Leaning towards a steel building. I've checked out steelbuilding.com and they seem pretty good. But I'd like to check out others as well. What other places offer well built steel buildings?

I want a 30 x 40 shop with a 10 x 10 roll up door, and it must be able to handle 118lbs. of snow per sq ft. per code.

This is a Canadian company. They should know about snow load. :D
They have online quotes.

www.norsteel.com.

Another...

www.norsteelbuildings.com

One more....

www.lclbc.com who distributes

http://www.americanbuildings.com/

Sorry about the Canadian content. :D

I am going to put one up at my new pad. E bay seems to have several vendors.

I've talked to the guys out in Lincoln for a shop of my own. Have no idea if they can deal with your snow load, but at least it's another place to check out. I'm having troubles getting to their website, but they're supposed to be at wescobarns.com

FreedomSteel.com

I bought my shop from them and have referall certificates that I will split with you if you buy from them, I think they were $250. PM me if you might be interested.

I did alot of shopping around and felt the most comfortable with them and their prices were very aggressive.

http://www.gensteel.com/currentspecials.htm

these guys

http://www.butlermfg.com/

go from mild to wild. they can engineer to meet your snow load no problem.

great quality, great engineering, nice product. im putting one up right now to house a chilled water plant with good results.

Check this out http://www.futuresteel.com


Turn your speakers on...

be careful with General Steel: http://www.aarpelderwatch.org/public/current_news/general_steel_lawsuit.html
and here:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/co_general_steel.html

Chief District Court Judge Brooke Jackson found that General Steel violated the state's Consumer Protection Act. "Beyond any legitimate question, General Steel for years engaged in sales practices that were riddled with misrepresentations and omissions," the judge wrote.


later,
rod
"stock" 85 Toyota Pickup

Insulate the floor and do in floor heat............

My home shop is a futuresteel building and after dealing with them on trying to get correct engineering drawings ( to meet my local codes ) and some replacement panels I would never do business with them again .... that being said it was fairly easy to erect and the whole building will fit in the back of a 3/4 ton Dodge and on a 16' car trailer ( yes I was overweight by a tad ......three dudes and a 40' by 28' building :shaking: )

the clear span is nice

Butler is usually priced out of this world, try http://www.metallic.com/main.htm Another good bldg is Varco Pruden Lance are you gonna put it up yourself ? The other option is a pole barn, it will probably be more economical.
The other thing to keep in mind about the metal building is the engineering for the foundation will be seperate from what the Bldg manufacturer supplies, so there is more cost and depending on the soil there the footings could be huge. What kind of construction is the firehouse there ?

oh yeah butler is fucking expensive as hell.

but their product is top notch, looks great, and they can engineer to any specs you want within the limits of physics :flipoff2:

maybe not so practical for the shop at your house, but i'd use butler if i could afford it any day.

also, there should be some local CCs that put up butler buildings, and they can give you the total package incl. site work, civil engineering, and everything else you could possibly need.

my 60x100 was a butler. guys that built it had never done a butler. they said it was the best they have done...

Go as tall as you can afford. If you can go 16'6" to the bottom of the rafters. Then if you ever choose you can make all or part a second floor. Also go with as big a door as you can afford. Most overhead doors require 2' higher than the door for the mechanism. So if you want a 10' door you need a 12' building. If you want everthing possible to fit in your building yopu should have a 14' door. The wider the better also on the door.this is my experience after building a 36'X48' metal pole barn. I went 14' high, should have went 16'6". I put in 3 overhead doors, one 12' 18', and two 12'X8'. The 2 small ones are to small and were a mistake. I did put a power opener on the large door and that is the best. Insulating the floor is a great idea if you ever want to heat it. I built an addition on my building and put 1" foam under the concrete and it is nothing to heat.