Steel building and gravel road

[Jlblake]

Building: I would like to have a multi-purpose, small building built. I'm thinking a steel building would be most cost effective. Probably 18x30 would work. I want to put a pool table and game room together but also have a kitchenette, bathroom and bedroom. I might go a little bigger on the building. I have power on the land and I believe that part should be pretty simple. I don't know what I don't know honestly and I'm not sure where to start. I will need septic, water and power. What is the best starting point to get this project priced out? I have a building estimate from an acquaintance. He'll build the building and put the concrete pad in for $24 - $27 per square foot. No roughed in electric or plumbing however. Where would you go to get the full package priced? Are there any things you wish you had done differently or things you strongly recommend people consider before building?


Road: I currently have rough road on the property. It's pretty good but rough. I just want to smooth it out some as it hasn't been maintained for nearly 20 years. Is the best way to do this to have gravel/granite or some composite delivered and then spread it with my tractor or should I hire someone to do this since I haven't done it before. Any suggestions for best material? The property is in Leon County, Texas.


I am enjoying the education I'm getting with my new land and tractor. I just want to prioritize my projects...outsource the ones that are beyond the scope of what I should be doing. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Industrial Toys]

Around here, there would be an easy few hundred contractors that would offer what you want. Often best to see some work you like and find out who did it.

Personally, I don't go with the highest price contractors as I can't afford them. I go with someone decent and then kind of oversee the entire project. Even devote my time, energy and equipment to the job at hand. No contractor ever had a problem with this, and they even appreciate the help. This approach has worked out very well for me.

 

[skipperbrown]

Check out Morton Buildings. They have dozens of buildings they have done on their website.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Does Texas not have building codes? You are describing a house.

 

[two_bit_score]

Building: I would like to have a multi-purpose, small building built. I'm thinking a steel building would be most cost effective. Probably 18x30 would work. I want to put a pool table and game room together but also have a kitchenette, bathroom and bedroom. I might go a little bigger on the building. I have power on the land and I believe that part should be pretty simple. I don't know what I don't know honestly and I'm not sure where to start. I will need septic, water and power. What is the best starting point to get this project priced out? I have a building estimate from an acquaintance. He'll build the building and put the concrete pad in for $24 - $27 per square foot. No roughed in electric or plumbing however. Where would you go to get the full package priced? Are there any things you wish you had done differently or things you strongly recommend people consider before building?


Road: I currently have rough road on the property. It's pretty good but rough. I just want to smooth it out some as it hasn't been maintained for nearly 20 years. Is the best way to do this to have gravel/granite or some composite delivered and then spread it with my tractor or should I hire someone to do this since I haven't done it before. Any suggestions for best material? The property is in Leon County, Texas.


I am enjoying the education I'm getting with my new land and tractor. I just want to prioritize my projects...outsource the ones that are beyond the scope of what I should be doing. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!

You are really in luck. You are only about 70 miles from the Morton Buildings guy in Hewitt, Tx Phone: (254) 666-3232

 

[two_bit_score]

Does Texas not have building codes? You are describing a house.

Cities and some counties have building codes but in the rural area where the OP is I doubt there are any building inspectors he will need to worry about. He can probably build just about anything he wants the way he wants it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Does Texas not have building codes? You are describing a house.

I never heard of a Texas County with any sort of Building Code. Each city has their own rules for building and most fallow the Southern Building Code for residential home construction. The bigger cities will add their own stuff to what they want, and that can be significant in areas where the weather can be more extreme.

Electrical Code is National, but there is no enforcement outside of city limits.

Septic is National and there are inspectors that check rural properties, but it's so undermanned and underfunded that there is usually one person for several counties, and they spend all their time driving long distances to investigate the worse complaints.

On your road, the most cost effective way to do it yourself is to first build it up with clean dirt. Get it into shape by adding material where you need it. Nothing is going to be cheaper then dirt, or more effective at creating a base. Once you have the dirt work done and compacted, then you can add gravel or crushed concrete. You need at least 4 inches for it to lock together and shed water. If it's thinner, it will move on you and quickly develop pot holes. I've found that crushed concrete gives a much better, more solid road then crushed limestone. There is a lot of variation in limestone used for roads here in Texas. Some is harder then others. All of the limestone used in my area, Tyler, comes from Terrell. It's a soft limestone, so it wears out fairly quickly. The concrete is extremely hard, and it's night and day better then the limestone that I started out with.

For your building, be sure to draw it out and add furniture and equipment to the drawing. Your building isn't very big, so space needs to be figured out. Don't forget to include the thickness of the walls to the layout.

A wood pole barn is the cheapest to build. It is a bare bones building that does not require concrete or a lot of prep work.

A metal building will cost a lot more for the same square footage, but it's big advantage is how far you can span the roof without any supports. It will require concrete that has to have footings designed for the weight of the metal posts that hold the building up. This takes some knowledge in what you are doing beforehand because the footings will need to be perfect for the metal posts. They either get welded to a plate embedded in the concrete, or bolts have to be placed in the concrete so they line up with the posts. Drilling into the concrete to attach the posts might work for a smaller building, but it's not ideal.

If you are pouring concrete for the floor, then I feel stick construction is going to be the fastest, most cost effective method of building. Pole barns and metal buildings lack anything to have a finished internal wall, so you have to spend the money of studs anyway to finish off the interior. You will also have to have trusses, or rafters 2 feet apart for a ceiling, so that negates the cost savings of a pole barn or metal building. With stick framing, everything is simple and straight forward. If you go with pole building, or metal building methods, then you are converting, modifying and adding materials to make those types of buildings more like a stick framed building, which will cost more money and time.

If a pole building or metal building is already built, then converting them are easy, but if you are starting from scratch, then stick building is going to be the most cost effective.

 

[fried1765]

You are really in luck. You are only about 70 miles from the Morton Buildings guy in Hewitt, Tx Phone: (254) 666-3232

I have had a Morton building for 36 years (36x48).
I have been very pleased with the Morton product.
That said: I have recently become somewhat disillusioned with Morton.
Someone damaged my building (hit and run), and I have made three calls to the local Morton office (Norton, MA.) to inquire about repair.
For over one month now, I have not even received the courtesy of a return call!
Morton may be experiencing Covid -19 issues, but......their phones have been affected by Covid-19 too ???

 

[oosik]

Water........ Are you going to have to drill a well? Find out from local drillers and neighbors - - how deep, how much, the quality of the water you could get.

It all becomes a meaningless discussion if you can't drill a well and get good water.

 

[buck12]

I never heard of a Texas County with any sort of Building Code. Each city has their own rules for building and most fallow the Southern Building Code for residential home construction. The bigger cities will add their own stuff to what they want, and that can be significant in areas where the weather can be more extreme.

Electrical Code is National, but there is no enforcement outside of city limits.

Septic is National and there are inspectors that check rural properties, but it's so undermanned and underfunded that there is usually one person for several counties, and they spend all their time driving long distances to investigate the worse complaints.

On your road, the most cost effective way to do it yourself is to first build it up with clean dirt. Get it into shape by adding material where you need it. Nothing is going to be cheaper then dirt, or more effective at creating a base. Once you have the dirt work done and compacted, then you can add gravel or crushed concrete. You need at least 4 inches for it to lock together and shed water. If it's thinner, it will move on you and quickly develop pot holes. I've found that crushed concrete gives a much better, more solid road then crushed limestone. There is a lot of variation in limestone used for roads here in Texas. Some is harder then others. All of the limestone used in my area, Tyler, comes from Terrell. It's a soft limestone, so it wears out fairly quickly. The concrete is extremely hard, and it's night and day better then the limestone that I started out with.

For your building, be sure to draw it out and add furniture and equipment to the drawing. Your building isn't very big, so space needs to be figured out. Don't forget to include the thickness of the walls to the layout.

A wood pole barn is the cheapest to build. It is a bare bones building that does not require concrete or a lot of prep work.

A metal building will cost a lot more for the same square footage, but it's big advantage is how far you can span the roof without any supports. It will require concrete that has to have footings designed for the weight of the metal posts that hold the building up. This takes some knowledge in what you are doing beforehand because the footings will need to be perfect for the metal posts. They either get welded to a plate embedded in the concrete, or bolts have to be placed in the concrete so they line up with the posts. Drilling into the concrete to attach the posts might work for a smaller building, but it's not ideal.

If you are pouring concrete for the floor, then I feel stick construction is going to be the fastest, most cost effective method of building. Pole barns and metal buildings lack anything to have a finished internal wall, so you have to spend the money of studs anyway to finish off the interior. You will also have to have trusses, or rafters 2 feet apart for a ceiling, so that negates the cost savings of a pole barn or metal building. With stick framing, everything is simple and straight forward. If you go with pole building, or metal building methods, then you are converting, modifying and adding materials to make those types of buildings more like a stick framed building, which will cost more money and time.

If a pole building or metal building is already built, then converting them are easy, but if you are starting from scratch, then stick building is going to be the most cost effective.

I am currently building a cabin on our rural property. Actually, I have been working on it since October. Initially I thought a metal building would be cheaper but like you said as I really looked at the cost to finish it out the cost savings went away. For my uses the traditional stick built cabin with Hardiplank siding looks better than any metal building I could have gone with.