Metal buildings, from pad to roof

The frame is steel columns and rafters, tied together with purlins on the roof and girts on the walls, then skinned in ribbed steel panels. It bolts down to a concrete slab through anchor bolts set in the pour. Most buildings ship as a package from a building supplier: framing, sheeting, trim, doors, fasteners, and the drawings that go with them.

The package leaves out the ground, the slab, and the crew to stand it up. That's our part. We walk the site with you, set the corners, build the pad, get the slab formed and poured with the anchor bolts where the drawings put them, and erect the building.

One crew on the whole job pays off at the handoffs. The pad has to drain, the slab has to be square and level, and the bolts have to match the frame. When the same crew owns all three, those handoffs get planned instead of argued over.

On acreage, the usual building is a shop or equipment barn: somewhere for the tractor, the trailer, the truck, and the tools, with room to work out of the weather. Others go up as hay barns, horse barns, covered parking, or a building for a small business run off the property. For barns, loafing sheds, and covers, see shops, barns, and covers. Planning to live in it? See barndominium shells.

Where the building sits changes the paperwork, so we sort that out first.

Size it to what goes inside, not to a brochure. 30x40 and 40x60 show up on plenty of shop brochures, and both work on a lot of places. But a gooseneck and a tractor with a loader need a different door and eave height than a bass boat and a workbench. Tell us what you'll park and do in there, and we'll help you plan the layout and size.

Clear span comes next. Most shop-size buildings span more than 24 feet with no post in the middle. Longer spans call for manufacturer-designed roof framing. Your building supplier provides the drawings, and we build to them.

Your building supplier ships the package: frame, purlins and girts, wall and roof panels, trim, doors, and fasteners. Smaller buildings and covers run tube-steel frames. Larger shops run welded I-beam frames. Panel gauge, profile, and color get set when you order. Ask your supplier for the manufacturer's stamped drawings for the building you pick. The slab gets formed and poured, and the frame goes up, to those drawings.

Most problems start at the slab. Vendor guidance from AA Metal Buildings calls for at least 4 inches of concrete for a garage or workshop, 5 to 6 inches where tractors, lifts, or equipment will sit, and 3,500 to 4,000 psi concrete. The same guidance says to slope the ground about 5% away from the slab and set anchor bolts within 1/16 inch of the building plan. Your building's drawings and the site set the final numbers.

Under the slab is the pad, and the pad is dirt work. Parts of the county have clay subsoils, so the pad gets built up and drained, not just scraped flat. See dirt work and building pads for how we build one.

It starts with a walk. We look at where water runs, where the drive comes in, and what's underground or overhead. Then we lay the building out and set corners with you standing there, so you see it on the ground before any dirt moves.

The last screw doesn't finish the job. You need a way in during a wet spring, somewhere for roof water to go, and usually a fence or gate around it. We do fence and land work on the same place, so those get planned with the building, not after it.

The drive and the apron at the big door come first. A gravel drive with a culvert where it crosses a ditch keeps trucks and trailers out of the mud. A lot of water comes off the eaves, so the pad slopes away and the low side gets somewhere to drain.

If the building sits in a pasture or a yard with stock, we can fence around it and hang a gate wide enough for the tractor. Pipe fence and pipe gates match a ranch entry. See pipe fence.

Buildings grow. A lean-to off one side for parking or hay, or a cover off the end for a trailer, is a common way to add room. If someone else put the building up, tell us what you need and we'll say whether it fits. Any add-on starts with a look at the existing frame. A lean-to ties into the main frame, so the supplier's drawings for that building, or new drawings for the add-on, set how it attaches.

Storm damage, bent trim and panels, and doors that won't close right are worth asking about too. Some of that is a quick fix. Some of it, like a frame that moved because the slab or pad moved, needs a closer look before anyone promises anything. Send photos and we'll say whether it fits.