My Steel Master Building Project

[bartsworld]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and have been browsing around and it seems very interesting. Live on the Kenai peninsula in Alaska. I have had u huge summer project building my steel master 25x30 shop. I'm kind of a cheap skate in that I would get quotes on the slab and the dirt work. I didn't like these high quotes so instead I decided to do all the work myself.
The key way foundation i used turned out great but I played with it on and off for about a month before I had it poured. I hired and fired two different so called career carpenters to lend a hand . I found that the saying " If you want it done right you have to do it yourself " is very true.
Rented an Excavator for the dirt work. So after I returned it and realized my pad was not perfectly level I had to do a lot of wheel barrel loads to get it right. Prices for work as well as just about anything in Alaska are very expensive compared to the lower 48.
I had 3 quotes to do the whole concrete work and they ranged from 7500-10k
I haven't added up all the costs from buying the concrete stakes and the form boards and all the hardware to get the slab ready to pour but I belive with doing it myself I am into the concrete slab about 4500. I was told that I went a little overkill with the slab. Someone told me it was strong enough for a three story building. I went by what the engineered drawings said and poured 18x18in footers.

Anyways the build went great. I assembled all the arches on the ground and had two guys help stand them up. The arches started standing well by themselves after you have about three of them together. The first one is hard to stabalize all by itself but I managed to get it up and get two more bolted together without having to secure the first arch. i didn't use scaffolding cause like i said I'm to cheap to rent it or buy it. I used the back of a pickup truck with a ladder in it. You will see what I'm talking about in the pictures I'm going to attach. I decided to use hilti bolts to secure the building and realized its best to get the whole building up before you start securing it to the slab. I'm not sure if the building accordianed but when all the arches were assembled The building stood 3inches off the slab. I just had a few friends push each section to massage the building to end or the other and after some pushing and pulling it worked out just fine. I also noticed that when the building sits in the trough the directions do not say if it should ride on the inside or outside edges of the trough.

Now, I have the arches all erected and the back end wall up and secured. I found it really easy to trim the edge pannels and instal. I'm waiting on steelmasters to send me a new garage door header beam. Someone looked at the measurements and gave me an 8ft beam instead of a 10 ft beam. Once it arrives I can complete my front end wall.

So, the plan forward it to get the front end wall done. I made a mistake and being as cheap as I am I didn't order a pre hung man door for the building. I'm going to have to cut one in cause I need a man door. I wonder if anyone on the site has any ideas or has ever done this type of task before. I was just going to buy a door from home depot and hold it up to the corrugated pannles on the end wall and trace it with a marker and then use a plasma torch to cut out the metal. Any other ideas ? I'm all ears..

Next step is to get the thing wired up. I have no experience in wiring , but i didn't have any in cement slabs or construction either. I want to get everything in place before I have the thing sprayed with Eurethane. I also want to get some ideas on how to mount some shelves, light fixtures, or anything else I may need to anchor , bolt to before the Eurethane goes in.
My idea is this. Being that there is some threads still avaliable on the inside of the building i was going to use couplings and then some all thread so it can stick out of the Eurethane which will provide points to secure whatever it is that I need to hang. Does anyone have any other ideas on fastening items to the walls.?

Enough rambling. I will attach pictures of where I am at on this project.

Thanks Hope to hear some helpful ideas or If anyone has any questions on constructing a steelmaster building I will do my best to help.

Stay Motivated.

 

[bartsworld]

Pictures didn't load. I need some security token???

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Welcome to the board..........................

Might ask the moderators to move this to the garage gallery forum, it is better suited to there. Send a Private Message to Ryan who is the owner of this entire board, he can easily move it to the Garage Gallery, which is where most build threads are found.

You are in a rather remote area and it will be interesting to see how this all comes out.

Appears your two pics uploaded just fine. Looking forward to more pics and info on this.

Charles

 

[bartsworld]

Trying to upload more pictures

 

[bartsworld]

Website is taking them two at a time whooo hoooo.

 

[bartsworld]

Thanks for the info Charles. I seem to have recieved my security token somehow and now it is allowing me to post pictures. I will see what I can do about getting my post moved.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You can attach seven per post (unless there is some restriction on new members I am not aware of)

Select the Go Advanced at the bottom of the quick reply box and scroll down an find the manage attachments, click this and you can browse and select 7 files, then you click upload and wait.

Charles

 

[CaptainRay]

Nice building, looks like you are getting close to being done. I'm building a 30X50x14, one problem after another. It took a year to get a contractor out here, then they read the plans wrong and put the ledge for the door in the back. So have to buy a new door. I got the C-Channel so didn't have any problems with the building growing. It pretty much went smooth. Have to go back and tighten some of the bolts, missed some too, have several leaks but can see some of the gaskets aren't seated. We had underground water, a wet weather spring. So had to put in French drains. Just finished with the surface drains. Anyway, here's some pictures of what we have done so far. My daughter and I have done most of the work, got some help on putting up 1/2 the arches from a friend. http://s1134.photobucket.com/albums/m614/CaptainRay1964/

 

[Rich@SteelMaster]

Good day - I'm the construction specialist for SteelMaster and thought I could assist your two questions regarding our building.

First, you can purchase a man-door locally and install it on our endwall. Be sure to get the entrance door with exterior molding attached to the wooden frame and not an internal type door. To install, follow these steps.

* Select which two panels you want the service door in and remove both panels.
* Cut both adjacent endwall panels up to the height of your pre-hung door.
* Push door unit tightly up against the endwall panels.
* Nail/screw through the panels into the back of the molding.
* Put the service door flashing on top of the door frame and Fasten together by using small L-brackets.
* Attach large L-brackets to sides of door unit and concrete floor to stiffen unit.
* Cut endwall panels above door to fit and fasten to flashing.
* Seal all seams with caulking to prevent water seepage.

As for attaching items to the interior of your building:

Option 1: Using a product called uni-strut (mostly used by electricians and plumbers). These can be used by fastening them to the remaining threads of the fasteners that hold our buildings together.

Option 2: Using a combination of coupling nuts, threaded rods and then a multitude of other materials.

Ensure that the building is grounded on at least one corner. Depending on the size of the building, two or more connections may be correct. Remember, the arches cannot support the weight of the shelves, so use the furring strips and attach the local metal or wooden shelves to them. The weight will then transfer to the concrete slab.

I hope this information is helpful to you. If I can be of further assistance, please reply.

 

[bartsworld]

Hey captain Ray, Your building looks great. They are alot of work but It feels rewarding in the end. I like the makeshift scaffolding you built. That's a great idea. Did you paint the floor? Is it an epoxy style paint? I'm guessing from the looks of your arch strapping tool you made you were having troubles getting the arch straps on. I too came across that problem. I just muscled it together with drifts and big co workers. I strapped the arches similar to the way you did. Once the building was all up and I took the arch straps off it seemed to spring right back where it was before I strapped it. I'm not so sure that I'm totally convinced that they worked as well as they should have. But, I know the building is right cause its square and the end walls fit like a glove. Hopefully I will be installing my garage door sometime in the next week or so.

 

[bartsworld]

Hey Rich, Thats awesome that you look on this forum and offer advice. I read through how to install the door and it seems easier than the way i was going to do it. Do you by chance have any pictures of these types of door and they way they look when they are installed in one of your buildings? I guess I'm going to have to go to home depot and see what options they have for doors with exterior moldings.

 

[widesheds]

Hi barts, I must say that's an interesting piece of construction you are laid your hands at and having it engineered so efficiently does makes you worthy of some praise. I just can't wait to have a look at it after the completion of the work.

 

[TurnipTruck]

I had Miller Sheetmetal in Kenai bend up a huge batch of custom "L" and "C" brackets that were tall enough to bolt on to the rib bolts and stick out of the urethane and hold the fluorescent lights/conduit/exhaust ducting and lath. They bent up some custom window jambs for me, too.
I made my own box beam from 2x12s as I didn't like the supplied jambs.
I used 12' sticks of signpost (with 1" c/c hole spacing) to properly space and straighten my 60' building.

I have all kinds of advice for your building, and I'm local!

 

[bartsworld]

Hey. Sorry it has been so long since on here. I would like to come by and get some ideas from you. I only live in Soldotna. I'll post some pictures of where I'm at with the project. I

 

[onewaydave]

Man, that is pretty country. I can't condone the ladder-in-the-truck set up but would have done it exactly like that. Wait a minute, I did.

Dave.

 

[bartsworld]

 

[bartsworld]

 

[bartsworld]

I used some coupling and welded nuts on the ends. This is what I used to hang my shop lights

 

[bartsworld]

 

[peghead]

I think these make great garages. Mine is exactly like yours only smaller. I wish I had gone with the size you have. Mine is 20 by 20. I added on an old garage to have more room. I think your gonna like it! I still have to do my wiring.