My shop build

[STx]

Finished up the sidewall and got 1/2 way through the N/NW end wall today. I had not drilled the end wall panels so after finishing the side wall around 1:45, it took until 5 before I could start the end wall so we got that 1/2 done in 1.5 hours. After having a day, I think we've got a pretty good system down now so we should be able to finish up the walls tomorrow and start the roof no later than Friday. The morning fog and dew also prevented us from getting started before almost 11 this morning. There's supposed to be some cool front coming through tonight (high of 74 tomorrow vs. 91 today), while it will bring some wind, I'm hoping it'll also bring drier air so we can get started earlier in the morning. I hate losing 3 - 4 hours waiting on dew/fog to burn off.

Yesterday, my wife and I were wiped out and hit the sack at 7:30, sleeping straight through to 6:30 this morning. We're feeling much less exhausted today though we still feel as though we've been beaten with a bag of oranges.

View attachment 498110

 

[lilranch2001]

Yesterday, it was only blowing 5 to 7, today is forecast as 7 to 11 and it's already windier than yesterday. Tomorrow, winds are supposed to turn from NW to NE and crank back into double digits. All we can do is move with the wind so it's blowing the sheets onto the building. The bigger problem is keeping the insulation in place at the bottom. Double sided tape is helping but, it'll come off that sometimes.

It's an adventure. At least when it's done, I can say I did it myself and be proud of the effort I know went into it.

I'm actually looking forward to getting to the roof where I can lay the sheets flat.

In my humble opinion, your insulation job is being done (at least in that one pic) better than many people that do it as a profession, erecting steel buildings
Congratulations!

:thumbsup:

 

[STx]

Thanks! I didn't realize I was doing anything special with it, I'm just following the instructions.

I'd like to say, for any of you that are contemplating this, other than the concrete, this is not a difficult process. It's physically demanding doing the siding but, if you're the least bit handy, can read a level and have some construction experience, you can build one of these kits. I have a lot of experience working with metal but, that's as a fabricator/welder, not with metal buildings. All of my building construction has been traditional stick frame stuff and I was a little intimidated by this project going into it. Once I got started though, it all made sense, I was able to work off the plans alone and not read the instruction manual until I hit the insulation and siding. I've done about 60% of this by myself, I had about 6 hours of help with the frame and my wife is cutting insulation and helping me position it and the panels but, I'm doing the installation alone once it's in place. Had I not lost 4 days to weather and equipment problems, I think I could have done this in 10 days with what is essentially 1.5 people. I'm really impressed with how well designed and thought out the plans and kit are and how this has all gone together. So, if you're considering doing a metal building kit but not sure if you should hire out the erection, I'd say give it a go yourself first, I think you'll be surprised at how easy it is.

 

[ovrszd]

If you mentioned, I've forgotten, who makes your building? Mine is a Varco Pruden. It too was easy to construct. All the framework bolted together with no misaligned holes.

It's very commendable that you are doing this alone. That's a lot of "Up and Down".

 

[STx]

Mine is a Mueller .

I've made ample use of hydraulics to minimize my up and down, between the forklift, tractor and man lift, I haven't had to do much ladder climbing.

One tool that has been invaluable is a couple of spud wrenches. I'm not sure what the proper name for them is, I think a pin wrench, being in oil country, I've always heard them.called spud wrenches and almost everybody has a couple.

 

[ovrszd]

Mine is a Mueller .

I've made ample use of hydraulics to minimize my up and down, between the forklift, tractor and man lift, I haven't had to do much ladder climbing.

One tool that has been invaluable is a couple of spud wrenches. I'm not sure what the proper name for them is, I think a pin wrench, being in oil country, I've always heard them.called spud wrenches and almost everybody has a couple.

Yep. Very valuable tool indeed!!!!

After I had completed my building and moved in I decided to put up liner metal on the ceiling. Used four pieces to span the width of my 42' building. Bought a sheetrock jack and a scaffold on wheels. Did it myself. Very, very stupid of me to not do it in the beginning. All my wiring is in conduit. Had to work around three rollup door track brackets. What a nightmare. It was a couple weeks piddling along during the Winter. I really like the results. Just should have done it before moving in. I also lined my walls up 7'. Did that before moving in. Should have lined them to the ceiling. I just got caught up trying to save some money by deleting the lining.

 

[STx]

I don't think I'm going to skin mine fully. I'm really not sure where everything is going to go yet, I learned in my leased shop in Houston that my first setup isn't always the one I stick with. For that reason, I'm holding off on any interior buildout until I've used it for a little while. I will put some OSB up on part of the walls so that I can hang things and am going to add additional insulation into the 8" void wherever I do that. The bathroom is going to include a shower and I know where it's going, since the drainage is plumbed but, I'm not sure whether I'm going to build the office where the bathroom is and walk through it dirty all the time to get to the bathroom or put the office in the front corner where the walk door is and the bathroom in the shop so I can keep the office cleaner. I build hog traps for income so I'm always doing metalworking and it's a filthy job.

I went with 16' eave height for a few reasons. First, I have a 3 stage forklift so I want to be able to stack stuff as high as it'll reach. I also plan to put a lean to out the back side and want to maintain the 12' height of the rollup door at the end of that so I need to start at 16' to be able to build a decent sized leanto and lastly, I want to put in a mezzanine storage area in at least 1/4 of one of the bays. My leased shop was only a 12' eave height and I often wished I had a little more space overhead.

I'm also running all my electrical in metal conduit.

There is a fine line between doing what you should to start with and saving some money but, I've also made the mistake of just going ahead and doing something expensive that I thought I wanted only to discover later that it didn't really work for me the way I thought it would so I'm taking it slow on this one. I'm just going to get it done enough to get back to work and make some money and then I'll finish things out as I figure out how the space works best for me.

 

[ovrszd]

All very good points!!!

I do a lot of metal work in my shop too. Gets pretty smoky at times. The insulation wrap attracts that smoke film along with any dust.

I also added insulation in the gap when I skinned my ceiling. Can't have too much insulation.

I didn't put a shower in my bathroom. Mistake. I also didn't put any type of drain in the floor of the bathroom. Yesterday I went in there to find water on the floor. The water heater pop-off valve was leaking where it screws into the heater. Had I been gone for a couple days I would have had a mess.

I totally agree concerning financial justification for building decisions. My building has worked out well for me and my non-commercial uses. Only thing I'd change would be the skinning inside. But I take little credit for that. I think most of it has been luck.

Looking forward to seeing more of your progress and especially the finished product. Thanks for keeping us informed.

 

[sw99]

Looks great, thanks for the pics and info. I am getting ready to order my 30x50x12 here in the next two weeks.

 

[STx]

We finally got the siding finished Saturday morning. I thought we were going to be wind free on the SSE side of the building as we'd been having NNW winds but, the wind just followed us around to keep things exciting. We got a couple of pieces of the corner trim up before the wind just got out of control again and then I put in my meter can and conduit for the co-op to come install the transformer and electrical today.

Sunday, we were going to start on the roof but, the wind got us again so we got the first roll-up door installed on the upwind side of the building so that we could at least get some stuff done on the floor without being blown around. Wind is forecast to the 20+ for the next 3 days and rain forecast for today and tomorrow so I also spent most of the afternoon taping plastic over the top of the walls to cover the exposed insulation and keep it dry if the rain does materialize. Since I spent 5 hours doing that (the wind made even that extremely difficult), I'm sure the rain won't show up but, if I hadn't it's guaranteed we'd have gotten 5" of rain and ruined the insulation.

I'll probably go ahead and install the breaker box today so that I can call for the power connect after the line is installed. They won't let me schedule that until they've hung the transformer, it's not possible to have it all done on the same trip for some reason. Then I'll start some of the electrical so I can have a couple of plugs and be ready to hand the lights once we get the roof on. Thursday and Friday are currently forecast to be calm so, I've got my fingers crossed.

 

[STx]

After waiting a week for the wind to lay down, we got a little break yesterday with 5 -7 and an occasional gust to 10. My wife and I decided to start on the roof and after getting the insulation rolled out and 1 panel up in 4 hours we were beginning to doubt the ability of 2 people to get this job done. As we were getting the 2nd panel in place, a gust of wind grabbed it and put it on the ground and I decided that discretion is indeed the better part of valor and called for help. I should have a crew here Saturday or Sunday to get it knocked out.

Of course, we did have to leave the one piece of insulation exposed overnight and, wouldn't you know it, I just woke up to the sound of rain on the metal roof of the house. Not a lot but, enough that the patio is wet. Radar looks like that's it for us for today, hopefully it didn't soak that insulation so badly that it needs to be removed and trashed and it'll dry out today. We'll roll some 6 mil plastic over it this afternoon if it does dry out, I guess we should have done that yesterday but, there wasn't any rain in the forecast.

I did finally get the primary disconnect and sub-panel installed so they power company can come set my meter. I was hoping to have that this week, I've been ready since Tuesday, it's looking like it's going to be next week though. We also got the 2nd rollup door hung yesterday as well after a minor misstep that almost cost me an arm. It was completely my fault, I forgot to tighten the axle set screws before pre-tensioning the door spring so when I started to unroll it, it wasn't controllable. We managed to get it back down, roll it up and do it right with just a little damage to my bicep right at the shoulder and some scratches on the door paint, it could have been much worse if a couple of things had gone just a little differently.

I've always been told that killing a cat is bad luck. Yesterday morning, I had to dispatch a feral cat that was after my chickens and my day was crap so, I guess it's true. I didn't want to shoot the cat, I have 5 of them myself (2 here and 3 back in Cypress with my daughter, all indoor only) and really like cats, I'd hoped the cat gods would forgive me since I've historically been a friend to cats and was just protecting my livestock, I guess they didn't see it that way. Next time I have to remove one, I'm going back to bed until the next morning.

I guess today I'll start getting my EMT bent and installed and pulling some wire for plugs and lights so that if the PoCo ever does show up, I'll be ready to go.

 

[STx]

After calling several contractors recommended by my building manufacturer and not getting any of them to follow through with the promised bid or return call, I ended up getting a neighbor to help out with some bodies. A couple of them have some experience with metal roofing and we got the roof on yesterday but, still need to install the rake trim and gutters.

The concrete contractor set my anchor bolts just a little off so, the building is about 1" out of square. No big deal on the walls but, it was a problem with the roof. My plan was to square off the end walls, since that's where the overhang is, leave a little overhanging on each end wall and just cut it and cover the problem up with rake trim. I argued about it with one of the "experienced" guys for about 30 minutes and finally just let him do it his way because we weren't getting anywhere and the job needed to get started if we were going to finish, especially with rain forecast for this afternoon. End result was that the roof is now not square on the side walls or the end walls and I'm going to have to trim not only the end walls for the rake trim but also the side walls to remove the saw tooth and fix the overhang for the gutters. It's extra work for me and I'm a little irritated by it but, there's no way I was going to get the roof on alone so, I guess I'll get over it. If this wasn't a 1/12 roof that you can't see from the ground with gutters to hide the problems, I'd be a lot less understanding.

Plan is to finish the rake trim and gutters today and start moving stuff in. I'm still waiting for the PoCo to come set the meter but have started on the electrical.

 

[ovrszd]

Sorry you had the square problem. Metal siding/roofing is nonforgiving. Any squaring issue regardless of how small is going to surface.

I totally understand the dilemna you found yourself in regarding your helpers.

I was concerned about getting my bolts "wet set" properly so didn"t do it that way. Drilled my holes in cured concrete and used anchor studs.

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to your progress.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've tried several times setting bolts before the pour, and in every case, there is at least one that turns out to be off. I cut it off with the grinder and then drill a hole in the cured concrete where I need it. Now I just do like Richard said, and drill every hole. SDS and SDS Max drills just melt through the concrete, so it's actually faster and easier to do it that way.

When installing metal roofing, I attach two long tapes to the gable end of the roof. One at the peak, the other at the fascia. Then I pull them out and either mark on the purlins where they should end so I'm parallel the entire distance, or I measure them as I go. It's amazing to see how a metal R Panel can get off by just a 16th of an inch, then it turns into an 8th and becomes a monster to get back in line again.

Congratulations on your progress. When it's all said and done, you wont even remember these little setbacks!!!

 

[STx]

Hopefully, I remember some of it just so that I learn from them for future projects. Some of this stuff could have been avoided if I'd just known some things going into this that I do now. I did manage to get the rest of the rake trim and gutters on today. I'm not really happy with the way the rake trim and peak boxes have come together but, I'll figure out a way to make it look presentable.

Just some minor trim stuff left, the rake trim closure and the and the corner boxing at the rake trim and gutters. I also still need to put the downspouts on. We're supposed to get 1/2" - 3/4" rain tonight so I went ahead and moved all the tools that have been in the outside "shop" that I've had to cover all the time into the shop. It's nice to have it all inside and not have to worry about the rain.

Tomorrow, I'm going to setup the pallet racks and start getting stuff organized and then hang the LED High Bay lights. Hopefully, the PoCo gets the meter set tomorrow or Tuesday, I'm at the point now that I need more power than the generator can provide.

 

[GLyford]

I built a porch two summers ago, and all the post bases were in slightly the wrong spot, these were the type with the tangs that go into the concrete. So I cut them all off with an angle grinder and drilled for epoxy studs. I had enough extra epoxy to seal over all the tang locations to keep water out.

I had a cheapo import hammer drill my Dad had abused, and it stripped its last gear on the first or 2nd hole (out of 6). Since the concrete was still green, it surprised me to be able to drill the rest with a regular 1/2" drill with no problems.

Between the new holes and the position allowance in the brackets I had no more problems (the posts not being centered on the sonotubes only makes me twitch a little, I still prefer that to the porch being out of square).

The first shed I built on this property was 1" out of square once the walls were up, I'm thinking the slab it was on had a slight twist. I had a crew of helpers, I was going to pull the top square with a come-along before the roof went on but got outvoted by the "let's get it done before dark" crowd. It is shingled, so other than some trimming on the sheathing it still went together OK, and you certainly can't tell by looking.

So I completely understand both sides of your experience...it's frustrating, but it's done, we cope and move on.

 

[STx]

I haven't done the downspouts, corner boxes, rake trim end boxes or screwed the rake trim down on the walls but, we got almost an inch of rain last night and everything was dry inside, so that's awesome! If you look closely at the peak box on the left side, you can see where the roof problems become evident. Because of the way they set the panels and where the ribs ended up, I'm not able to get the rake trim to match up on this side so the peak box is a little akimbo. I'm hoping that when I screw it down to the walls I'll be able to hide it a little better.



I got my pallet racks moved into the shop this morning and started getting some stuff moved onto them. I had just put everything in on the floor last night so that it would all be out of the rain. I've been covering things with tarps when I knew rain was coming, keeping it loosely covered otherwise, it was nice to not have to go tie everything down yesterday or worry about it when the rain started.



This is where I've been working for the last 9 months. It kept the sun off my back but, that's about it. I couldn't work when the wind was too strong or when it rained. I can't tell you how nice it is to be getting this mess cleaned up and to be able to start getting organized again, it's been very frustrating not being able to find things when I need them. The container is housing almost everything that I had in a 3,000 square foot shop before moving down here permanently. All of it will be going into this one but, I've got taller walls here so I'll have more upstairs storage space than I had before. It's still going to be a little tight until I get a cover built off the back (I'm thinking 25 x 50) to store some of the stuff that needs to be out of the sun and rain but not necessarily inside. I wish I could've gone bigger with this build, like a 50 x 100 but, I wouldn't have been able to afford the slab for that, much less the building...lol

 

[ovrszd]

Congratulations on your first rain!!!! You've accomplished a lot!!!!!

Caution about moving in too much before you get your wiring, etc., done. You'll have to move it all. But then, with a forklift that might not be too hard!!!!

 

[STx]

Congratulations on your first rain!!!! You've accomplished a lot!!!!!

Caution about moving in too much before you get your wiring, etc., done. You'll have to move it all. But then, with a forklift that might not be too hard!!!!

I'm leaving the walls accessible right now and have a pretty good idea where I need plugs (every 4 feet gets a quad outlet on a 20A circuit). The area where the pallet racks are won't be getting any electrical, it's just a storage area for inventory and other stuff, I never needed outlets over there in the last shop.

I haven't built any traps since I started this shop build in December and have a lot of back orders I need to get caught up on. Plus, I've got to start putting some money back into the bank account instead of spending it all.

It'll take me about a month to get caught back up and get some inventory stocked again, then I'll install the septic, build out the bathroom and get the area around the shop graded better and put some recycled asphalt down. I'm just moving the bare necessities in to get the traps built right now. All the parts and pieces I have stored in the container will stay there for a few more months but, the tools are all coming into the shop. Those are what I'm getting tired of not being able to get to.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm leaving the walls accessible right now and have a pretty good idea where I need plugs (every 4 feet gets a quad outlet on a 20A circuit). The area where the pallet racks are won't be getting any electrical, it's just a storage area for inventory and other stuff, I never needed outlets over there in the last shop.

I haven't built any traps since I started this shop build in December and have a lot of back orders I need to get caught up on. Plus, I've got to start putting some money back into the bank account instead of spending it all.

It'll take me about a month to get caught back up and get some inventory stocked again, then I'll install the septic, build out the bathroom and get the area around the shop graded better and put some recycled asphalt down. I'm just moving the bare necessities in to get the traps built right now. All the parts and pieces I have stored in the container will stay there for a few more months but, the tools are all coming into the shop. Those are what I'm getting tired of not being able to get to.

I hear ya. You are beginning to get on top of this project. That's gotta feel good!!!!!