Storage building question

[jcmseven]

Fellow posters:

My wife and I moved to our new home about two years ago. we are fortunate to have some nice wooded property and a nice relatively new home. About four months ago, I bought a John Deere mid frame tractor, and accompanying attachments to replace a smaller garden tractor. We have been using our garage to store the tractor and attachments, thus one of our autos has to stay outside. My wife and I have thought about building some type of small storage building to use for storing my tractor, so that we can use our garage for its original intent. I do not want to do something cheap, but I do want to avoid a lot of cost. I also want the building or shed to somewhat match our home. My friend, the JD dealer, mentioned "Morton" brand buildings, but I know nothing about them or the company. I do know there is a Morton dealer about thirty miles from here. I wanted thoughts on that. Also, near my hometown, about two hours from here, there is a family owned company that deals with custom sheds/buildings that they build and transport. My parents have one and it is well made. The only problem, is these are wood floored and thus cannot be guaranteed to support the weight of my tractor. Finally, I have gotten some estimates from local builders about on site building, but these estimates are higher than I want to spend right now. Any suggestions, and can someone address the best way to reasonably store a machine like mine with a tasteful, non-obtrusive structure? Thanks.

John M

 

[bczoom]

John,

How large of a storage building are you considering?
Can you elaborate on matching your home? What's the siding/roofing material of your house?

Smaller buildings are "relatively" easy to build and make a great project. It always justifies the purchase of new power tools (toss in Tim the Tool Man grunt here).

Brian

 

[DHennet]

Loafing sheds look nice and are perfect for storing equipment. Built using the pole method they are economical too. You can side, paint, and shingle to match your home. Something to consider...

-Dan

 

[Tom_H]

I have a 3 car garage so the tractor stays inside. The implements are all on dollies and stay inside too. When I want to change implements, the cars go out and implements easily roll right up to the 3ph. Adjustments can be made with the touch of a finger. For this reason, I highly recommend a very smooth concrete floor. If you need to be economical, asphalt will do. If it's going to be cramped inside, having a paved apron entering the building will give more room to maneuver dollies around and get them to the 3ph.

One other recommendation is to have a beam across the center that is strong enough to attach a hoist. Having a hoist centered in whatever type roof support system you have will make it possible to do things like lift mower decks to remove/sharpen blades, lift implements, pull an engine if you need to. You might set it up so that you could use chain hoist or electric or both.

Would you have electricity? As I sit here dreaming about my, uh sorry...YOUR new building, images of workbenches and tool stations all around the inner perimeter dance in my head.

You might check with that company and ask whether they will sell you a kit designed to put atop a concrete pad. The company that builds these buildings might be able to give you the specs needed for your foundation and pad. A local concrete contractor who does foundations could put in a pad with perimeter foundation ready and foundation ties imbedded. Then the company would finish/supply the rest of the structure. Don't know if you could manage this without permits, fees, inspections, etc., but you'd want to be sure bottom plates are pressure treated. May be worth asking them.

 

[hhw]

Morton makes a quality building. You may pay a little more up front, as compared to some other steel buildings, but it evens out in the long run. When I built my "shop" 3 years ago I went with a custom builder. It's OK and works well, but in the end I think I would have been better off with morton. I opted to go as large as I could and still meet zoning setbacks. Ultimately, I went with a steel 40 X 60, two 10 X12 doors, a man door and second floor storage 60X14X8.

After I put my "stuff" in there and built up the tooling areas I ran out of room for some of my attachments!

I purchased one of those "carports" you see along the highway, $845.00 installed I think it was. The crew showed up one evening and built it on site in about an hour. The next day I put about 4 inches of "crusher- run" on the ground inside, wet it and compacted it. I then picked up some steel skin locally and "skinned" the sides. Works great for attachments, and since it is not "permanent" setbacks were not an issue.

 

[BB_TX]

There have been several discussions in the last year or two about this type building and Morton has been mentioned frequently. There are many very pleased, and some who had bad experiences with them. If you do a search for Morton, you should be able to find those discussions. I priced Morton when I wanted to put up a 30'x40 metal building. But their price was quite a bit higher than I wanted to pay. I ended up buying a pre-fab metal building kit and erected it myself, saving about $10K.
Here is <font color="blue"> one of those discussions. </font>