MotorSeven
Elite Member
Ok fans, i am back on-line....although it is the dreaded dial-up! I retired and we moved from S. Fl to our property in E. TN. The day after arrival, the 30x50 (22ga)bulding arrived on a pallet. Mine was from US Buildings, no end walls, but the industrial 14ga steel base plate was included in the package. I researched the other methods of attaching the building, and am convinced that the I.D. base plate is the easiest although most expensive way to go($1,300) the total came to $7,900 and change. Their "free delivery" turned out to be not so free, because it turned out i needed a forklift on site to remove a 5,000lb pallet. We ended up meeting the 18 wheeler in town and forking the load onto a flat bed wrecker which made the delivery to my place. So, "free delivery" ....ain't!
I chose to drill the 104 holes for the red heads(anchor bolts) instead of sinking the "J" bolts in the concrete pour...it's a nightmare for the finisher, and they never seem to line up correctly. I bought a big Dewalt rotary hammer drill at a pawn shop which worked flawlessly. However, i almost broke my wrist a few times when the carbide bit hit the rebar....ouch. So, make sure the rebar is 7 inches or deeper in the crete! I have to say my slab was almost perfect, and that is EXTREMELY important in getting the base plate square and level. I then built a 14' boom for my tractor which i spot welded to the center tooth of the toothbar, then attached with a chain. The built panels didn't weigh too much and the 30hp Kioti picked them up with ease allowing me to drop them into place with minimal effort. We ran into an intermittent odd problem that we never figured out....some arches were "cocked" on one side, leaving a space of over 2 inches between the overlaps. This required working each bolt hole aggresively one at a time, forcing them to line up.....it was slow tedious work but they did finally come together. We tried several different solutions to fix the prob, but it would disapear on 2-3 arches, then re-appear down the line with no rhyme/reason.
It took 5 days for us(a bud, his 10 year old son, and my wife) to hang all 25 arches. Since i only had help for a limited time, i chose not to tighen all the nuts/bolts until later....all 5,000 of them
. That chore took 2 days, most i could get tight from the inside using a cordless drill. Some required someone on the outside with a wrench to keep them from spinning. The Co. says that 4 men and a weekend....yep, 4 men THAT KNOW HOW OR HAVE EXPERIENCE IN THESE SPECIFIC BUILDINGS could get this done in a few days. The manual also says, "Building the arches on the ground is 80% of the work"! That was the ongoing joke the whole week....."Thank goodness we put this arch together on the ground using 90 bolts, and now that it is up we ONLY have to align and spin on 200 nuts/bolts!, while hanging off a scaffold, moving the scaffold 3 times, climbing a ladder on each side, then tighten them, then apply the side guide rails...and then......"
I am in the process of building the end walls out of 2x6 PT. It is a little challenging cutting the angles required to follow the curve of the bulding, but it is working out ok. I will have a 12' opening on one end for the two 6x12' tall swinging doors along with a steel enrty door, the other end(apt side) will have french doors, & three windows. The apartment will take up the last 14' , and have a sleeping loft in the middle, leaving a 34' or so workshop. I hav eopted to use the self rising foam on the interior of the steel in the apt. A local installed price is the same as if i did it myself.....$1,300.
All in all, i am happy with the building, the way it looks, and the open interior space. We poured a 15' skirt in the front of the slab and 6' in the rear for the apt. The total cost looks like around 17K including the finished apt. We will live her while i build a log house on our place using our own cedar logs...a 2+ year project. I will post pic's, but bear with me as this dial up is rea l l y sl o w. Dish Network won't do any new sat dishes in our area for a couple of months, and they are our only choice for high speed.
Pic's to follow..........
RD
I chose to drill the 104 holes for the red heads(anchor bolts) instead of sinking the "J" bolts in the concrete pour...it's a nightmare for the finisher, and they never seem to line up correctly. I bought a big Dewalt rotary hammer drill at a pawn shop which worked flawlessly. However, i almost broke my wrist a few times when the carbide bit hit the rebar....ouch. So, make sure the rebar is 7 inches or deeper in the crete! I have to say my slab was almost perfect, and that is EXTREMELY important in getting the base plate square and level. I then built a 14' boom for my tractor which i spot welded to the center tooth of the toothbar, then attached with a chain. The built panels didn't weigh too much and the 30hp Kioti picked them up with ease allowing me to drop them into place with minimal effort. We ran into an intermittent odd problem that we never figured out....some arches were "cocked" on one side, leaving a space of over 2 inches between the overlaps. This required working each bolt hole aggresively one at a time, forcing them to line up.....it was slow tedious work but they did finally come together. We tried several different solutions to fix the prob, but it would disapear on 2-3 arches, then re-appear down the line with no rhyme/reason.
It took 5 days for us(a bud, his 10 year old son, and my wife) to hang all 25 arches. Since i only had help for a limited time, i chose not to tighen all the nuts/bolts until later....all 5,000 of them
. That chore took 2 days, most i could get tight from the inside using a cordless drill. Some required someone on the outside with a wrench to keep them from spinning. The Co. says that 4 men and a weekend....yep, 4 men THAT KNOW HOW OR HAVE EXPERIENCE IN THESE SPECIFIC BUILDINGS could get this done in a few days. The manual also says, "Building the arches on the ground is 80% of the work"! That was the ongoing joke the whole week....."Thank goodness we put this arch together on the ground using 90 bolts, and now that it is up we ONLY have to align and spin on 200 nuts/bolts!, while hanging off a scaffold, moving the scaffold 3 times, climbing a ladder on each side, then tighten them, then apply the side guide rails...and then......" I am in the process of building the end walls out of 2x6 PT. It is a little challenging cutting the angles required to follow the curve of the bulding, but it is working out ok. I will have a 12' opening on one end for the two 6x12' tall swinging doors along with a steel enrty door, the other end(apt side) will have french doors, & three windows. The apartment will take up the last 14' , and have a sleeping loft in the middle, leaving a 34' or so workshop. I hav eopted to use the self rising foam on the interior of the steel in the apt. A local installed price is the same as if i did it myself.....$1,300.
All in all, i am happy with the building, the way it looks, and the open interior space. We poured a 15' skirt in the front of the slab and 6' in the rear for the apt. The total cost looks like around 17K including the finished apt. We will live her while i build a log house on our place using our own cedar logs...a 2+ year project. I will post pic's, but bear with me as this dial up is rea l l y sl o w. Dish Network won't do any new sat dishes in our area for a couple of months, and they are our only choice for high speed.
Pic's to follow..........
RD
