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.