Anyone ever erected a metal quonset hut type building?

[oakiemac]

I bought a galvanized metal quonset type building. 40X40X20' high for $1000. Price was too good to turn down. The building was standing so I had a friend who is currently unemployed tear it down.
Now the fun begins-putting it back up. My plans as of now are to build the individual ribs which are about 4' wide on the ground  and then stand them up and bolt the ribs together. However the first 3 to 4 ribs will be very wobbly and unsteady so it might be very hard to bolt them up. I'm thinking about taking some 2x4's and kind of shoring the structure up with them until enough ribs are together to give it rigidivity.
Once up I plan on pour concrete along the two sides like in a 4x6 trough to keep it all together and keep the wind from blowing it away.
If anyone has ever erected one of these things or has any advice I sure would appreciate it.

[beenthere]

Can't claim to experience, but watched one go up by a man working alone. He used a hay bale wagon with the wood slat sides. Laid planking across the slats and just moved it along, as a moving scaffold. That fit quite nicely down the center.
But it depends on the 20' height of your building if such an idea might work for you. If not tall enough, maybe build a scaffold on top of a hay wagon ??

[donny hochstetler]

I built one of these some years back. You sound like you got the right idea, its a little wobly, till you get several stood up. I would set up some scaffolding in the middle, so that guy can help with a rope, to stand them up. We put our 32 x38 up in 8 hrs. But i had the hoops all bolted together, all we had to do was stand them up. Also get a measurement from floor to peak, and cut some 2x4 s, and prop those in every 5 or 6 ft. also put in all the bolts as you go, but do not tighten them up till every thing is square .I built my own ends , 2x6 studed walls.nice gray siding to match my house ,two garage doors in front, one in back . with a loft in the back end. I got a lot of comments . it is a very strong building ,sounds like you got a deal 8)

[isawlogs]

 Why do you want to lock it in ciment with a pour .. I think maybe you could bolt or weld some cussets to the sides and bolt/lag it to your ciment floor , such a way that it could if ever need be it could be taken down and moved ..
 
I scalffold shorring should do the tric .

  Nie find , I dont think I would of let it go by either .

[Wallys World]

I (we, my wife, mother and father-in-law, and 2 cousins) built a 35 X 56 X15. We tried to bolt the arches together and raise them but they were just too flimsy. We ended up using the scaffold and lifting one up then swinging the ends down to the floor and bolting it. We left it tied off to the scaffold and started putting sections up to the top from both sides. This section was about third from the end. That seemed to work good. You definitly need scaffold or a lift to work from, use air rachets, and be careful.

[SwampDonkey]

We built one back in 86. We used our potato van on the tandem Chevy as a scaffold, so we had several feet to work off before moving ahead and we had ladders to hold the bolts like Wally. We also had scaffolding on wheels for either side of the truck. Our building was 50 x 100 feet. We first poured the form with a trough for the arches to anchor into and we had anchor straps set in the form to bolt to the base of the arches. We poured cement in the trough afterward because it was never going anywhere. We assembled like Wally's photo, but did not tighten bolts until we had all the sections together in the arch. We probably never tightened until we had 4 or 5 arches up. All the joints had a caulking strip applied, it came in rolls with the building materials.

[thecfarm]

Looks like Wally's have straight sides than the curve starts.If you could,pour a cement wall 3-4 feet tall than put the building on it if you have no straight walls to start with.Gain a lot of room this way.I know money comes into all this.  :(

[old joe]

We put up a 30x40 4 years ago, after it sat on a bunch of pallets for years.  Used a scissor lift (rented).  Bolted 3 sections on the ground and used the lift toraise them.  Get a few drift pins, to help with alignment.  It took us a while to raise, and then another couple of days to tighten all the bolts.  I love it!!

[oakiemac]

I will definately rent a lift. I am thinking about a scissor lift but my buddy who is helping thinks I should rent a shooting boom AWD unti-much more $$.
I'm not putting in a cement floor at this time because of hte expense. I thought about just anchoring it in the ground with big auger type anchors but I'm afraid that a big wind might take it away. So the plan is now to dig a trench along both sides and then pour in cement to help hold it.
The 4' side wall of cement would be the best way to go but the coins are just not here to do that.
Old Joe-what do you mean my drift pins?

[beenthere]

Just a tapered pin (much like a punch) used to align the bolt holes.

Get holes lined up with the pin and better able to drop the bolt into the adjacent holes that way.

[isawlogs]

  A drift pin is like Beenthere said , but both ends are tappered  , we used them on bridges to aligne the plates on the gurters. Having the both ends tappered makes taking them out a whole lot easier, just keep driving them through , 

[tyb525]

I helped build one of these when I was about 12, my job was to bolt it together. I don't remember much about how it was set up, but it seemed sturdy. My dad has all the pieces for one on a trailer. He never put it together, it's still on the trailer like it was when he got it 6 years ago.

[Handy Andy]

  I was wonderin about that trough, has anybody ever had one rust out?  As far as a lift, if you have a skid steer or a tractor loader, you can build a basket, kind of a platform with a railing to hold on to, and  just move the machine as you need to.  I used one on my skid steer to build my steel building, had 16' sidewalls, made the platform so it was a couple feet above where the loader attaches, and we were able to stand on the thing and fasten the roof tin along the edge.  And I put a stem wall 2' high under the building. 

[SwampDonkey]

  I was wonderin about that trough, has anybody ever had one rust out? 

We poured cement in the trough when the building was complete and sloped the sides and painted tar on it. Never had any rust. I think it depends on the quality of the galvanize.

Our first arch went up with a tractor FIL and chains. There was no way father would rent any equipment. Scots blood is too thick. :D

[old joe]

Mine is dirt floored.It sits on the ground and is only backfilled about 6" on one side and 2' on the other, mostly for drainage.  Both ends are open so no problem with wind lift .  When I close it in, I will pour a outside beam of concrete to help hold it in place.

[oakiemac]

Beenthere, thanks for the info on the drift pin.
My neighbor has a platform built for his tractor that I can borrow. I might try and see if my bobcat will lift high enough with the platform on it to reach.
I'll post some pics as we progress.

[ksu_chainsaw]

We have taken several 18' dia grain bins and turned them into quonset type sheds.  We just bolted 4 sheets together on the ground, making 3-4 sections at a time.  we then took 4-5 guys and stood them up and then used the tractor with a holder that looked like an inverted T to hold the sheets at 3 points to lift them up into place.  We didnt have any sealer in rolls, but used butyl rubber caulking to seal up the seams- about 3 tubes per seam- and we didn't put in all the bolts that there were holes for- the butyl will bridge over the holes.  On the bottom we laid out 2 telephone poles- bigger is better- and then lagged a piece of angle iron to the top of the pole to bolt the end of the bin sheets to- then used the torch to blow holes in it to anchor it down.  To keep the wind from picking up the shed, we took the post hole auger and sunk holes every 5-6 foot down the sides of the shed, and filled them with concrete, with an anchor ring at the top.  After the concrete cured, we took 5/16" cable and tossed it over the top and cinched it tight to tie the shed down.   The main reason that we didn't pour concrete and permanently bolt the sheds down was to save on taxes- this way the shed is on skids with NO taxes- at least in Kansas.  One of the sheds has my siblings rabbits in it, with the south end open, and the other end butted against the large barn.  The other 2 sheds we use to store square hay bales in just has tarps covering the ends- old semi tarps that have outlived their lifespan and can be picked up cheap.  The biggest expense we had on these sheds was the butyl rubber caulking at $3 per tube and the concrete 12" dia holes sunk 4' deep- total of 10.

Hopefully soon I can go past Mom and Dad's place and take some pics and post them.

Charles

[ksu_chainsaw]

 











Here are the pictures of the grain bin buildings that we put up.  I mis-spoke before, we only used 3 sheets per ring.  This one is not finished yet, it was just thrown up to cover the rabbit cages under it, sometime they will finish it.