Fabric Buildings...Pros/Cons

idaho2 · Oct 4, 2015

Looking at a 34' x 72' fabric (White roof) storage building with 14'x14' door at one end to include 36" x 80" man door. Level ground, no concrete just rock inside and raised about 4 to 6" above grade and rock aprons at both ends sloped away from the building. Winds mostly from the southwest, orientation on site still open. I'm leaning to a second 14' x 14' door at the opposite end without the second man door. Not planning on electricity or plumbing. There will not be a foundation but anchored every 4 feet. Have any of you ever been involved with or have experience with fabric buildings that you could share pros or cons.

Idaho2

EddieWalker · Oct 5, 2015

Every one I've ever seen was either falling apart, or completely destroyed by the weather. I think the sun does the most damage, then a big storm with a lot of wind finishes them off. There was a guy who opened a business selling them. He had solid walls and metal trusses that sort of hooped up and over from the walls. First year it looked great. Five years later it was falling apart and that was his display model. Another year and the place is for sale and the top is in rags. Now the top is gone and the place is still for sale with a giant concrete pad and four foot walls.

Industrial Toys · Oct 5, 2015

They are nice and bright inside. But I don't call them a building, I call them a tent.

chopped · Oct 5, 2015

If you get one and have snow then consider that. I have one and have to fist the snow from it often through the winter. But thats not a problem till last winter I got lazy. and it was packed with snow, Had to shovel it off. I will be sure to fist it off this year lol Otherwise I have one that's done pretty good. And another one that a bud gave to me that had a tree limb through it and that was a lightweight one , but had survived two winters so far.
My better one has bigger pipes so i figure when or if the tarp goes. i can add strapping to the pipe frame and then metal roof it.. The smaller pipe one wouldnt work for that idea.

rd_macgregor · Oct 5, 2015

Its important to differentiate between the build-it-yourself garage packages you get from Home Depot (eg Shelter Logic) and the engineered fabric buildings that many farmers and other businesses use. The hardware-store DIY kits are truly temporary buildings...mine didn't even last one whole winter before a snowstorm collapsed it!
The founding ancestor of all the companies offering the large, engineered "permanent" steel arch (or truss) fabric-covered buildings was Cover-All, but Cover-All made a serious engineering mistake (inadequate cross-bracing allowed the buildings' trusses to collapse catastrophically, resulting in at least one well-publicised death) which, coupled with some other business decisions, resulted in them going bankrupt. There are a great number of competitors in the field now, pretty much all of which claim expected lifespan of 15 years for the cover. The steel truss frames of these buildings are very strong, so, except in extreme locales, snow load shouldn't be an issue. However, extreme winds can be more serious...plus, I think mechanical damage to the cover fabric (including from tree branches) can start a cascading failure, particularly is it is windy. I know horse folks and dairy farmers who have had arenas or animal housing under these covers for about 15 years with no issues; I also have heard of buildings that shredded after a few years in strong windstorms!
When I looked in to putting one up for an equipment building, I was surprised to find that there was not much cost savings over a similarly-sized steel building. The biggest advantage of the fabric building, then, became how light it was inside...the downside of this (on top of its relatively greater fragility than a steel building) is that, as far as I know, you cannot insulate a fabric building without destroying its ability to transmit light.