Steel Buildings

Right said:
Being a civil/ structural guy I can see the humor here.
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I have no background in contracting at all. None. All I know is I need a way to climate control a place on my property that isn't my basement because that just flooded two nights ago.
 
A "steel building" in the industry means a "pre-engineered" system of shop-welded plate steel frames, often free span and generally 20 to 30 feet on center. The frames are bolted to individual footings and a concrete slab-on-grade is poured for the floor. The roof and sides are supported perpendicular to the frames by rolled sheet steel "girts", typically 8" deep in a Z profile. Is this what you have?
 
Right said:
A "steel building" in the industry means a "pre-engineered" system of shop-welded plate steel frames, often free span and generally 20 to 30 feet on center. The frames are bolted to individual footings and a concrete slab-on-grade is poured for the floor. The roof and sides are supported perpendicular to the frames by rolled sheet steel "girts", typically 8" deep in a Z profile. Is this what you have?
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I don't know about the girts. I've got an 8,500 sq. ft. building, it looks like a small airplane hanger and it was pre-fab and dropped on a concrete slab. It leaks something awful. I need a roughly 200 sq. ft space to put some electronic equipment in and I have to be able to climate control the building. I'm not sure I can do that with my existing building. Maybe build another one is what I'm thinking. Steel seems to be what the contractors are pushing but maybe something else is better? I'm thinking cinder block maybe. Like I said, this is not my area of expertise.
 
Guille said:
I don't know about the girts. I've got an 8,500 sq. ft. building, it looks like a small airplane hanger and it was pre-fab and dropped on a concrete slab. It leaks something awful. I need a roughly 200 sq. ft space to put some electronic equipment in and I have to be able to climate control the building. I'm not sure I can do that with my existing building. Maybe build another one is what I'm thinking. Steel seems to be what the contractors are pushing but maybe something else is better? I'm thinking cinder block maybe. Like I said, this is not my area of expertise.
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Tell me more about the building, maybe show a picture.

The most common roof material is 26 or so gauge steel, corrugated sheets 3' wide. They span about 8' or so between the girts and are structural along with being the top surface to deflect rain. They are screwed to the girts through the ridges and the screws have gaskets. They are notorious for leaks, but can be easily fixed.
 
Guille said:
I'm considering something like that.
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The problem with that is creating a crawl space that you can access. If the steel roof leaks it makes it nearly impossible to fix.

We did this with a church in Linville NC. It was originally built as a steel building with an ugly hung ceiling and fluorescent lights. Once they built up the parish they renovated the inside with an exposed timber frame ceiling- a rather stunning interior now. But instead of a corrugated roof they have a standing seam metal roof. The standing seam system eliminates all exposed screws so it is one of the best, most leak-proof, roofs money can buy.
 
Right said:
Tell me more about the building, maybe show a picture.

The most common roof material is 26 or so gauge steel, corrugated sheets 3' wide. They span about 8' or so between the girts and are structural along with being the top surface to deflect rain. They are screwed to the girts through the ridges and the screws have gaskets. They are notorious for leaks, but can be easily fixed.
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I'm not worried about the roof, I'm worried about the walls. When I say leak I'm not just talking about water, I'm talking about humidity, ambient temperature. I don't get rain water coming in through the roof.
 
evince said:
either tear it down or fix the roof no matter what you decide
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I just heard from a contractor, who also happens to be my son, he told me to do basically what you said. He says I should put a climate controlled room in the existing building, preferably above ground level. Damn Evince, you got skillz!
 
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