Who's ordered from steelbuildings.com

[StinkBug]

I did a bunch of searching and noticed a few people have gotten steel buildings from this place. The web site is awesome, and the interactive online buildup is pretty damn cool. I've got a number of questions though. How was your experience, would you order from them again? Did you put it up yourself? If so how difficult was it? Do they send the construction plans ahead of time? What kinda lead time are we lookin at for delivery? Also what kind of plans do they give for the foundation? What size buildings did you get?

I'm planning on goin fairly all out, with a 40x80 and adding a number of interior rooms including a second story apartment. The plan is to have the foundation poured and do the rest myself, with the help of some friends of course. I'd really like to know what I'm getting myself into.


Thanks everyone

Dallas

[ZukIzzy]

I bought mine from united steel and would not do it again. I don't know about steelbuildings.com.

They do send the plans first and usually require you have it approved and permited before they will ship the building.

They are pretty easy to assemble I did my 40x60 with only 1 guy to help me for 2 days. we set the skeleton and I sheeted the whole thing myself in a week. I take that back my 12 year old daughter helped hand me stuff.
I recomend a forklift of some sort for the moment frames and loading the sheets on the roof. other than that lots of sunblock and gatorade for the hours in the sun.

there are a few thing that help it look better like drilling the stack of sheets to have the screws line up and the insulation can be a pain till you learn how to do it.

Wayne

[StinkBug]

so why would you not do it again?

[ZukIzzy]

so why would you not do it again?

United steel has these leaders for a great price on a steel building in the local penny saver or thrifty nickle or whatever the free classified paper is in your area. I was stupid enough to bite on one. the price they quoted was without doors even though they do include the dooropening and when selling you they indicate there are 2 12x12 door openings and 1 walk in. But they are just that OPENINGS no f-n door. also it is a bare building no gutters downspouts vents and the closure strip (moulded foam to close the ends of the panels) was all extra. the sale price was 12K but they put such a mark up on the extras the final quote was aroung 20K. Like I said I have a freind that builds high end buildings so I told united steel to keep all the extras and just send the Base building. then had my freind Tom order me the downspouts trim skylights and all that stuff. I bought my doors from Janus International in santa fe springs the extras that were around 8K ended up costing just over 2K $800 of that was the doors.

The biggest problem was that riverside county at least in my area wants to see alot of detail for not only the building but the site grading footing and access plans and engineering on all of them. The building plans passed easy no problems but United steel wanted to charge me 5K to do the extra plans the county wanted. I had a local guy do them for $800.

I ordered my building in april 03 and they promissed it by the end of June they didn't shipp till the last week in august and then wanted to charge me an extra delivery fee cause I could not be there the day they wanted to deliver even though it was a day before they said it would arive from the factory. I had agreed to be there with a forklift on like the 21st and they called on the 19th saying it will be there on the 20th you better be there with the fork. I told them I could not and to pound sand on the fee. It showed up the 21st:D

In the end the kit was complete easy to assemble and I got the shop I wanted. I probly would have suckered in for more $ if they weren't such shisters about the upcharges. Turns out while talking to the truck driver most of what you buy is built at one of 2 shops and the skins and trim comes from one of 2 places no matter who you buy from most are just brokers. My buddy builds all the stuf in his shop and then orders the skins from McElroy in hisperia ca. but most of the guys you see are not custom like him they sell cookie cutters which is not bad. I would recomend using who you feel will return phone calls and will work with you to answer your questions and get the plans through check.

Oh one more thing. It is much easier to add on to a building with ridgid end walls then the ones with soft end walls. Ridgid ends have a structural moment frame just like the center bays with purlis bteween a vertical or 2 soft end walls use a bunch of purlins of different length bolted together. no real difference once the building is up and a bit cheaper but if you are planing to ad on..... I have soft end walls and wish I would have spent the extra$$$ now adding on is costing me more than I saved cause I have to have 3 moments made instead of 2

thats alot of typing for a fat finger guy
Wayne

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I can't get the website to work, anyone else having any trouble?

It comes up, but there are no links or anything, doesn't sound like the website you guys are talking about.

[void_of_light]

I havent bought a shop but I did buy a house from them. all in all it was a good experiance I only had 2 brackets that were not right both of them had been welded on backwards and all we did was redrill the holes. I got about 5 sets of prints up front once I paid the deposit. they have all the information you need to pour the foundation and put it up. We did 90% of the work ourselves with a front end loader equiped tractor and a rented set of scaffolds. I will probably buy my big shop from them in a few years once I have out grown my garage.

[D60]

thats alot of typing for a fat finger guy
Wayne

I thought it was a lot of good info.

Dallas, I'm assuming you found Camo's (former) shop when you searched, looks like he ordered from them:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260273

You're doing the right thing looking for reputable suppliers. When we first started looking we called probably 8 or 10 companies that advertised in the Thrifty Nickel or the back of Popular Mechanics, etc. Some of these places are aggressive, and you'll be getting calls for over a year afterward (no kidding). The only way to shut them down is to tell them you already ordered from someplace else, and even then I had salesman ask me who I ordered from and then want me to justify my position and tell me how I made a mistake. It's really kind of a sketchy industry.

[StinkBug]

yep I found Camo's build thread and it helped a lot to see how everything went together. I'm interested to see how much different a bigger taller building is to build, and what kinda equipment I'll need. I saw that Camo was usin a pretty standard forklift, but with 18' eaves I'm thinkin I may need something bigger. Seems like most people on here have shops in the 30x40 area with 10-12" eaves. I'm goin for around 40x80x18.

Dallas

[ZukIzzy]

Dallas you can stand a 40X80 with 18' eves with a 6k reach fork and a 19 foot scissor lift pretty easy. Invest in a couple good screw guns that will handle a 5/16" tech screw and have a guy high and low for the sheeting. you can stand the skeleton in a weekend with a few guys to help and the roof goes a bit quicker with the scissor so I would keep it around till you are done. I wish I had kept one for a few more days to run the electrical. I didn't and kind of hacked in my electrical. which I will fix some day if that ever comes.

[StinkBug]

Thanks for the info on equipment. By reach fork do you mean the ones that look kinda like a big RC car with an arm with forks on the end? Not like the standard forklift that goes straight up, but with the telescoping arm that angles up and stretches out to get the height?

Dallas

[ZukIzzy]

Yeah thats the one they are also known as Gradalls and petibones. those are some of the brands. Like any skidsteer is called a Bobcat. Let me know when you need them I get good rates from a local company and my salesman wheels so I know I can get him to give you equpment at my rate. thats a ways off though. are you looking in north county or what?

Wayne

[StinkBug]

Yeah right now I'm lookin in the east escondido, bonsall, fallbrook, and poway areas. thanks for the info, I'll definitely let you know when/if this all happens.


Dallas