Metal Buildings, what's your experience?

[Steve B]

I want to get a metal building. I called contractors. For a 1500 sf building, they want $55,000 to $65,000 for a total job.

I have found building packages that size for around $15,000, and that was from name brand major suppliers.

I see ads all the time in the paper for metal buildings that someone cancelled, and they are going to sell this package "really cheap." I tend to not believe these, or figure they are selling these 300 x 600 buildings in the paper trying to get in the people who want smaller buildings, and they switch them to another package. (I have also seen car dealerships that say their buyer has bought thousands too many of certain cars, and I don't believe that either.)

Has anyone built or had built an approximately 1500 sf metal building, and what were the costs? Headaches? Warnings?

My slab will take about 30 yards of concrete, plus some wire and rebar. I think that would be $7,000 tops with concrete and labor. Flat work is flat work, and extra on top of that. Any awnings or lean to roofs would be additional, too.

Bottom line, I think I can do it for half or less than what they want. I can weld, and have steel erection experience. What do you think?

Steve

[Pete C.]

Why would you even consider contracting anything beyond the foundation? It's an excuse to rent a telehandler and have a BBQ with your buddies at the very least. With the foundation properly completed, a telehandler and several competent friends I can't see basic structural assembly taking more than a day.

[Steve B]

I have some medical "issues" which are beginning to limit me. A couple of my ships have arrived in port, and things are good financially. STILL, it was all I could do not to laugh in the guy's face that told me $65,000 for the building. I was a steel erection contractor, did some fast math in my head, and said, "That leaves you with more than $30,000 clear profit." He didn't like that, and started explaining about all the "engineering costs, permits, blah, blah, blah." He didn't even have the balls to say, "I'm in business to make money", which is what I would have said.

But still, I'll get out there, find a band of buddies, fire up the barbecue, provide lots of food and drinks, and Git-r-done. The extra thirty thousand will more than pay for a car lift, a complete Plasmacam system, flatwork all around, some leanto awnings for shade, and LOTS of trick tools and gadgets for the inside of the shop. Probably a few grand left over to go relax at Mazatlan for a few weeks, too.

Do these people think you can't even operate a calculator?

Steve

[Pete C.]

Your excuse to remain comfortably in the operators seat of the rented telehandler :)

Lucky you, I think my ships capsized in a storm and dumped my containers of loot in the middle of the ocean.

Unless you're looking for something odd, those buildings should all be pre engineered so it's just permits and labor. Certainly he's got to have a profit margin, but he doesn't need to buy a new boat entirely on your jobs profit.

Exactly, gotta have stuff to put in the new building, or perhaps upgrade it's HVAC.

I expect so, and with recent "graduates" of our "educational" system I expect they are correct. The latest batch can't even figure out the mileage their car is getting.

[Steve B]

"Pete C." wrote

I have run forklifts for a lot of years, and up to a 60 ton crane. Looks like I could handle some small trusses and whatever else had to be hoisted up with these.

Why do that? Nowadays, the cash register tells you how much change to give, and if you push a button, there's a mpg indicator on most cars. You DO have to be able to read the manual, though.

Steve

[Pete C.]

Yep, models available with plenty of reach and lift capacity. Common items at United Rentals, Nations Rent, etc.

Several recent incidents I've heard of:

A "gifted" high school students with no idea how to use a ruler. Didn't they teach that in kindergarten?

Several "gifted" high school students with no idea how to use a socket set. I don't care if you've never used one before, common sense should dictate that the square thingy on the long thingy might connect with the square recess on the small round thingies.

Someone well out of high school who thought their new truck got better mileage than their old one because they put less $ in the tank each fill up. Completely missing the difference in tank sizes, frequency of fill ups, etc.

This whole country is generally doomed, I just hope it doesn't get too bad before my birth certificate expires...

[Goedjn]

No thinking involved. They know, from experience, that a sufficient fraction of the american consumers can't, won't, or doesn't care.

[David Martel]

Steve,

Ok, what's "a total job"? The building package, a concrete slab, electricity?, water and sewer?, site prep?, final lot grading? You don't say but you do need to know what you'll get from a "pro" job. You claim that the building package is $15000 but I think you need to check that. That may not be the retail price. The dealer may not sell you consumers at all.

Dave M.

[Al Bundy]

"Steve B" wrote in news:SDPXh.264982$ [e-mail]:

Personal true story (read it on the Internet...has to be true right?). Go to pizza joint. Bill is 16.21 and I go to register. Open wallet and start to pull out bills. First a 20. On the ball HS kid sees me pull it out and punches 20.00 into register. Then I pull out a $1 and give him that and .21 so I get a 5 back. He goes into toxic shock. Looking around at stacks of stuff near counter in total confusion. Finally he guesses and gives me back $4. I says I gave you the extra 1.21 so I could get a 5 back. He takes the four $1 bills back. Gives me back a $5 & a $1. Owner is a small business owner and good friend. I give him back the buck and tell him only supposed to get $5 back. He goes into tilt mode and just stuffs buck back in drawer. Probably thought I was a flim-flam artist.

But then at that, we, the Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida crowd, are running the country today...:-(

[Steve Barker]

My 30x40 was $16,500 with the slab.

SEVENTY yards??? How thick you planning on having that 1500sq, ft? 4" thick would only require 18 yards.

is who did mine, but they are limited to about

400 miles around Garnett, Kansas.

[aspasia]

I'm told that at fast food places like McDonald's, the cash registers now have PICTURES on them, since the kids can't read words like hamburger, coke, etc.

[Steve B]

It's just like elk hunting. All you need to end the season is one dumb elk. At $30k per building clear profit, I'd just be out there looking for the dumb elk, too. I'd even be happy doing one building a month.

Steve

[Steve B]

Dave, Dave, Dave. I have contracted three houses. I have done half a dozen remodels. I'm good at math. I can add. I was a licensed steel erection contractor in Nevada for nine years.

A project of this size is a small one. You break it down into categories. You figure out how long it takes and at how much an hour. I found half a dozen companies that would sell me buildings delivered on site with their forklift. As one guy suggested, I could get a group of four buddies together, or even four half assed workmen, and have it together in a week. I WOULD have a concrete contractor do the slab. Other than that, prefab metal buildings are just slightly harder than Lincoln Logs.

Your ideas about dealers not selling to consumers is laughable. When it comes to customers, they're about as choosy as crack dealers.

Steve

[Steve B]

Pardon my flatulence. IIRC, it came out to 28.8888 with a 6" slab, and I figured thirty with footers. I assigned a value of $70 per yard delivered, as I have not purchased concrete in a long time.

I knew there was a 70 in there somewhere.

Ya caught me.

Steve

[Edwin Pawlowski]

First, he said 30 yards, not 70.

How about footings? You'd have about 160 lineal feet and a 24" footing would take about 12 yards.

[mm]

I don't think that is the reason. I think that even for you and me a keyboard like that is quicker to use.

All words look pretty much alike. Even the difference in length isn't meaningful without actually reading the word. Pictures can be clearly and quickly unique.

They started having keys for items instead of numbers because that way the cashier doesn't have to keep track of price changes.

>

[mm]

Reminds me of the shiveled 80 year old guy who would proposition every woman he saw, on the street or anywhere. His friend asks, What do you do that for. How many women are going to say yes? "Even if it's only

1 in a 1000, it's worth it."

[Steve B]

That's why I'd let a concrete contractor do the slab.

I won't know how accurate all the cost estimates were until I'm done. I just know that doing some preliminary calculations, there's a lot of profit in there that would be just as warm and fuzzy in MY pocket.

Steve

[Steve Barker]

i was just figgering the slab. no footings on mine. Mine's a post frame. Floating slab.

[Goedjn]

I'm betting it has more to do with non-english speaking employees.