cutting

 

[scott93]

I then put a little tension on the tree to get it to fall in the direction i wanted and came in for the back cut.

The tree came down exactly where i wanted - not bad for my first time cutting down a tree.

 

[scott93]

Now onto the spruce.
Came down pretty quickly.

 

[scott93]

Now onto removing the stumps. Normally i do most work myself, but it was actually cheaper to have a tree service come in and grind out the stumps rather than rent the machine for 4hrs - so that was a no brainer!
After about a week of cutting up the trees and making firewood - i had all my permits sorted out and i was ready to begin with the foundation.

 

[scott93]

For the foundation i hired a crew to do it. It is a floating slab foundation, insulated with vapor barrier.

The crew showed up earlier in the morning and began clearing the area

 

[scott93]

2 loads of gravel, and the forms start going up

 

[scott93]

Gavel is done, forms are up - just need to add insulation and re-bar

 

[scott93]

Insulation and re-bar going in

 

[scott93]

Had the inspector out this afternoon and he gave it a pass - so we're ready to pour. Concrete truck should be here tomorrow.

 

[AGBill]

Your earthwork and slab prep are looking great! I understand your excitement on finally making some progress after fighting the permit process.

I am about 6 months ahead of you with an identical 40' X 40' X 16H metal building. Here is the link to my pictures if you have not already seen them:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7277

I am currently framing with metal studs inside the building for an office, bath and utility/compressor room. Will post more pictures after I make more progress.

Keep the pictures coming!

Bill

 

[scott93]

Bill - yours is one of the threads that i followed very closely - as it is the exact same building i am putting up. Thanks for the inspiration! Looks like you had a lot more site prep to do with your retaining wall. I am planning on putting up a storage loft above half of the building (20x40), and leaving the other half open for taller vehicles and a lift.


The concrete trucks are here pouring right now - i will have pictures up later tonight. I expect the building to show up in about 2 weeks. By then i hope to have the epoxy coating down already on the floor.

 

[scott93]

Well, the concrete is all in - 3 trucks arrived and made a nice divet in my grass!

 

[scott93]

a few more

 

[scott93]

more pics...

 

[scott93]

Slab is all done now - they have stripped the forms and put in some relief cuts (don't have pics of that yet).

Building is scheduled to arrive next week!

 

[shenders]

Looks great.Can you put down epoxy that soon?.I always thougt you needed at least 30 days of cure time.

 

[cdrewferd]

Progress looks amazing. Those guys did an awesome job on the pour. Can't wait for more pics.

 

[scott93]

shenders - you can get a special primer for "new" concrete so that you don't have to wait the 28-30days. Although i might have to wait until after the building is up now since it looks like something has come up for this weekend.

 

[scott93]

Update - the truck arrived today with the building.
Used my neighbour's skid-steer to offload the truck.

 

[scott93]

Some more shots.
You can see my neighbour's pole barn in the background that he uses for his tree/shrub business.

and (last pic) you can see how dusty it gets here with the sandy soil we have.

 

[scott93]

a few more shots.

4th pic - is the bundle of siding/roof sheet metal - there were 3 bundles of this, each one weighs over 2000lbs! which is pretty much the max limit for that skidsteer!

And finally the beams are all layed out ready to be assembled, and the truck is cleared and ready to leave.

Now the fun begins - when i try to lift the columns up and put the building together.

 

[Kevin54]

You can see my neighbour's pole barn in the background that he uses for his tree/shrub business.

Shopping at midnight for free landscaping

 

[curlyws6]

Congrats! Looks like a fun build (and plenty of space) !

 

[scott93]

Well, finally - the building is going up!
i'm a little behind on my updates because i've been working every daylight hour available on the building.

On Monday i picked up this forklift from Hertz.

Then we assembled the end column.

 

[scott93]

We then tried lifting the whole end column together - which worked but not too well as the outter columns kinda "twisted" and we had to re-square the end wall once it was up.

 

[scott93]

While we were putting up the end wall the truck with the insulation arrived.

For the center column, we put the ends up first and then the cross beam - this worked MUCH better and the wall wasn't all twisted when it went up, except the concrete guy screwed up with the bolt holes - so a slight notch of the beam was required to get it to fit straight - thank god i bought that plasma cutter last year - this project would have been impossible without it!

 

[scott93]

Once the center columns were up - we tied it back to the end wall for support before we put up the center cross section (yes yes - i know - standing on a forklift is very bad ).

 

[scott93]

Then we moved onto the other end wall.
And tied it into the center.
Then we moved onto the roof joists which are called "purlins" in a metal building.

 

[scott93]

After we positioned all the purlins ontop we started spacing them out and bolting them down.

That was all we got done on Monday. Not a bad start considering none of us have ever put up a steel building before - most any of us have built is a wooden shed!

 

[scott93]

Well Tuesday rolled around and it was looking a little grey in the sky. We busted *** in the morning to try and get the structure all finished so we could have our building inspection done for the "framing" before it started to rain - so i don't have any detailed pictures of it going up - but we put up all the "purlins" on the side of the building, and started to frame in the garage door and man-door openings. Not long after the rain started coming down pretty hard! - Luckily we saw it coming and packed up all our gear just in time.

 

[scott93]

After the rain let up we were able to finished up the end and back wall by the end of day Tuesday.

on a good note - the building inspector came by and said everything is looking good. We can continue and put on the roof and siding and just call him for a final inspection when we're pretty close to finished!

 

[scott93]

Wednesday started out pretty well - but there were so many little things to finish up on the framing - a lot more cutting than i expected for a pre-fabbed building!
We got all framing done, and called it an early day as we were all pretty sore and sun-burnt!

 

[scott93]

Thursday - we tried to bring over the roofing and siding material - but it seemed that the ground was a little too soft for the 2wd forklift we had.

We tried jamming wood under the wheel - but all that did was make the forklift do a nice burnout!! So i went and grabbed the pickup and pulled it out.

 

[scott93]

We started to put up the insulation for the roof - but it was far to windy to stay on. (Sorry no pics - everyone was hanging onto the sheets of insulation, but you can see how we had to ******** the top of the ladders to the building, as they were getting blown over!!). With my friends fearing for their lives - we decided to pack it in early again and get a good night's sleep to start up friday when the winds were supposed to be a lot less.

 

[scott93]

Well, Friday morning came, and the winds were still here - not as bad as the previous day, but there was no way we could figure to safely get the insulation and roof panels up on the building. So we called around to see if anyone had a scissor lift, and there were none in the area - so we went over to the local United Rentals and picked up this machine.

 

[scott93]

Had to have the machine delivered as it weighed more than 12,000lbs load trailer would carry! Once we figured out the controls - i was able to get some nice shots of my neighbour's tree/shrub farm as well as some nice overhead shots of the structure.

 

[scott93]

After we figured out the best way to use the new machine we got down to business, we started really going - got 75% of the roof done, and had to quit at sundown as the mosquito's were getting to be unbareable! Sorry no pics of the full progress - too busy screwing the roof down and the daylight was gone - i'll snap a few more pics as we finish up the roof tomorrow morning.

 

[Falcon05Dad]

Congratulations on your progress, Scott. All the planning does pay off, eventhough you want it to be done quickly and start using it. Being in the middle of a build also, I know the satisfaction you're feeling as it goes together. Good luck the rest of the way.

Greg

 

[medic583]

Wow... thanks soo much for the detailed photos Scott.

I've never seen how these metal buildings go up... looks like a lot of fun/work