Homemade Metal building plans?

admin

Hello,I was wondering if anyone knew where to find some plans to build a metal building out of square tubing. Looking for a 20'x30' or something in that area? I would like to be able to buy the raw materals and make it. Not a kit that bolts together. I'd love to be able to weld up the sides and such in panles and then set them in place when done. I cant find any websites with plans for sale to do this. Everything is pre fabraicated so it seems...I saw and kinda like the post a while back about the two car garage that the guy welded up, but it wasn't engineered at all. I want and need something like that, but designed and engineered..Any one know of any??thanks,
Reply:600 sq. ft will generally require a permit.  Permits require plans, and plans (often) require an engineer's stamp.  I am reluctant to stamp drawings where I am not certain that the welding will be performed the way I draw them.  I can only assume others are the same way.  I would gladly provide plans for a bolted building, depending on the location, but welded may not be an option (for me, anyway).
Reply:Have you looked at price metal vs wood.I think wood is alot less than steel.It is a lot faster to build with wood start to finish on a small building. I want to put up a shop about like you want to.I have all the used steel to do it I may sell it and buy wood. If you want to go steel you can by a kit cheaper than you can build it your self.
Reply:http://www.muellerinc.com/products/building.phpJust call em up. They will cut you a deal. And work with you to get you what you want.Anything over 120sq feet has to be permited where I live.ThermalArc 161STL TIG/Stick (160amp)Lincoln weld-pak 100 (fluxcore)4X6 Enco bandsaw10" skillsaw with metal blade for 45degrees (works)4" grinderWeld for fun. Very rare I do it for Money.
Reply:Originally Posted by Old DougHave you looked at price metal vs wood.I think wood is alot less than steel.It is a lot faster to build with wood start to finish on a small building. I want to put up a shop about like you want to.I have all the used steel to do it I may sell it and buy wood. If you want to go steel you can by a kit cheaper than you can build it your self.
Reply:Ever think of a steel shipping container ? They are going cheap in this economy! Search the web for building with old shipping containers, there are quite a few things you can do with them.AEAD 200LE, Lincoln precision tig 185, Millermatic 251, Spectrum 625 extreme, Victor torch , Smithy 1220LTD. and  Do all C-4 band saw ,  Always adding.
Reply:You don't know any thing about building metal buildings but you want to build one out of tubing. Why? They are way too labor intensive and cost just as much as one built by conventional methods. I would suggest you look at other commercial metal buildings and copy them, using the same spacings with the same size and type metal. The only difference is you are welding it up.Here is a building that is just a little smaller than what you want but done in conventional methods. It was done in a city and passed all building codes. It took two half days to completely build it. It could have been done faster but I'm old. Attached Images
Reply:Originally Posted by houseoffireEver think of a steel shipping container ? They are going cheap in this economy! Search the web for building with old shipping containers, there are quite a few things you can do with them.
Reply:Hi:Now, these are economical!http://www.armourmetals.com/pole-barns.htmlJeff
Reply:I had my shop built about 5 years ago. Its a 20x30 metal building. With having the dirt work, concrete, building put up, electric run, and installing my aircompressor I ended up just under $12,000 ready to use.
Reply:Bob if a guy made a list of steel he has on hand would you tell him if he could make some thing out of it ?
Reply:Originally Posted by Canoe2fishyou could use 2 - 10' high shipping containers, paralell to each other but say 25' apart. By used steel trusses and put a roof over it. Close in the ends as you see fit or cover the whole thing in metal siding, add a concrete slab... viola, a 25 x 40 shop space with storage space on either side
Reply:Originally Posted by yakdungJohn Wells has done it in West Texas:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6dwwXGwwi3...0/eastview.jpgYakdung
Reply:Originally Posted by Old DougBob if a guy made a list of steel he has on hand would you tell him if he could make some thing out of it ?
Reply:The metal I have is C purlines,I and h beam, pipe and bar jouses.I know that some materials would not be good because of time and money. I am a scraper and I have saved stuff back that I mite use to build with .I know it usaly takes longer to build trying to us stuff you have.I dont wanting to build a building out of stuff that is not used in buildings I need to know how my stuff mite be used.
Reply:Building lots of things out of shipping containers these days.Starbucks Cafe made of shipping containersMillermatic 200Hobart Handler 120Victor O/A & Ramco BandsawLincoln 225 ACSnapOn AD HoodMiller XMT304/22AHypertherm Powermax 1650 G3Lincoln Idealarc DC600 w/Extreme 12 VSMiller Digital Elite "Joker"
Reply:This may give you some ideashttp://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/extension/...torage%20PlansLincoln SP135-TFirepower FP-235AC/DC
Reply:Originally Posted by yakdungJohn Wells has done it in West Texas:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6dwwXGwwi3...0/eastview.jpgYakdung
Reply:Fellows I strongly disagree...I am by no means a pro–or know it all. I am one of the direct owners of Oilfield Trash DNA being in my blood since 1956. I am building my own barn made out of 4.5" or 5.5" J 55 casing for vertical columns every 10 feet. I am going to make sure they are exactly 16 feet tall with 6-8 feet buried in plastic columns Filled with cement. I will tie the top horizontally with more of the 4.5" casing, crossing with an x pattern, then lay my floor on top of the Casing after cross connecting wall to wall and run one last run of casing through the casing at center of x saddling it in so the floor will lay level after going on up with the roof over my rather large loft. I will then start the roof which will be the same J-55 casing saddled into the horizontal sides with a Derrick pin driven through the hole that was cut into the saddle ears and the horizontal casing. After both sides have been welded and pinned and welded at top where both sides meet then we lay the 4 3/4" stripping twice measured from top of roof to screw the 26 GA. Barn steel to that will custom cut to be 16 feet long to cover the roof. NY barn is going to be 100' long and 80 feet wide with 16 foot walls at bottom and in the loft. I know you all are saying this is overkill....but the casing is free, the labor will be real low.....and the only real cost will be the 26 GA. Steel to cover the 32 foot tall barn. Men I am going to fill the loft with hay....the bottom will be fully plumbed for Storage of equipment, small office, small wash bay, small welding and Fab shop with 20,000 lb. Overhead Crane, 2 -15.5' x 25' hydraulic doors, one on each end. This barn should handle pretty strong winds, structure wise....The tin may take off, but I expect the frame to be there for a long time....Sent from my SGH-T959 using TapatalkLincoln 305GUnion Carbide TorchDon't Worry About the Mule~Load the Wagon!
Reply:Bump so I can find this later.Now I lay me down to sleep, by the bed a Colt I do keep.Should I wake and find you inside, a coroner van is your next ride.
Reply:I'm having a helluva time finding out if the 4" square tubing I got last week will work for my shop (columns and trusses. Trusses without webbing or additional bracing that is) All I'm finding is injuneer speak that's WAY over my head. Will it hold up purlins and tin or not? I'm thinking those crappy carports hold up with some flimsey 2" tin can metal, Why wouldn't 4" square work? Only thing that I'm hesitant/worried about is the 40' span. Anyone care to chime in?Now I lay me down to sleep, by the bed a Colt I do keep.Should I wake and find you inside, a coroner van is your next ride.
Reply:What wall thickness are you using for the 4"?  What is your truss design? Trusses with 4" Square tubing with no internal bracing will not be suitable for trusses in a 40 span.How far apart are placing the trusses? What is your location so we can see if there to be a snow load issue? How tall will your walls be? What spacing will the columns be? Hand drawings would be OK to see what your plan is.ChrisAuction Addict
Reply:Structural steel welding is a thing that even recently isn't exactly worked out very thoroughly.  You'll find whole books devoted to finding new ways to weld the frame work of large buildings.  There's still much more understood about the behavior of rivets and bridge bolts and while tons of one hundred year old buildings and bridges are still as structurally sound as they were when first built, their welded replacements are failing and on the verge of despite being half the age.For the same reason you don't see cast bicycle wheels, you'll see very few rigid welded structures over a certain size.  Thermal expansion, fatigue cycles and corrosion are all factors that need to be recognized.  Steel has poor strength in compression when compared to other cheaper building materials.  Most buildings operate purely in compression, being held up mostly by gravity.  So unless we're looking at an engineered structure using trusses, hyperboloids, geodesics or some other weird ****, then there's little advantage and many disadvantages.However, there's much to be said for small steel structures and I know there has to be many weight saving and time saving possibilities imaginable.  There's also the reality of recyclability, where a steel frame can be easily designed to be taken apart and reused, or just cut up and made into something else (just go to any farm to see this in action) as well as ultimately taken to the recycler and sold for scrap. These last advantages are rarely considered when discussing steel as a building material, even today when great difficulty is sometimes taken to reuse many things from buildings that have outlasted their use.You'll find engineers want even less to do with homebuilt steel buildings than homemade trailers.  There is a strange thing where because of familiarity, you will find many plans for amateur construction of wooden structures, some for block and pretty much none for metal.  I think a lot has to do with when steel fails it is nearly aways blamed on design rather than execution.  Where a crap *** weld can fail on the highway and potentially cause fatalities, there is a good part of the last century built on litigation of structural failures blamed on steel.  So unless it's built like a WWII German flak tower, expect a fair amount of math to be involved.  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse
Reply:the lincoln foundation has a book called farm arc welding. in the edition i have it shows plans for fabricating steel framed buildings with tubular/angle truss roof sections.i.u.o.e. # 15queens, ny and sunny fla
Reply:Originally Posted by milomiloWhat wall thickness are you using for the 4"?  What is your truss design? Trusses with 4" Square tubing with no internal bracing will not be suitable for trusses in a 40 span.How far apart are placing the trusses? What is your location so we can see if there to be a snow load issue? How tall will your walls be? What spacing will the columns be? Hand drawings would be OK to see what your plan is.Thanks for the info. This will not be an engineered structure. It's just one step above soap stone drawings on the floor. Now I lay me down to sleep, by the bed a Colt I do keep.Should I wake and find you inside, a coroner van is your next ride.
Reply:Cool. Got a link by chance?Now I lay me down to sleep, by the bed a Colt I do keep.Should I wake and find you inside, a coroner van is your next ride.
Reply:Ok, This is what I came up with.I'm thinking about taking out the cross brace and replacing with 1/2" cable.Now I lay me down to sleep, by the bed a Colt I do keep.Should I wake and find you inside, a coroner van is your next ride.
Reply:We used part of an old highway bridge for columns and rafters. Then purchased some z-purlins.  Put them  on 5 ft centers to hold the metal.  Worked pretty good gave us a shop / storage bld 60  x 100 with 18 ft walls
Reply:Originally Posted by richeyWe used part of an old highway bridge for columns and rafters. Then purchased some z-purlins.  Put them  on 5 ft centers to hold the metal.  Worked pretty good gave us a shop / storage bld 60  x 100 with 18 ft walls
Reply:I will try to get photos on my I phone tomorrow or first of week if I go to shop/barn.   We used 18 inch Wide Flange Beam from the bridge for the vertical column and the 60 ft long rafter. The front column is 22 feet high and the back column is 18 feet high. We spaced them on 25 ft centers. We have 5 sets of bays built like this. Then we placed on 5 ft centers z purlings for the roof.   We added a center wall with a door at the midway point.  i.e. our building is 60 ft x 100 feet with a divider making it a combination of 50 x 60 and 50 x60 .  One 50 ft bay has two used 16 x15 roll up doors with wains coat metal from a scrap yard. Plus a concrete floor.  The other section is also 50 x60 with two used roll up doors in the front and one on the end. This section has a 10 deep gravel floor that dozers and track hoes , etc can drive on with out damage to concrete.   We use the end with concrete floor for shop ( which has several of my sons vehicles ) and the other side for storage tractors, trucks. junk and more junk.  We insulated the building with 3 inch insulation.  We used new metal for the roof and old barn metal we had from a torn down commercial building. ( A mistake)  We should have bought new metal for the front , ends and sides.    Also on one of the 60 ft ends where the graves floor was located we installed a  16 x14 used roll up door so we could drive in to the building from the end.   We have a total of 6 doors   . 4 on the front along the 100 run.   one door on the 60 foot end and one door in the middle divider in the center of the building so if we had to we drive something in 100 ft long.    My son , father in law , dad and I  build the building in 2003.   It doesn't look like a lot because of all the junk in side and out side.but it has served it purpose.  We will this spring completely clean out the building and haul off a lot of the junk outside.
Reply:I might add we used all new tin for the roof and the used materials was on the sides.
Reply:Originally Posted by Joe Bill MoadFellows I strongly disagree...I am by no means a pro–or know it all. I am one of the direct owners of Oilfield Trash DNA being in my blood since 1956. I am building my own barn made out of 4.5" or 5.5" J 55 casing for vertical columns every 10 feet. I am going to make sure they are exactly 16 feet tall with 6-8 feet buried in plastic columns Filled with cement. I will tie the top horizontally with more of the 4.5" casing, crossing with an x pattern, then lay my floor on top of the Casing after cross connecting wall to wall and run one last run of casing through the casing at center of x saddling it in so the floor will lay level after going on up with the roof over my rather large loft. I will then start the roof which will be the same J-55 casing saddled into the horizontal sides with a Derrick pin driven through the hole that was cut into the saddle ears and the horizontal casing. After both sides have been welded and pinned and welded at top where both sides meet then we lay the 4 3/4" stripping twice measured from top of roof to screw the 26 GA. Barn steel to that will custom cut to be 16 feet long to cover the roof. NY barn is going to be 100' long and 80 feet wide with 16 foot walls at bottom and in the loft. I know you all are saying this is overkill....but the casing is free, the labor will be real low.....and the only real cost will be the 26 GA. Steel to cover the 32 foot tall barn. Men I am going to fill the loft with hay....the bottom will be fully plumbed for Storage of equipment, small office, small wash bay, small welding and Fab shop with 20,000 lb. Overhead Crane, 2 -15.5' x 25' hydraulic doors, one on each end. This barn should handle pretty strong winds, structure wise....The tin may take off, but I expect the frame to be there for a long time....Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
Reply:Ok fellows I went over to the farm today to get some photos of the metal building with the i phone will try to figure out how to post photos please excuse the junk.
Reply:Scott young. Could you share with us how you are going to do your hydraulic doors.   I'm still working on trying to get my photos loaded.   Can't get them off the phone.   Will post as soon as I get to work
Reply:Here are some photos showing the beginning of our building.  We welded clips to the 18 in wide flange beams to bolt the z purlins too.   Was in a hurry to get the building up and we didn't prime or paint the 18 inch WF Beams.  By the way it weighs 50 lb per foot.   I know I know why did we waste such heavy materials on a project.  Well to be honest it was basically free.  You use what you got.
Reply:More photos of the shop /barn/ notice the size of everything.  We used our crane truck to set everything.  It was tough.  No winch and very hard to maneuver.
Reply:If you look close you will notice an older gentleman with out a hat sitting with his walking stick in the earlier photos.  That was my dad he help supervise the building.  Retired welder/pipefitter.  Died two years ago at 93.  Landed at Normandy Beach during the D-Day invasion.  Was in the Battle of the Bulge.  Found this out right before he died.  Most of his buddies didn't make it through the war.   The other old gentleman with the panama hat was my fatherinlaw  He was also in the war.  Also deceased.   These old guys from the Greatest Generation didn't ask for any attention.  They just did what they had to do .  I know this has nothing to do with the forum.  But we must remember them.
Reply:These photos are from my old camera chip. I still cant get the I phone to let me send the photos that I made today with the sides on and all the junk stored in and outside the building.  Will show them as soon as I can get them to work.
Reply:Installing walls and roof.  We used 3 inch insulation.  New tin on top . Old tin on sides.
Reply:Well it just occurred to me that I got so caught up in the metal building talk that I hijacked the thread.  I apologize.   If anybody wants to see the other photos please let me know.  at right. One fellow I know built a 40 x 60 using 8 inch beam for the rafters that  he bought as secondary materials. There is a lot of things thrown away in America that can still be recycled or used in various ways.
Reply:Cool pictures. I like the older Chevy crane truck .Miller xmt304,  Miller S22 p12, Miier Maxstar SD, Miller 252 w 30A, Miller super32p12, Lincoln Ranger 9, Thermal Arc 181I with spoolgun, Hypertherm 10000 ,Smith torches. Esab 161lts miniarc.
Reply:Its a 86 model C70 with 8025 IMT hydraulic crane.  Still performs pretty good.  EX-rail road truck with 15 ft steel bed and hyd. outriggers.
Reply:Looked older, but that body style was the same for 13-14 years. Looks good though.Miller xmt304,  Miller S22 p12, Miier Maxstar SD, Miller 252 w 30A, Miller super32p12, Lincoln Ranger 9, Thermal Arc 181I with spoolgun, Hypertherm 10000 ,Smith torches. Esab 161lts miniarc.
Reply:Thanks don't know what we would have done without it.
Reply:If you don't mind me asking, what was you out of pocket expense for the project?
Reply:If your going to build a small shop just go and order one those Carolina Carports.  Their on tons of build threads where people have ordered the carport and then closed in the sides themselves.
Reply:Jlames.  I will do some checking on the cost from some old notes.  Building has been up close to 12 -13 years as we didn't add doors for a few years.  With 6 16 x14 roll up doors some used  , half the building with concrete floor  electrical a salvange from a couple torn down building. I'm thinking about 28,000$. We didn't count any of our personal labor. We had some purlins from a torn down building and the side tin was just hauling cost.  It's kinda rag tag needs paint on outside walls now. But the building is tall enouh to raise crane truck inside and handles far dozer and trackhoe  on gravel floor side ok.  About 5.00 per square ft
Reply:Thanks richey.
Reply:Just finished building this. 8" open cee(reciever channel) all the way around. Sitting on 4x4 1/8" wall sq tubing. 8" Cee plugged in and welded top and bottom. No clips. 4" Cee for girts on sides 6" Cee for girt on the back wall. Structure is 24x30. 25' is max span for 8" Cee according to meuller.