Metal Building/Garage Recommendations

I am in the long process of relocating to just outside of Concord, North Carolina, and looking to put up a 40’ X 60’ metal building. Can anyone give me recommendations on a good contractor that is trustworthy and fairly reasonable? I will definitely check references and take a look at a few previous installs. I will also check out with the BBB. Looking for experiences with putting one up and what to avoid and look out for. I have a recommendation for a concrete guy from a good source, but not sure if it is beneficial to have the contractor handle the whole thing so that there is less chances of a disconnect or misunderstanding.
One thing i heard is to have the pad exactly the size of the bldg so that the sides tuck down along the slab sides for no leaks. Really looking for contractor that you had a goid/great experience with, because i’d rather not pick them off the web.

Thank you.

Rules 1 thru 10: SINGLE SOURCE RESPONSIBILITY.

If not, you'll find yourself playing job superintendent / referee.

Depending on how handy you are, your time, and your wallet, a lot of it you can do yourself.
When I bought my place, there was a 30x40 pole barn shell, dirt floor.
Had concrete floor & roll-up door put in, did wiring, insulation, lights & a drop ceiling myself with a buddy.
Ran out of space in a couple years, so did a 20x36 - would've been bigger but had limitations (location, access, property line)
That one I did mostly by myself except clearing, setting posts & roof framing, and concrete.
Concrete after building was up, no floor leaks in either.

Probably wise to check other recent local projects and talk to building owners.
We did an addition at the last shop I ran - Steel Structures America - took forever, and difficult at every turn.
But a lot of folks had good experiences with them elsewhere.

I'm trying to figure out my dream shop. Steel or wood, but I don't see wood at 12 foot walls and 60 x 70, but we will see. Don't want to hijack your post so will at some point start a post to discuss.

There is nothing wrong with dividing up the work activities as long as they are sequential. What I mean by that is:

1) Initial Dirtwork - level area
2) Underground Plumbing - excavation, installation to code requirements
3) Concrete - forming, pouring using building supplier's setting plan and code requirements
4) Building erection - everything including doors, windows, insulation, etc.
5) Interior plumbing
6) Electrical

If you spread this out you can avoid the hassles of contractors running over each other. The critical contractor is the concrete contractor. If he can follow the building supplier's drawings accurately you are home free. Just my

I should add that there's a fair amount of threads on this topic in the archives.

Wood would be more expensive at those dimensions, especially today. Steel trusses can easily handle 60 foot span while lumber would require some "engineering" for that size of span. The 12 foot walls aren't a problem for either wood or metal but lumber would be expensive at today's prices.
For a shop that size you should hire an architect/engineer to put together a set of plans and then get it bid out by a couple of contractors. I had an architect help me with my shop design and he saved me from a bunch of mistakes.

I built my shop 36w x 80l x 14h due to the fact that I could use 2x4's for trusses for 36 foot span. I just built my dream home using a 60 x 100 x 20 steel building. 1735 sqft home 1200 showroom and 3000 garage. I hired a concrete contractor that did the slab for my shop and then a steel erector to put up the building. I had a good friend help with rough in plumbing. After building was up my girlfriends brother and I framed the house inside and she and I finished it. Permitted as a single family home in CA.

Having the slab built to plan is critical for these buildings but if you have a good resource from trusted friend, that is a great start. Some of the erectors also sell the buildings. I went with Heritage and worked with Scot. Building came in on one semi-truck. Good luck, Mike

Thanks for the advice so far…..good suggestions. I thought about floor heating pex but i was leaning toward split units for the 2400 sq ft. I have to do more research on this area though.

I have no idea what the weather is like in NC where you are going but here in ND it can get cold. I put AL-PEX floor heat in when I re-poured the shop floor. It has considerable advantages over any kind of forced air. Since the heat comes from the floor there are no cold spots, with an air temperature of 60 degrees and a long sleeve shirt it is comfortable, and when you open an overhead door, all your heat doesn't escape.

Put 4" of rigid insulation under the slab, this will help keep the heat in whether you use infloor heating or not.

Yes that is true. I did the radiant floor heat in my garage here in NY and it gas been great for 13 years. Very efficient, like you mention. It is 600 sq ft.
This new shop will be 2400 sq ft and will need a stand-alone heat/cooling unit. Too far from house to plumb hot water. So, i was figuring the split unit to do both. Otherwise, i’d need a boiler/heater for the heating water, and a separate ac unit. I can still consider radiant if there is an economical way to do both.

Thanks for the advice. I will look into that. I think i used 2-1/2” or 3” under the NY slab. And at the sides too.
Thx

Just a thought. This was pointed out to me by a friend in the metal building business. Avoid the "left over" buildings for sale. Here we have to worry about "snow load". The adjoining town, and north, have a higher predicted snow load than my town. Inspector will check such things before allowing erection. In short, a "left over" building, while cheap, may not meet code for your area; they are not universal.

Great point….thanks for reminding!

About a month ago I noticed a metal garage about two blocks from me. The guy was outside today so I stopped and we talked for probably 15 minutes. From what both you guys and he have said, I need to look into a metal building for myself. The stick garage just isn't going to happen with today's lumber prices.

So this guy used a company called Bargin Barns USA. Google Chrome does not work so well on their website. Edge works fine.

I didn't quite understand part of what he said about the company other than maybe if one of their company outlets is not in your area, they contract the job out to their specs. He was really happy with their work and recommended going with 12 gauge steel.

They pull the permits including engineer prints.

I've been plotting / planning my building for a few months now. I started with the enclosed metal carport option expecting it to be least cost and it came out to about $21 per sq ft. After getting tired of dealing with those companies, I looked in to metal sheaved pole buildings and found that the exact same building comes out to about $24 per sq ft. About a $3k difference for what I've got planned.

Some generalized observations:

Very few metal buildings are actually sold directly by the manufacturer. Most seem to use an independent dealer model which results in 10 different web sites actually selling the same product. I also highly suspect that if you buy from company A in say TX, they'll resell the job to company B in say VA because it cuts down on delivery cost. Not necessarily a terrible thing as ya pretty much end up with the same building but seems at least a bit shady in the way it's marketed. I've also had varying results with different resellers of the same building. One outfit that was trying to close my job before the end of the quarter resorted to bad mouthing the other vendor I was considering. The other anxiety is playing russian roulette with the install team they send out which are also independent contractors.

Pole buildings seem to be generally erected by the company you bought them from. They may be all following the same blue print but there is something to be said for dealing with one local-ish company vs rando middlemen. In general, they've been striking me as a lot less sleazy than the metal building outfits.

Metal building companies want absolutely nothing to do with your building permit, site prep, or concrete floor. They just want to take the order, ship the cookie cutter parts and send out the nearest contractor to put it up. If you know what you're doing, not a completely terrible thing and likely cuts the cost. I mean I think I'm smart enough to pull a permit, hire an excavator and a concrete guy. The thing that annoys me is that they won't give you the drawings you need to pull the permit until you put a deposit down. To me that just opens the door to my deposit going poof. I may not be the best gauge as I don't trust anybody.

About 20% of the pole building outfits I've been looking at will pull the permit for a fee and others have sent me unstamped drawings during the bid process. They all seem to have established relationships with concrete crews and some will even do the site prep. The extra coin for a nicer building from somebody local and less options for it to go off the rails sounds like a fair trade to me.

One thing I've found with the metal building guys: they rape you on the garage doors. Standard issue doors on metal buildings are u-store-it style roll ups. If you opt for an actual door instead, they charge $5k to install the same doors you can pay home depot $2k to install.

I tried to work with Olympia outside of Pittsburgh and it ended with their salesperson telling me verbally to "get f*cked" when I quested their shady sales tactic. On two separate occasions I inquired about a basic garage design online only to get a phone call about "we just had someone cancel on one YYxYY that we'll make you a deal on". Both calls the alternative was the same despite being a year apart, so it must have been a standard size they liked to sell. When I asked how that could occur, and that I wanted a specific size and layout, the guy went off.

I highly recommend hiring a professional to help with the process. It is like hiring a real estate agent when buying or selling a house. You just need a pro in your corner who is working for you when you are dealing with a large construction project. On a recent project I hired a retired general contractor to help me out. He didn't charge a lot but he helped a ton since he knew who the good subs were, he knew the permitting process and he knew how to navigate the system. A few thousand bucks to the right person can save you a ton of money and frustration down the road.

Before deciding make sure you read every detail carefully, dot all the I and cross the all Ts
My house here in central Oregon had an existing pole barn on when we bought it in 2004, it that had one side 9.0 wide x 36 long section with a concrete floor, the center section was 16 Ft wide .x 40.0 long x14.0 ft high inside with a dirt floor and the other section 7.0 wide by 36.0 ft long with a dirt floor had one side open to store firewood in.
None of the side 4x8 wood uprights had been treated to be sunk in concrete which is NOT good
I had to repair a bunch of them by cutting them off at the ground height and put in a treated wood section underneath them and make the concrete footers wider and deeper
I enclosed the one side, added concrete floors to the other two sections and added drywall and insulation along with skylights and windows, wired it for 110 and 220 V from the existing 100-amp box I wish it was 200 amp like the house but it isn't
I would like to add onto it but I probably won't at 77 yrs. old now, soon to be 78 this month I don't like the alternative
Planning well and making sure you know what you want in the shop before starting will help prevent future "Oh Sheet, I wish I had thought of those moments"
Good luck

make sure to build it twice the size you think you need.
it still won't be big enough......

Dat be TRUE

Big as you can. Plenty of electrical outlets. Plenty of lights. Heat and AC.

you can always wall off sections not being used on a regular basis. Also lowerin the ceiling where the height is no needed helps
A LOT with lighting, heat and A/C

Carolina carports did my Garage & shop, sold through Alans factory, I priced out others & this was in the middle, lots of options, I went with the 12g structure & 26g tin
This is the garage https://alansfactoryoutlet.com/

Shop just done