Cost for new construction engineering/site plans for metal building

[DanielG]

I wouldn't get too hung up on licensed in Alabama. If it's not California or Alaska, pretty much any engineering firm can get a local stamp. It just costs a few hundred bucks.

 

[john.k]

There is always semi retired licensed guys will certify stuff at a concessional rate......but how to find them....usually only those in the trade know about them...........Anyway,as the OP explained ,its the banks demand for a turnkey thats the obstacle to saving money.

 

[BT Fabrication]

my local engineer, the drawings and plans for the shop expansion from a 32x40 adding 15x40ft off one side was about $1200. roof was designed by the complany that builds the roof support trusses.

 

[CarlBoyd]

Find a new bank.

CarlBoyd

 

[jscpm]

That design cost is not unusual for architectural work for a full building. From the architects perspective, designing a metal building is about the same amount of work as any other kind of building of that size with few rooms.

It will be a cheaper if you go with a company that specializes in steel buildings. Do not get a pre-fabbed steel building. Get a custom built, if you do get one. Prefab buildings are always a total nightmare. Missing parts, holes don't line up, problems with finish, etc etc.

However, it's usually better not to build steel buildings these days. All the cost is in the labor, so you are much better off building a regular building from wood frame or concrete. In the old days, when labor was cheap, you could save money because steel is cheaper than wood framing. But that is no longer the case. Furthermore, steel buildings are a nightmare when it comes to mechanicals. Everything added to a steel building is a pain in the ass. Windows, doors, electrical, plumbing, drainage, painting and finish. Unless you just want an unheated, unlit box, ie a storage warehouse, it is just a pain in the butt and expensive to fit out steel buildings.

If you actually want to use the building for people to work in it, you are much better off building a regular building (whatever is standard in your area).

 

[teemfan93]

The prices you are quoting for a 40x60 seem low to me. Is this a tubular steel building, or a red iron steel building? I would highly recommend paying the surcharge for the red iron buildings over the tubular steel (carport style).

While it is pricier, they are much more robust and will hold up much better. When I was quoting out my project a few months back Braemar had the lowest prices, and I got quotes from 10 different vendors. For a 28x48 it was around 30k for the building delivered, with engineered drawing and foundation plans.

 

[Fish On]

The prices you are quoting for a 40x60 seem low to me. Is this a tubular steel building, or a red iron steel building? I would highly recommend paying the surcharge for the red iron buildings over the tubular steel (carport style).

While it is pricier, they are much more robust and will hold up much better. When I was quoting out my project a few months back Braemar had the lowest prices, and I got quotes from 10 different vendors. For a 28x48 it was around 30k for the building delivered, with engineered drawing and foundation plans.

It's red iron. What part of the price seems low - I think the only price I posted was a rough total price of $250k.

The most recent quote I got has the building package at $81k (no roll up doors, no insulation), erection at $18k, slab at $25k.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

The prices you are quoting for a 40x60 seem low to me. Is this a tubular steel building, or a red iron steel building? I would highly recommend paying the surcharge for the red iron buildings over the tubular steel (carport style).

While it is pricier, they are much more robust and will hold up much better. When I was quoting out my project a few months back Braemar had the lowest prices, and I got quotes from 10 different vendors. For a 28x48 it was around 30k for the building delivered, with engineered drawing and foundation plans.

That price you thought was low was just for the design work.

 

[mjr6550]

To the OP. Try Timber Tech Engineering, Inc.. They seem to do a bit of timber and pole barn engineering. A lot of engineering firms don't want anything to do with pole barns. From an engineering standpoint there are similarities between pole barns and metal buildings. From their website it looks like they have done some metal buildings also. It says they are licensed in 35 states.

 

[swatkins]

I have a 60 x 40 with 14 foot walls. I had a 12' wide and 14' tall door put in the gable end wall. 12' really limits you if you ever repair or work on RV'S. and 14' makes getting delievery trucks inside much easier.

 

[DRobs86]

I played GC when I built mine. We just did a 15,000 sq ft facility on some farm land I own. I had to jump through hoops with the county and go to the commission about getting approval to build it, but it allowed me to skip a couple of the commercial requirement junk.

I bought the building in late 2020 before costs really exploded. It's 100x150 free span. Around 22' eave height I think. It has 1800 square foot of offices. A friend did the office work in his free time and HVAC was on the brother-in-law plan. Building, concrete, and construction was about 300k. Another 200k in the offices, electrical, crushed concrete driveway and parking lot, and HVAC (offices only). The electrical is fairly expansive in there with a lot of long runs of three phase stuff, 480V, 230 3 phase, and single phase and should have been more expensive. I got an industrial electrical company to do it and I'm not sure why they didn't charge me more. They were a lot cheaper than the residential/commercial guys I had quote.

The builder has his own architect and the building manufacturer supplied their own drawings.

I bet if I started doing this at today's prices it would have been 700k.

 

[vmipacman]

I am at almost exactly the same step on a building build as the OP. The topo survey will be done this week. My site engineer is a local firm, one man band if his own. It’s for a 60x100+24x30 office.
My site planning engineer quoted 13.5k for a site plan. I know I could get a bit better quote, but the engineer has been good to work with, and it’s not a good idea to switch mid project. In my county (for all commercial projects) you have to do a PEC review with a preliminary drawing and the county dep heads all bring up their generic comments/concerns. That cost 1.5k already.
So site planning will cost 15k. It’s overpriced (cause that should buy me 75hrs @200!$/hr, and no way will he be working that long on my project) but it’s not 24k overpriced.
Gotta pay to play in the commercial space. Problem is of course that the county makes you jump through the same bs for a 40x60 as they make mr-deep-pockets jump through for his 3million dollar apartment project (financed of course). And all the engineers are busy.

You can diy (to some extent) the building design drawings, but you need a site engineer to do the layout with all the drainage, road access, erosion, and utility requirements. Is that 24k quote from a local PE?

 

[Micmac1]

Weve been looking to do this for some time, but 10k sqft. Cheapest quote we've seen was around 1.4 for building and 400k for 2 acres land. Of course taxachusetts doesnt make it easy for a small business to expand.

 

[Chip Chester]

There's a lot of prep work in pulling a site plan together in some areas. In my area, there need to be drainage plans, with visits by county engineers (we're in a reservoir watershed, plus nature conservancy zones) in addition to the water/septic (no sewer this far out) and other zoning issues. So there's a lot of detail work in addition to just the building plans. I'm guessing the reason the OP's building supplier's cost for this is so high is that they don't want to do it, and they want to convince the OP to take it on.

On the GC side of things, OP might look into what it costs to 'become' a GC, even just for this one building. It might be just filing for a license and getting bonds/insurance -- very state-dependent. More upfront time and costs of course. And time is money.

 

[john.k]

In this state you can get an owner /builder licence that allows you to build for yourself,or by using subbies and trades.....you have to do a 3 day course and get an automatic certificate.....apparently even if you dont turn up.....pay for the course ,get the licence..............anyhoo,I didnt get any of that ,cause the shed co is really big,and everythings included........the only thing wasnt included was the roof drainage which had to go out to the street.....which I had to organize,and cost a fortune,due to the trades shortages ......It was either pay ,or get a 1 year extension on the building permit,and still have to do the drainage anyway.....and the way things are going ..it might be worse this year.

 

[vmipacman]

There's a lot of prep work in pulling a site plan together in some areas. In my area, there need to be drainage plans, with visits by county engineers (we're in a reservoir watershed, plus nature conservancy zones) in addition to the water/septic (no sewer this far out) and other zoning issues. So there's a lot of detail work in addition to just the building plans. I'm guessing the reason the OP's building supplier's cost for this is so high is that they don't want to do it, and they want to convince the OP to take it on.

On the GC side of things, OP might look into what it costs to 'become' a GC, even just for this one building. It might be just filing for a license and getting bonds/insurance -- very state-dependent. More upfront time and costs of course. And time is money.

I’ll find out for myself shortly if the rules change with commercial, but in res an owner can pull permits, do work etc so long as it’s inspected.
No permitting needed to GC as the owner.
That’s in VA. Probably the same in GA

 

[Fish On]

I’ll find out for myself shortly if the rules change with commercial, but in res an owner can pull permits, do work etc so long as it’s inspected.
No permitting needed to GC as the owner.
That’s in VA. Probably the same in GA

Oh, I can do that, no problem from the county, even being commercial. But no bank I've talked to yet has even the slightest bit of interest in financing that. Still need engineering to submit to the county, though I'm not sure exactly to what extent, so if engineering is my biggest holdup, that doesn't really help me much even if I could finance it via alternative methods.

I'm supposed to get a quote back from the one man band engineer guy 'sometime next week.' He says if he ends up doing the job, it'll be easily a couple months before he can get to it because he's so backed up, but assuming he actually comes through with some pricing next week, I'll at least see where I stand.

 

[Garwood]

When my neighbor built his 80x80 he did a ton of stuff himself, but it was done working with the GC. The bank would never allow any of that, but the GC was cool with it. I gave him a bunch of big LVL beams so they changed the design on the fly to save a bunch of money on lumber. They borrowed some of my machines to save on rental fees.

 

[D Nelson]

40 x60x 16
Steel bldg. 26k. Erection of building 16k Footing and floor 8 inch tapers to 6 inch in middle 6 bag mix 1/2 rebar on 12 inch centers 50 k. 400 amp 3 phase service 16 k spray foam ins. 16 k
14 x 14 overhead with opener and 7 x10 overhead door both insulated 6 k Site plan was 650.00 sewer and water 16 k
Maybe this will help you on prices in Missouri probably 150 k so far
Don


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[D Nelson]

Also 4 ton a/c package unit 3500.00 with heat
Don


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