[bob1112]

We really need to put up a building but to cost is killing us. Our target building is 80x120x18. I have a friend with a "legit" deal on a steel free span building on an 80x150x18 with 2:12 for 57K to my door. We plan to put living quarters in the building as well. Total price to get this building up will be around 147K with me doing a bunch of the work like standing the structure but subbing the sheeting.

We recently started looking at wood because we CAN free span the 80ft and we can make our own trusses and stamp them. I am coming up with a price for all wood at 80x120x18 at around 100K. A HUGE cost in the building is the damn sheeting on it at 1.00/sf min. We are very open to more economical solutions. The biggest question right now is will I be happy with a stick build or if that steel building will make me grin 10 yrs from now.

I think the steel building will present some challenges in building a living area in it against those walls and getting the windows where I need them. Modding the building is just not as easy. On the stick build, I am looking to just do standard stud walls and not a pole barn because of the eventual rot in the poles over time. Just not sure on this one. We have not looked at engineering loads on the wood building yet. Also have to consider that we need about an R35 in the rook and R19 in the walls.

Can anyone offer some real world experiences here? putting 100K in a building right now will be a stretch anyway because of the land cost going into this as well. the 147K gets even tougher but I know that building is a good deal. That being said, sometimes you gotta draw the line.

Anyone have recommendations on sheeting suppliers, designs, etc? That seems to be a big cost in this but I know skimping too much here could cost me down the road.

[lerman]

I suspect that the only reason that you think modding a steel building is harder than modding a wood building is that you are not as familiar with the technology.

Once you become more familiar with it, you might change your mind.

(I have absolutely no evidence of this, of course. But it's something to think about.)

Ken

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

viper6383, Can you legally have living quarters in an industrial building in the area you plan on doing this? Many places have fire regs. that won't let you do that. Also consider liability insurance in that situation.

Do you intend to employ overhead lift/crane? If so, there will be engineered footings and reg. approvals for them. Also, that will reflect on the building structure. An overhead travelling hoist requires cross bracing to prevent parallax (so the building doesn't end up looking like a Chevy bow tie)

IMHO you'll be better off in the long run with a steel building designed with future expansion in mind.

Dick Z

[bob1112]

The building will be a residential with storage. I will have a conditional sue to run a small home business there. We honestly will only need about 20% of the building for that. You bring up a good thought on the crane. I had considered a crane but thought it might be too far out time wise for me BUT... I am using this building as more of a stepping stone and will be taken over as just a garage once we grow enough to build a dedicated use building.

As I understand it, even with the steel building, it would have to be re-engineered for a crane or at least the footing. I really doubt we would get into 4x12x1ft plates of steel or Al anytime soon.