What's new
What's new

Steel building kits

motojoel1

Cast Iron
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Location
Warren, Ohio
I have seen numerous "steel building kits" at what look to be incredible prices.
I know they are not complete kits as priced (doors, insulation, foundation, etc.)
I can get quotes, or rough ideas, easily enough from friends that do concrete. I know what the electrical will cost, roughly. I do not know what the "missing" parts of the kits will cost.

I am hesitant to talk to the building suppliers at this point. I do not feel like hearing from salesmen 12 times a day, nor do I want to believe them. I put my info on one website and checked a box that I did not want to be contacted (it was to get a brochure) by a sales person. This did not stop them from calling me 9 times in 3 days, all at inopportune times.

For a point of reference I am looking at around 4000 sq ft 14 foot side walls.
 
Here is where we got ours.

Pacific Steel Buildings

Ask for Larry, tell him Tony from Madrea sent you.

Ours is 30 X 60, gambrial roof, 2 level, least expensive building we could find and a lot better for our needs than most.

Give them your address, size, color and style and you get a quote for it delivered to your address to the code requirements of your address.

Almost any dinension in X, Y or Z available to a 6 inch dimension.

You pour concrete, they deliver, you unload and build it.

I built ours 95% solo, easy to do.
 
We're going through this now. Looking to build a 50,000 sq ft building with 20,000 sq ft roofed and concreted off the back. 5,000 sq ft office with a handful of rollup doors including one sunken dock door.

Prices from design & build contractors to buy the building, erect it, and finish it out (insulation, doors) are coming in at about $15 / sq ft. I'd expect that if you were going to buy it and build it yourself, you could do it for less than $10 /sq ft.
 
Thanks guys. I am guessing somewhere around 40k for the building, plus foundation. Wasn't sure if it was a pipe dream or not.
Any experiences with this would be welcome.
 
Avoid the 'quonset' type self-supporting if possible, they aren't much (if any) cheaper than a wood-framed pole barn type structure as far as materials cost.

my experience was 'meh' overall buying mine, not exceptionally great, not exceptionally bad.

a few lessons learned:

the posted price for a given structure is negotiable, and the salesman will cut you a better deal if you are paying cash (or whatever terms mean he's paid in full at the time of delivery) as opposed to financing through them.

you're going to get a better deal buying a plain structure without doors or windows and cutting them in yourself- they charge extra for that. Ditto with buying those doors and windows to install in the holes- they buy, mark up & resell the doors and windows they supply.

Buy from the manufacturer direct, if possible, instead of a distributor especially if you plan on erecting it yourself and aren't really worried about building a working relationship with the local guy.

Erecting it yourself is significantly cheaper than paying them to have their guys do it.....unless you're going to make more money working those same hours.

I bought mine from these guys:

Steel Buildings | Surplus, Storage Buildings, Kits, Pole Barns, Garages, Agricultural, Carports, Sheds, Discount Metal Buildings, Prefab Steel Building workshops by Affordable Buildings

like I said......a satisfactory transaction overall- I bought a product, they delivered the product, nothing more, nothing less.
 
77, thanks for your input. I was hoping to get responses from someone who has been there and done that.

I am looking at straight walled, all metal.
 
We did crane work for a number of years for 3 different outfits who erected steel buildings. Didn't sell them, but rather just subbed the erection like a framing crew might sub the framing and sheeting of a house.

All of them pretty much totally avoided working on anything but major brands of buildings such as Butler, Star, Kirby, Ceco, Varco-Pruden, and similar brands. All of them avoided any no-name stuff made in Florida like the plague due to having to re-drill or ream half the holes because nothing lined up.

We bought a 60 x 150 x 16 ft eave height building from Ceco in 89 and used our own help to erect it as time allowed. At that time, you could sub the erection and sheeting for about $1.25/sq ft, and in retrospect we'd have come out cheaper by going that way as opposed to our own "learning experience". We subbed the plumbing, electrical, concrete finishing, and interior office buildout work. Did our own grading and site prep and hvac as well as assembly of the building itself.

One thing we found in doing a lot of looking at various options is that there ain't no bargains out there. If something looks cheap, its cheap because you get less. A lot of those ads are based on very light wind loads and live loads that won't meet commerical building codes in a lot of the country, and as soon as you upgrade to reasonable levels of construction their price advantage starts to evaporate. Talked to a couple owners who'd bought similar size buildings from ads in newspapers or magazines touting great deals, and both of them said Hell No, never again. Missing parts and pieces, holes that didn't match up, components for framed door openings consisting of pieces they had to cut to length and drill to fit rather than just bolting stuff together according to the drawings. Just another one of those things where there ain't no free lunch regardless of how tasty the ads might look.
 
Excellent post MetlMuncher.

What others also have said.

Nieghbor scoffed at me wanting 60 psf snow load, bought a "heritage" IIRC, 60 x 120 or so.
I believe the code listed 30 psf, and I asked around to the professionals, they advised
using the 60 psf. He was sold what the code wanted, nothing more.

Contracted cheep labor, left so many things wrong.

Hired better, experienced contracter to fix.

Then Labor & Industry walked in.....I heard (won't admit his mistake) $20,000 more needed.
 
Back in my younger days, I worked for a construction company that specialized in erecting steel “clear span” buildings.

We only used two brands: Star and Butler.

Back in the mid 80’s, Star brand buildings were nowhere near as good as Butler buildings. Butler buildings came with sheet metal pre-punched, which really does help unless you like devouring screw guns.

I can say one thing about steel buildings: From the ground up, you’re better off hiring a company that can handle the whole job. An experienced crew already knows the routines from the initial layout for footings and piers, they’ll have the lowdown on concrete work, which is an art unto itself given all the variables that can affect a successful large pour, and they know the best and quickest ways to put a particular brand’s building together. They’re pretty much the same, but little tricks can make a world of difference.

Also…………..the roof is a BIGGIE !!!!!

For example: Star brand buildings used overlapping panels that screwed directly to the purlins, and their insulation system really sucked (back then). On the other hand, Butler buildings has a standing seam roof which was FAR superior and was allowed to float on a clever interlocking clip system attached to the purlins that I couldn’t ever imagine leaking.

Leaking roofs used to be a COMMON problem with steel buildings…….and yes, new ones too. The Butler standing seam system was fantastic, so I’d recommend that ANY day so long as the installation methods haven’t degraded.

Also………..the standard insulation used for a steel building SUCKS, and you’re better to have it insulated well DURING construction, rather than pay the bucks necessary to upgrade it later.
 
To provide some idea of the cost of going from "just meets code" to what I'd consider a pretty good building, the 1989 price for our building was $45,000 with standing seam roof, architectural deep drawn siding with no exposed fasteners, oversize gutters and downspouts, a rigid frame on one end of the building to allow for future addition, and the heaviest available live and wind load ratings. This included half a dozen insulated personnel doors and frames, but no overhead doors. Insulation was bought separately. If we'd gone with load ratings just to meet minimum code, standard siding, standard gutters, and a screw-down roof, the price was quoted right at $35,000. Both prices delivered to site.

In the grand scheme of things, the $10K difference wasn't significant. We had somewhere around $150K to $175K in the completed building. Didn't finance anything, so we never really calculated a final cost, but it was in that range.

Two advantages to a standing seam roof. Lack of leaks. None in 23+ yrs for us. Plus, the attachment method allows the roof to stand clear of the purlins such that the insulation isn't smashed flat as it passes over the purlins.

As far as I know, no manufacturer includes a standing seam roof as standard, now or in the 80's. Its a significant cost adder, and would make anyone who uses it as standard non-competitive on any job where a screw-down roof is acceptable. Definitely money well spent though, IMO.

I'd disagree with anteekfreek's advice of a turnkey job from a metal building contractor unless you're highly knowledgable on site prep and foundation work and have the time to watch what's going on to make sure you get what you pay for, or have personal knowledge of the class of work the contractor does. I've seen too many sites where there was nothing but undisturbed flat dirt at 7am, and a 5000 sq ft slab and foundation by dark the same day. When the only piece of equipment on site is a skid-steer with a tablespoon size backhoe attachment, you're just not going to get the sort of job I'd want to pay for.

As soon as we hit our dirt with a vibratory compactor, we found a soft spot that never would've shown up otherwise until it was too late to do anythng about it. Started digging and found someone had buried a bunch of partially burned stumps probably 30 to 40 yrs previous, covered by a couple feet of dirt. Dug out a place about 40' x 20' and 7 or so feet deep to get rid of the muck, and replaced with compacted clay. If someone just looks over the site and decides the ground is solid, that sort of thing is a major problem for the owner when it shows up a few years down the road.

We had a bunch of our own work going on at the time, so we hired a friend who'd recently sold his commercial contracting business and retired, to run the job. On things like the office buildout and the concrete finishing, he knew what subs to use and which ones to stay away from. His pay was money well spent as he was there to make sure we got what we wanted rather than cutting hidden corners to make more money for himself or his boss.
 
Two advantages to a standing seam roof. Lack of leaks. None in 23+ yrs for us. Plus, the attachment method allows the roof to stand clear of the purlins such that the insulation isn't smashed flat as it passes over the purlins.
This is a new one on me, can you explain a bit further, I assumed standing seam screwed down with clips,
hidden by the next course, but still crewed down tight to the purlins, just like exposed screwed down sheeting.

FWIW I hate draped insulation (because of the pinching, and the leaking from the exposed fastener roofing)
 
Doug, you're testing my memory now :D

The roof basically floats on ours. There are clips attached to the purlins and the clips are slotted to allow for expansion and contraction. IIRC, and this is where I'm fuzzy, the underside of the sheets is supported at the clips by rigid board insulation to provide the clearance. I'm pretty sure we still have the details in a file here so I'll try to look and see if I'm correct on that. The insulation is compressed to a thickness of 2 inches or so at the purlins, but not squashed flat as with a screw down.

The clips come up between the sheets and turn back down over the vertical section of the sheet at the edge. There's a V shaped cap that drives down over the joint and it has short legs turned inward that lock on corresponding short legs turned outward on the roof sheets. On ours, there's a sealant factory applied in the cap section, so you can knock it on with a rubber mallet and its done. Some of them use a machine that slides along the roof and crimps the cap onto the seam. I don't know whether that type uses any sealant in the cap or not. Either one becomes non-removable once in place without some major destruction.
 
I'd disagree with anteekfreek's advice of a turnkey job from a metal building contractor unless you're highly knowledgable on site prep and foundation work and have the time to watch what's going on to make sure you get what you pay for, or have personal knowledge of the class of work the contractor does. I've seen too many sites where there was nothing but undisturbed flat dirt at 7am, and a 5000 sq ft slab and foundation by dark the same day. When the only piece of equipment on site is a skid-steer with a tablespoon size backhoe attachment, you're just not going to get the sort of job I'd want to pay for.

Seriously ?

Do you live amongst a colony of the famed Travelers, who run fly-by-night construction scams during the warm months ?

I have never seen such outrageous construction techniques by any established, reputable building contractor. Then again, you’d have to be just plain nuts to hire any construction company without checking their credentials first. Good quality building contractors are more than happy to show off the fruits of their labor.

Any construction company that would construct a building as you described wouldn’t stay in business for long around these parts. Shoddy workmanship inevitably catches up with you sooner or later, just as is the case with any business.

If you hire a construction company that you honestly feel you must babysit in order to get quality workmanship, then you probably made a poor choice to begin with.
 
Figure in at least $25sqft on the low end. We are talking machine shop not a dirt floor pole shed right? I just built the minimum 5000sqft 16' ceilings and it was $40 a square foot all said and done. I would never ever suggest panels with premade holes in them. Steel building tin is thin and easily screwed into with the right screw.
 








 
Back
Top