Finaly, my 30x36 retreat.

[taget]

Hi all, I came across the site while doing research for my own shop and wanted to share my build. I purchased a 30x36 steelmaster building about 6 years ago, but because of life i am now just getting to put it together. I will primarily be using this to maintain my vehicles and projects, and hopefully "finish" my 46 Hudson pickup. I quote finish as it really hasn't started yet.

Assembly, at first we tried to assemble the building one piece at a time, made it through 3 ribs and decided that was for the birds. I was also keen on keeping my wife around, she really was quite patient with me through this entire process and deserves some kind of medal/spa day/dinner/vacation. After the initial 3 ribs i decided to assemble all of them and stand them up one at a time, i opted for what Steelmaster calls the industrial base connector, so they slot right in. I was able to use a bolt as a hing to keep the bottom in place while lifting the arch. this was accomplished with an extension ladder against the first few ribs, a pulley and a winch. in the picture you can see we started with a jeep, but in the end i attached a much smaller winch to the front of my tractor so we could raise ribs when we had spare time. (I was not the jeeps owner)

All ribs finally up and tight.

The back wall went in very quick as all of the pieces are precut with the exception of the very last corner, they give you two sheets to but those pieces from.

While the rear end wall was steel, i opted for a more traditional front wall. I didn't want it to look to much like a UFO hangar. I put in a 36 inch man door and an opening for a 10x10 garage door. Garage door is still on order and should be here in another week or so.

 

[taget]

For the electrical i ran 6-3 back to my house and at the same time, ran water and a data line. The only electrical that is done so far would be the ceiling lights. 9 total outlets for shop lights. While i doing that i also added an outlet for a garage door opener and wiring for a ceiling fan. I figured with the height i am going to need something to push the heat back down in the winter. I had about 120 feet of 1/2 inch emt left over from another job and decided to dig that out of the snow. for being my first time running metal conduit i was happy with how it turned out.

I am at the point now where i cant go any further until the spray foam guys come and hose the building. I was not prepared for how much this building sweats and it seems as though the best way to combat this and seal the building up is spray foam. I am getting 2 inches of closed cell this week as long as the weather holds out.

Thanks for looking, this forum has been a huge resource for me. I hope to be able to contribute at some point.

 

[Brian R]

That's a pretty cool building and kudos for your DIY attitude and getting it done.

Good luck and thanks for posting.

 

[taget]

Thanks Brian!
Its been a process, we built our house about 9 years ago and are now just adding a garage(not pictured here) and workshop. The winters here are very snowy and we decided to do an attached garage, i was able to fit the foundation for my shop in the construction loan. For this project patience has been a requirement.

 

[Styx]

Great build so far. love the looks of the front...
Keep the pictures coming...

Cheers Randy

 

[taget]

Thanks Styx, the front is going to have 4 feet of green steel at the bottom and then the exposed wood will be stained to match the railings on our house.

 

[taget]

Spray foam is in and my garage door came in yesterday. Need to give it a few days to let it finish off gassing. One thing i wasn't prepared for was how ugly it really looks after the foam is sprayed. There was something pleasing to the eye with how the steel looked and the repetition of the bolts and panels. I am going to cover the first 8 feet and finish it, but i'm thinking i want to no cover the entire back and front walls and maybe something up further on the sides. But as long as it does its job i'm not going to complain(to much).

The little flakes in the photo are snow.

 

[dwysywd]

the hut looks great! you should be able to heat that with a candle this winter!!!


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[taget]

Late cold night in the shop, but productive! The garage door is on and the bottom tracks are connected. I need to get the top track on and then square it all up. The biggest challenge with this type of building is securing anything to it. The foam adds even more complexity to it as now i have to find the bolts to attach to. If i had not been under a time crunch i would have added brackets before they sprayed for the door. Hindsight ....

 

[dwysywd]

Do you feel claustrophobic with no Windows? I do see you have a window in your man-door. Does the spray dampen the tin can sound inside?

 

[cajunfirehawk]

Great job, did you go with closed cell? How thick is your foam? Ball park on cost for that? Much warmer?

 

[-Brent-]

Do you feel claustrophobic with no Windows? I do see you have a window in your man-door. Does the spray dampen the tin can sound inside?

I removed 4 windows in my shop and I thought that would happen but I actually like it better. I think having enough light is key.

Taget, I dig what you've done so far. A few questions: Did you trim out the front, yet? If so, mind sharing what you did? Also, what's the plan for the interior, leave the insulation exposed?

I'd love to put one of these up on a little piece of property to leave my off road rig and maybe some 4-wheelers, in the future.

 

[taget]

All good questions

Dwysywd - I work from home primarily in my basement (software implementation and programming, yup stereotypical nerd dwelling) so i dont feel closed in by it. But i do have plans to put windows in. I have 2 5x10 windows that were in 3 sections each. I disassembled the sections and want to add those to the back wall. I didn't want to jump the gun and put them in until i really sorted out where everything was going to go.

cajunfirehawk - Thanks! It is closed cell phone, i was quoted 6800 for the entire building at 2 inches. It looks as though i ended up with 3 instead. I just lit the pellet stove this morning and the building is warming up now. It has been fairly cold here the past few days (single to negative digits) and when walking into the building it is noticeably warmer. My fingers are crossed for a tight envelope and low heating costs.

-Brent- - Thanks also! The front is 2x4 framing with T-111 siding, a 36 inch man door and a 10x10 garage door. the trim where the metal and wood meet is a vinyl piece that upon my initial tests in the Menards isle, passed the requirements for bending on what looked to be my required profile Ill try and snap a picture of the front before it gets dark this afternoon.

 

[STANG302]

I'm sure that pellet stove will do a fine job of heating that space!

Down the road you can upgrade to a pellet stove that has true thermostat control. I miss my old Quadrafire (to small) but it would shut completely down once temp was reached. Then restart when called for heat. I have a stove similar to yours and it drives me nuts that it drops to a maintenance burn and just wastes wood pellets.

 

[taget]

My model has a thermostat on it, i ran a temp wire to the middle of the shop. its on the floor for now until someplace permanent is found for it. My specific control board has 2 thermostat modes. 1 it will run and shutdown when at temp and restart when needed. the second is a high low, where its full tilt on call for heat but then just maintains the fire when not. Which is wasteful like you said. The downside to this mode is the feed rate can only be set to one of the 2 top speeds out of 4 available (i think i got that right).

Tonight i am going to hang the ceiling fan, that will help kick the heat back down from the high ceiling.

 

[taget]

I should say it is "Thermostat Ready" i added a normal household thermostat to the pellet stove as it had provisions for one.

 

[taget]

Does the spray dampen the tin can sound inside?

It does, but it does not cut the outside sounds noise as much as i had anticipated.

Just went out to check on the stove, temps at 56, set for 60. once it levels off and everything is at temp i will be curious to see how much fuel i go through to maintain that temperature.

 

[dwysywd]

that's great! nice call on the windows. i put a big 10' wide by 5' tall in my back wall and love it!

as for the heat, pellet stove sounds cool. always wondered. my neighbors, farmers, use corn in their corn burner "pellet style" furnace. i have looked at a thousand ideas but for now when i pour concrete in putting radiant floor in. Like you, i will spray 2" closed cell at the same time.

i built both my end walls. so they are sheeted with steel, tyvex, osb, studs with r-13, and then osb on the inside. the 2" for CC foam gives an r-value of 14, per my spray foam guy, but he said that it performs more like an r-30 because its airtight.

having a quanset hut is like being in a car club of really unique cars. some think they are ugly, LOL, but i prefer to say it's Funtion over Form!


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[dirt_dobber]

very nice and looks great.

 

[taget]

very nice and looks great.

Thanks!

The Quonset hut is definitely a different bird. While working on getting my upper garage door track mounted i was having a fantastic time locating the bolts in the upper section under 3-4 inches of foam. It looks like the guys that sprayed the upper section layed it on a lot thicker than the guys who did the bottom section (done over 2 days) Bonus for me! So far thats my biggest gripe about this building style is attaching things. Because i have an X model my bottom walls are slanted inwards. so framing a wall and standing it up requires a little more work. Im kind of at an impasse and want to just get the door done and start using it to see how things are going to layout.

I need one more peice of trim on the building arch and the trim around the garage door. A little bit of foam trimming and the exterior is as complete as can be until warmer weather.

 

[taget]

My rigging trying to square the tracks up. Now that's done its on to the torsion springs.


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[dwysywd]

Any updates?

 

[taget]

Any updates?

I was on call all last week and unable to make a lot of progress. I did however get one of my boxes moved in and some other equipment. I have also decided to start framing the walls out and adding fiberglass insulation in the walls. My goal is to heat with a candle


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[dwysywd]

did you say you're running a pellet stove?
how do you like it?


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[taget]

did you say you're running a pellet stove?
how do you like it?


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I have a love/hate relationship with the pellet stove. I love that I can use a thermostat on it and it's fairly cheap to run. What I hate is storing the pellets and hauling them around. I did run a propane line as well but I had the pellet stove sitting unused in my basement.

So far I am burning around a bag a day. as I keep moving things in there, the amount of pellets being consumed is going down (more thermal mass). This week is supposed to be single to negative temps, should be a good worse case test for the stove.


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[ragdoll]

Spray foam is in and my garage door came in yesterday. Need to give it a few days to let it finish off gassing. One thing i wasn't prepared for was how ugly it really looks after the foam is sprayed. There was something pleasing to the eye with how the steel looked and the repetition of the bolts and panels. I am going to cover the first 8 feet and finish it, but i'm thinking i want to no cover the entire back and front walls and maybe something up further on the sides. But as long as it does its job i'm not going to complain(to much).

The little flakes in the photo are snow.

Hate to agree, but I do. Everything else is awesome. Could you sheet the interior with plywood and paint it white?

 

[dwysywd]

so that works out to be about $5/ day at 40 lb bag to heat the barn to 70 degrees constant? wow. that's pretty amazing. that's about as close to heating with a candle as you're gonna get! lol


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[taget]

so that works out to be about $5/ day at 40 lb bag to heat the barn to 70 degrees constant? wow. that's pretty amazing. that's about as close to heating with a candle as you're gonna get! lol


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I have it down to just under 4 bucks a day. I wait for our local menards to put pellets on sale. This batch was 3.81 a bag if memory serves me correctly. I purchased 2 tons this last round, which should take me somewhere into march.


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[dwysywd]

I have it down to just under 4 bucks a day. I wait for our local menards to put pellets on sale. This batch was 3.81 a bag if memory serves me correctly. I purchased 2 tons this last round, which should take me somewhere into march.


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Well it's almost been a year, how's it going?


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