I'm building a new shop. I was looking at regular pole barn construction but ran into miracletruss.com who use structural steel trusses instead of conventional wood, and wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with structures like these? Materials cost would go from $8K - $10K to about $12K - $15K. Worth it?

 

What kind of Climate where you live?

I would(no pun intended)prefer Steel anyday over wood.


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Most industrial buildings use metal. Is the sheet metal covering and parts some standard materials that you can get locally so if you get wind/hail storm damage it can be fixed easy or $pecial ordered? Do you ever think you will have a lift and need unobstructed head room? Can you make the pole barn type building nice and weather tight? Sometimes there are lots of gaps in those buildings that invite critters.

 

I put up a 30 X 45 Morton building. It is weather tight. Just remember you get what you pay for! Do lots of research & build as big as you can afford and make the ceiling high enough for a lift, someday you may want one.

 

How big of a building are you planning? What climate are you in?
Around here there have been a few failures due to snow loads in recent years. It always seems to be the steel framed commercial ones that fail.
Advantages of steel are that you can take it down and move it more easily than timber construction.
Local building codes have a lot to do with what you can build and how much it'll cost.
At work we have a 30x30x12' warehouse building thats wood framed and steel clad.It has 30' roof trusses so the inside is a clear span. It's about 15 years old now and looks as good as the day it was built.

 

I live in Spokane, WA. We have a true four seasons with a couple weeks in the winter below zero and a couple weeks in the summer about 100°. Rainy spring, windy fall. Snow comes and goes in the winter time and is usually not a huge concern, but code requires a 30 lb snow load and I can get either the steel or the pole barn with a 40 lb snow load (I like to over build just for those freak winters).

I need 10'x12' doors to get a trailer in, so the eaves will be 14'. I will plan on a lift in the near future, but with 14' of height I don't see a huge issue with clearance whether I have a truss member at eave height or a clear span at eave height with the metal building. Since I would like two seperate doors, eave height is the same on both buildings. The size I am looking at is 30' x 40', but I might extend a few of the truss's to 12' bays if possible for a 42' to 46' length. The actual length will be determined by the offset from the road (need a parking space in front) and the distance from the fence on the back side. I am adding a 3rd door on the back wall to back a trailer through the building so it can sit on a concrete pad just behind the building.

I was quoted 29 ga. siding on both buildings. The metal building did not come with insulation, but you can add regular house insulation after the construction. The pole building comes with 2" condensation insulation on the roof and walls, but I can add regular house insualation afterwards also.

Materials for the pole building are around $8, while the steel structure is $15K. I will not plan on moving the building in the future, so I doubt taking it down will be a concern. I am really leaning towards the pole style since it is substancially cheaper, I just want to make sure I am not missing anything obviuos here.

Thanks to all for your responses, and your future thoughts as well...

 

Dale
I am in the final stages of installing a miracle steel building(30 X 36). I have to say it cost more than a pole barn but was cheaper than a Morton building. Overall I am happy with it's construction. I was able to put it up myself in about 3 weekends(not including the slab) with the help of a couple of friends and some beer. One nice thing about this construction is that almost everything bolted together and there was very little to cut or size. Me and my friends have little to no building experience and we where able to follow the instructions supplied and the building came out very nice.

 

dale,

Don't be afraid of the pole building whatsoever. I used to be a crewman for Morton buildings and the structures are very good quality. Morton used (at that time) metal that was substantially thicker than the standard 29 ga. metal that most pole builders use today. The 29 ga. steel tho was a higher tensile product than Morton's own steel. I wouldn't be a bit afraid of using pole construction with either sheet steel. The structures can be made completely weather proof. Snow loads here in Iowa are probably as nasty as any and failures are few. We commonly built 60' wides (clearspan) up to a couple hundred feet in length and alot were built to handle grain storage which is especially demanding on the structure. Alot of different companies out there today besides Morton and many have quality structures. Alot of my buildings on the farm are pole construction and I built them myself. Good luck!!

Randy

 

http://www.gensteel.com/

Might check out their prices. I've heard Paul Harvey and Rush Limbaugh advertising them. I know they were selling them for up to 50% off.
If it were me I'd go with steel. Nice clear span interior and plenty of strength for a lift or hoist.

 

the steel building will transfer alot of cold, even if insulated, unless you use the insulation that goes between the frame and the siding...

as a firefighter, i'd rather see a wooden struckture anyday. steel looses it's strenght quite quickly in the event of a fire... just a pet pev of mine.. and i work with steel for a living...

 

 

A friend of mine built a 30x40 building about a year ago. Or had built. He had a local Mennonite builders put it up. I think total coast for structure, slab, and insulation was around $12,000.00 It was pole style and it is nearly as nice as my house. easier and more effecient to heat and cool. That I know for sure. I wouldn't hesitate one second to do the Polebarn style.


Scotty

 

Believe it or not, but I am making a 34' by 17' building with old 1 piece garage doors. The doors have 1" square steel frames, just drill and bolt together. Floor is 3/4" plywood on 2"x6" sub-frame. Through some T11 sideing on it looks great. Put a 8'x6' bay door and a regular front door on it. Holds up to a 72 f250 backing into it. Roof is pitched to the rear(no snow in Nevada, just a bit of rain). It all sits on some old 8"x6"s borrowed from an oldset of train tracks, sittin on 3"s of gravel. When it rains the water runs down between the 8"x6"s. Got a trap door in the floor with a big oil catcher under for the oil changes. Swamp cooler in the wall, electric heater in the corner. Doors lock from the outside and inside too (great get away from the "woman").:7