# Steel Buildings



## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

I hope this is in the right Area

I am just about to close on commercial property to put our shop/ office on. My question is who has experience with steel buildings? Any particular company you have dealt with? US Steel? I plan on an 6,000 to 10,000 sqft building that will have the capability of expansion. The lot will be close to 3 acres so plenty of room. We will do all the dirt work and concrete. 

I have looked at a few local steel building companies just looking for others insight. 

We are in no rush as probably won't build till the fall or next winter just looking at options now.


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## cretebaby (Aug 23, 2008)

Why steel?


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## Jello1 (Jan 17, 2008)

Might want to check out pole barns as well. Less steel and more wood is cheaper out in PA. I assume it would be the same in Maine. Plus some of the big companies here get them done almost too fast.


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## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

cretebaby;1192591 said:


> Why steel?


I felt like steel was simplier and could get height inside a lot easier. I have a pole barn now and It is great but this will be a building I own and hopefully as the comapny grows can be be sold or leased so I want something durable and will hold value. This will be a building that is along a busy road so will the look is important as well.

I am open to anything. I just figured stick built would be inexpensive but the finishing part of it would be the expensive part.


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## albhb3 (Dec 18, 2007)

they both have there pros and cons just like everything else the nice thing is if you were to go clearspan its wide open on the inside.


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## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

albhb3;1192639 said:


> they both have there pros and cons just like everything else the nice thing is if you were to go clearspan its wide open on the inside.


That's what I want. I have been looking at building for lease to get an idea of what I want and I found what I want but the broker didn't know what type of building it was. It was 50' by 200, clear span with 16' ceilings and insulation, just simple is all I want. The kicker is the first 2 feet of the wall has to be stone or decorative concrete due to code.


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## Mdwstsnow512 (Dec 30, 2007)

Clearspan, "green" building incentives, 50 year warranty - not gonna get that on stick framed.

www.generalsteel.com 
best in the business. easy DIY install

im about to buy a building myself, been researchin for years. 
i just put up a stick frame for my dad, am going to go steel for myself. hands down.

Nate


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## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

Mdwstsnow512;1200051 said:


> Clearspan, "green" building incentives, 50 year warranty - not gonna get that on stick framed.
> 
> www.generalsteel.com
> best in the business. easy DIY install
> ...


Thanks for the info. This is exactly what I am looking at. The property I am looking at will accomadate a 20,000 sqft warehouse but wanted to start at 10,000 and add on in the future if need be. I need more outside storage than inside.

Do you know size, price and options of your building?


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## Mdwstsnow512 (Dec 30, 2007)

sky is really the limit. 

everything is custom made, any company that tells you otherwise is lying to you. they dont make buildings and hope to sell them. they may have specials to meet steel quotas. 

i can give you a number of a sales guy there if you would like, pm me for details. 
i can also get you some more info if you are ready to buy, again pm me for details. 

thanks
Nate


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## bacwudzme (Sep 13, 2009)

Im young and I can say only this, Morton makes the best steel buildings period. I can put you in contact with some notable people in our area that have Morton steel buildings, there not cheap but they back there buildings. On another note check insurance I did a quote on a 40x80 barn/shop in framing due to high insurance costs of metal he said I was 6500.00 more than a metal building mfg. (Idont remember the manufaturer he was going to use) 6500. is rooing? or even the 2 10x14 ft doors i would sub out?? He is on the Woodville rd so we both know he could wipe his a$$ with 100 dollor bills! If you go to the meet we can talk more about the Morton buildings!


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## snocrete (Feb 28, 2009)

bacwudzme;1213798 said:


> Im young and I can say only this, Morton makes the best steel buildings period. I can put you in contact with some notable people in our area that have Morton steel buildings, there not cheap but they back there buildings. On another note check insurance I did a quote on a 40x80 barn/shop in framing due to high insurance costs of metal he said I was 6500.00 more than a metal building mfg. (Idont remember the manufaturer he was going to use) 6500. is rooing? or even the 2 10x14 ft doors i would sub out?? He is on the Woodville rd so we both know he could wipe his a$$ with 100 dollor bills! If you go to the meet we can talk more about the Morton buildings!


Morton makes "steel" structured buildings? I thought they just did pole barn style buildings?


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## cretebaby (Aug 23, 2008)

bacwudzme;1213798 said:


> Im young and I can say only this, Morton makes the best steel buildings period. I can put you in contact with some notable people in our area that have Morton steel buildings, there not cheap but they back there buildings. On another note check insurance I did a quote on a 40x80 barn/shop in framing due to high insurance costs of metal he said I was 6500.00 more than a metal building mfg. (Idont remember the manufaturer he was going to use) 6500. is rooing? or even the 2 10x14 ft doors i would sub out?? He is on the Woodville rd so we both know he could wipe his a$$ with 100 dollor bills! If you go to the meet we can talk more about the Morton buildings!


Morton as the best advetising and salemen period. Nothing about their buildings are that great.


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## Mdwstsnow512 (Dec 30, 2007)

there buildings are not Steel structure, stick framed.

not the same as a steel clearspan structure.

from the outside they look pretty similiar, no- one out there can give a warranty of 50 years on wood and lumber, it may last that long but no one would warranty that. steel structures will last that long and longer.

dont let the sales reps sell you on something.

Morton, Cleary, Lester are all the same pretty much. are all nice buildings.

when it comes to steel, www.generalsteel.com is the best.

thanks
Nate


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## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

I have been dealing with General Steel actually have to call Andrew today and a local company Patco, long way from building but have to work out budget with the bank. Still trying to work out everything with the land and a lot of dirt work to be done. I care about price to an exent as I don't want to cut the budget short and compromise the look of the building as it is an investment as if I ever need to sell or move and lease it to another so it needs to look better than just a garage behind a house.


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## cretebaby (Aug 23, 2008)

Mdwstsnow512;1214034 said:


> no- one out there can give a warranty of 50 years on wood and lumber, it may last that long but no one would warranty that. steel structures will last that long and longer.


You can if you put it on a concrete foundation like you pretty much have to with a steel frame building. Build a steel frame building with the steel posts sticking in the dirt and see what kind of warranty you can get.


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## bacwudzme (Sep 13, 2009)

cretebaby;1213831 said:


> Morton as the best advetising and salemen period. Nothing about their buildings are that great.


Not a salesman and never even met a sales man.. One of my custumers Has a Morton he uses his for his ultralite "hanger" thats 27 years old it has no rust and its red with no fading.

I have a friend whos inlaws have a steel building from a magizene article, Its a indoor riding arena for horses thats filled with rubber chips?? (theraputic??) that they snow blow around and keep round bales of hay inside for storage and the place is rotting away on the southwest side. and the company says its lack of maintence..........

Now my parents neighbor has a Morton that is steel beams and some stick frame that is lets say 15ish years old and 4 winters ago when we had a cocker season the snow crinked and dented a whole wall (60ft) from snow building up the they said somthing to morton and that spring had a whole new wall installed from Morton.

So let me ask you, will you get the same servise from a company that you got from a popular science magizene or pay a little extra to have a Known name? Many people already shot Morton down so now we have Biased opinions like he wanted!!!!!

neuswede, Patco isnt bad ive actially done sub work for them replacing windows. A local company I do work for wanted some replacment windows (robbery breakin) and Patco did not have any men that could do it right away and I got the windows and Bent the aluminum and the I called one of the foremans for a quick question and I guess later that week the Forman stopped by and looked at it and was so impressed with the way I flashed the metal for the buildings I did a building for them in the Gorham indutrial park! then the Market collapsed and never heard from them again! Its to bad they payed like net 10 from me billing them.


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## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

bacwudzme;1214382 said:


> Not a salesman and never even met a sales man.. One of my custumers Has a Morton he uses his for his ultralite "hanger" thats 27 years old it has no rust and its red with no fading.
> 
> I have a friend whos inlaws have a steel building from a magizene article, Its a indoor riding arena for horses thats filled with rubber chips?? (theraputic??) that they snow blow around and keep round bales of hay inside for storage and the place is rotting away on the southwest side. and the company says its lack of maintence..........
> 
> ...


Defintely have to talk, would you be interested in being the contractor to do the whole building contruction. I will take care of the dirt work and foundation and already have a plumber and electrician but I need someone to actually contruct the building no matter which I go with. Patco is good but their numbers seem a bit out of this world.


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## bacwudzme (Sep 13, 2009)

NEUSWEDE;1214444 said:


> Defintely have to talk, would you be interested in being the contractor to do the whole building contruction. I will take care of the dirt work and foundation and already have a plumber and electrician but I need someone to actually contruct the building no matter which I go with. Patco is good but their numbers seem a bit out of this world.


Are you going to the "meet" on Saturday? If so we can talk then. Or we can meet up when ever. Ill help you as much as I can.

Does Patco want the concrete work also??????


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## NEUSWEDE (Mar 14, 2003)

bacwudzme;1214567 said:


> Are you going to the "meet" on Saturday? If so we can talk then. Or we can meet up when ever. Ill help you as much as I can.
> 
> Does Patco want the concrete work also??????


Yes I am planning on going to the meet.

Patco does want the concrete work to be done by one of their subs I think mainly so they can make money off doing nothing.


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## 4700dan (Nov 20, 2008)

Really Mortons, I just got a quote from them on a stick building an holy crap a 40x60x12 no cement was 49k unbelievable, so I went with Clear Span from FarmTek yeh they are a tarp building but it has galanized frames and a 25 year warentee on the tarp I got a 30x50x21 and a 30x80x21 we are building them ourselves with 4 foot pony walls all electric needed an cement in the small one all for under 30k this is the only was to IMO oh yeh each building has a man door and each has a track rite steel roll up over head door too payup


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## jomama45 (Dec 25, 2008)

NEUSWEDE;1214800 said:


> Yes I am planning on going to the meet.
> 
> Patco does want the concrete work to be done by one of their subs I think mainly so they can make money off doing nothing.


Not looking to fuel any fire here, but I'm fairly confident why they want to use their subs, and it has nothing to do with mark-up on the project. They know that their subs are well versed and experienced in the system.

We've done the foundations & masonry for a few in the past (we're actually laying a block veneer wall on one right now), and they're nothing like anything you'll ever come across in residential work. I've even done my fair share of small commercial through the years, and still find the foundations to be far more complicated than they need to be considering the light-weight aspect of the building sitting on top of it. I can only speak from my own experiences here in my locale, but if the engineering from the steel building manu. calls for cast in place anchors, you're in for a major learning curve, and possibly a few cases of anchoring epoxy. There's next to no variance on these things, which is difficult to accomplish with poured walls that "grow" when placing a few hundred thousand pounds of wet concrete in them.

As for the "performance" between stick or steel framed, all I'll say is price them both out & decide for yourself. I'm personally not overly impressed with the franchised steel buildings myself. They're just too lightweight of construction for a commercial building IMO. The one we're currently working on has the "latest & greatest" 2" thick structural foam wall panels, which are nothing more than a glorified garage door panel. It would be far easier to break into the building thru the wall than a window.

Good luck, and post some pics of the process.............. :salute:


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## MahonLawnCare (Nov 18, 2007)

farm teks are junk


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