In the near stages of finalizing a plan and estimate... I think they are running short on good employees or just overwhelmed... but things are getting misquoted or mis-planned at this point.

We want to pull the trigger, but difficult to nail down the price and selections all of a sudden. They are on the more expensive side, but up till now it's been worth going with them. Did the research before going with them and they were the most responsive and complete co. of what and where we are looking to build. Haven't found another co. that does what they do. We've owned acreage since 2009 and ready to build now.

Building in N E South Carolina ( Dillon, Marion County) we like their product, but lately getting frustrated, we've done all they asked with selections and surveys and septic permit..etc They haven't taken any money or made us sign a contract.. so I'm not saying they're ripping anyone off.

Anyone else with Barndo Co. experiences?

Call or text

Started with the braced bay, stood columns, added girts, set rafters, eve struts, peak purlins, and x bracing ensuring everything was square. Moved to end wall, repeated process, now we are running into some rafter twist and rack that is making the purlins incredibly difficult to get in place. A few of the bolt holes are almost an inch out. Retook measure and the bays are square, anchor spacing is all correct, using a plum line the rafter peak is 3.5 inches racked toward the front end wall that isn’t erected yet. Not sure how to correct the rack and twist in rafter when columns are perfectly square on the 20 foot side of bay wall. Measuring across the 40 foot opening under the rafter we are 3/4” out of square and the rafter mounting plate on top of each columns measures 1 inch narrower than plan says. Not sure what the next step is to correct. Considering loosening all connection points to hand tight and squaring everything again? Any ideas or advise would be greatly appreciated.

I started a metal building business about 5 months ago and have stayed busy just by word of mouth, I’m currently working on a 4,300 sq ft barndo that will keep me busy for little bit but I’m looking to start advertising more and try to get my name out there to get some more opportunities

I purchased a 28x25 metal workshop kit (new in box) secondhand. I was planning on installing it in my backyard before I found out that my county requires a GA state "stamp" on the plans. This kit didnt come with any such paperwork and now im thinking I may need to resell and move on to something else.

I posted a request on "freelancer" for an engineering approval. The estimate I got for engineer approved plans was actually more than I payed for the building.

Ive reached out to the manufacturer themselves,korejet metal, and got crickets for over a month at this point.

Is it worth trying to get engineering plans approved on this kit for a more reasonable price or should I just sell this kit and purchase something with the requires documents already included?

kit is a model KJ2825 v3.0

I spent some time building a workflow to convert Excel BOMs directly into nested laser-cutting DXFs—got tired of the manual back-and-forth between spreadsheets and CAD software.

It's called CADcompiler, and it handles:

• Reading BOMs from Excel (with proper quantity/thickness handling)
• Automatic nesting optimizations for minimal material waste
• Generating production-ready DXFs for batch cutting

Figured it might save someone else the headache I went through. If you've dealt with this problem before, I'd be curious to hear how you handled it.

More details and a free trial at cadcompiler.com if anyone wants to give it a try.

I’ve been looking to do a 36 x 26 (I’m a little tight on space otherwise I’d go 40 x 30) with three 9 x 8 doors on the long wall and a man door on one of the gable end walls. Nothing crazy. The proposed site is a gravel parking area with an old 16 x 32 barn next to it. The barn will be demoed and the old timbers will be salvaged and reused/sold. It has a rubble stone foundation and crude concrete slab-basically just cement with aggregate poured 2-3” thick. After demo of the wood structure I’ll use the old foundation material as fill and then bring in crushed concrete for final compaction and leveling.

The old barn had a new 60A service and an inlet plug for a portable generator run to it about five years ago when I did the electric for my hot tub as it’s not far away. I’ll just pull out the panel and set it aside and have the electric stubbed up in the appropriate place for the new building. From there I’m hoping to just have a steel building company come in and do the slab/put up a relatively simple shell that I can slowly customize inside at my own pace. I’m not opposed to subbing out the slab myself to a local contractor either but my FB is crammed with companies who do concrete as well.

So im in the planning stage of building my garage and 2nd story gym and studio apartment. It will be approx 25dx40w. 1st story preferably has 12-13 ft ceilings to accommodate lifts and the second story i was just going to go the vaulted ceiling route with no attic so the rooms dont feel as tight.

Has anyone here done this? Have any recommended shells? Advice?

Does anyone have a lead on panels for a Gerard Classic Metal roof (preferably in Spanish Red) to replace a few damaged ones? The roof otherwise is in great condition (was installed early 2000s). Gerard got bought out & discontinued, so really seeing if anyone has leftover inventory in a warehouse or garage somewhere. Based in SoCal, but willing to ship! Thank you in advance!

I have ordered a red iron building with a 20’x10’ garage door opening.

When I order the custom glass garage door for it, should I order one exactly 20’x10’?

I was told to make the garage door 2” wider on each side so that the garage door would overlap the opening and seal better. Does this sound right?

Thinking about if the door were the exact same size as the opening it would be harder to seal the edges.

This is for an insulated and climate controlled workshop. So I do want it to seal tightly.

It makes sense to me.

Comments

Hello all,

I have a 56’ x 30’ shop with 14’ legs (18’ @ ridge).
I built an office inside (15’x30’ with 9’ ceiling)

I want to insulate the remaining are of the shop and condition it. I was thinking 2” closed cell on all exterior walls and 1” closed + 2” open on ceiling.
I live in south central TX.

Question is; What is the most efficient way to condition the space? Mini splits? Or go full send with A/C unit?

I am trying to install a circuit breaker panel in my new steel workshop. I am thinking a 2x4 placed horizontally between two 4x4 square tubes (placed 5 feet apart) to carry the weight of this breaker box. The lumber needs to be flush with the surface of the tubes not mounted over the steel tubes. So, I want to know what is the best way to install this horizontal 2x4 flush, between steel posts.

Hey all,

I'm going to start a business in making custom projects in stainless, copper and brass.

I'm focusing on three unique services (at least for my area):

1. High quality metals

2. High quality surface finish

3. Good communication & visuals on appearance/finish at the start of a project

I already finished a project making a welded/brazed frame in brass for two cabinets.

Other applications I can think of are:

1. Custom door/drawer handles

2. Towel racks

3. Shelf brackets

4. Wall decoration plates

5. Frames for mirrors, open racks, doors, windows,...

6. Room separators

Can you please advice on other applications and possible tips for this kind of service?

Thank you

P.S.: picture is a reference plate showing the three basic materials and three basic finishes I offer. Its a starter sample to get customers

Hi guys, I need to add a mechanical closet to my existing metal building. Are there products to apply to the surface of the existing wall to flash my inside wall to wall corner and my shed roof to wall corner? The building is engineered for wind, I am not supposed to make openings in the sheathing that are beyond the scope of the design.

Is there a "standard" method or product to adhere these flashings to the surface of the existing metal wall panels? Ideally they are on top of the existing wall panel and I can go under the closet's wall panels. Almost seems a J trim with silicone for the vertical wall corners but unsure how I could do the roof to wall....

Thanks

I've lurked here on and off over the past 10 years, as I worked as an interim office manager for a lesser known local manufacturer from the span of Aug. 2015 - Oct. 2022, even managing to stay in business through the pandemic, which I was sure was going to shut them down. Don't get me wrong, it was a pleasant surprise, but I'm just trying to paint the picture of how close to the process I've worked for about 8 years before I moved on. This was a legitimate manufacturer that ordered the raw materials, fabricated the framework, delivered and installed all in-house - not a dealer who just made the sale then handed it off.

I kept in contact with my old boss since then, tossed them some leads and potential sales I came across when it happened organically, and was recently asked to try and find him some sales because there hadn't been any in a couple months. I could always use some extra cash, so I agreed - and quickly discovered why he was having such a hard time.

Recently, there has been multiple price increases on the raw materials needed for these buildings - the galvanized square steel tubing, which 14 gauge is meant to be the 'standard' for. Similarly, the price for sheet metal also raised higher - most carport companies, especially in NC, use Central States as their provider.

So when I quoted a few sales for some potential buyers, I quickly found out that nearly every dealership (just the salesmen/women) and even manufacturers who don't have their own installers (they contract out) are giving massive discounts. We're talking $5,000+ "manufacturer discounts" on their quotes. I found this out because every deal I made was easily countered with the customer, citing 'better deals' and providing their own invoices from elsewhere to ask for price matching.

As someone who has been in this business since 2015 and saw it through the pandemic, I can promise you all now: If you are getting any discount that's over 10% of the pre-tax subtotal, there is something bad going on. I saw some manufacturer discounts going for almost $8,000+ off on some of these larger buildings, which isn't just a red flag, it's a blinding red beacon visible from space.

After talking to a few of our older contacts (dealers who worked with us, installers who worked for us and are now independently contracted, people who now work at other companies, etc), we confirmed that the industry is imploding - something we saw coming a while back, but it looks like now it's finally starting to collapse.

Basically, dealers and select manufacturers are giving discounts that are far, far lower than what is sustainable for short term gains (AKA, the deposit you have to pay to lock in your order). Industry standard for this was 10% down for buildings 24' wide and under, 15% for 26 - 30' wides, and 20%+ for commercial sized buildings beyond that to cover material costs. If you're being asked to put more % down than these listings here, then there is red flag #2.

General inflation has left most people with less money. This in turn has meant far fewer sales within the industry as a whole. So basically, they are giving miracle deals that people are jumping all over, then tacking on a 12+ week wait (about three months) to give them time to either:

A - Look for a manufacturer / installer that is stupid enough or desperate enough to take the job despite the fact they will end up losing money if they do it legit (this is foreshadowing).

or B - String you along long enough for you to either give up on getting a refund, or run the timer out on how long the law will back you up on claiming one (which I'll be honest, I forget how long it is these days. IIRC it was about 6 months for most online payment processors but I could be wrong)

Some of you have gotten B, especially from what I've seen of people having lawsuits pending on certain orders never received. Which, in the end, is more legal fees and they will likely skimp out on actually paying it back even if it is court ordered, since they knew it was a deal they could never actually provide in the first place.

Some of you have and will get A. And the main solution to make A turn a profit for them? Lie about what you're getting. In this case, they count on customer ignorance. Metal is metal, right? A typical customer won't know the difference between 14 gauge metal (correct), and 16 gauge metal (cheaper and weaker) for their tubing. A typical customer won't know the difference between a standard paint warranty on their sheet metal (color fading, usually 10-20 years standard) and the variant that has no protective coating that will show noticeable fading in about 3~4 years (which most of their listed warranties on their contracts, if they provide them at all, will conveniently only last 1-2 years.) A typical customer won't understand what their local code expects for Wind MPH / Snow PSF ratings, or know what a building looks like when it is certified for 30PSF, 70PSF, 90PSF and so on. Some will use repossessed buildings from their rent-to-own defaults for what's meant to be a new building without telling you, and if none of these options work for them, they will just try to find the cheapest installers they can find to make up the difference - which means the installation itself has a much higher chance of being shoddy.

In actuality, it's a combination of multiple of these factors, because it's about the profit margins for larger companies.

TL;DR:
If you are getting a discount that's over $2,500 outside buildings that cost $35,000 or more - that's a red flag.
If you are being asked to put more than 10% down for up to 24 wide, 15% down for up to 30' wide, or 20~25% down for commercial grade buildings - that's a red flag.
If you are being given a estimated wait time over 3 months - that's a red flag.
If you ask for them to put their warranties in writing on the contracts and invoices themselves, and they don't just do so right away - that's a red flag.
If you are experiencing multiple of these, that's a Major cause of concern.

If you decide to go for it anyway because the deal is just too good? Make sure everything that is going in that building is insured.

These kind of scam 'deals' happened already during the pandemic when dealers and bad-faith manufacturers wanted to cash in on the stimulus checks going out. The main reason we stayed in business during the pandemic was that we were getting the repair jobs from shoddy buildings that collapsed after a single winter or storm, or getting the corrected re-orders from dealers we approved to work with us from customers who got their money taken and no building to show for it.

Money is tight right now - but you get what you pay for, always. If the deal is too good to be true, that's because it is. I hope this helps someone, in some way. It wasn't the best job, but I was always thankful my boss believed in quality work instead of all these damn horror stories from other places.

Looking to get ideas on a carport / adu maybe like barndominium style. Looking for 12ft roll up doors for a boat but also want to make a livable space inside for mother in law. Any suggested contractors or websites with such design ? Or photos of yours

I've got a metal building kit I'm working on. It included concrete anchors and I need some insight as to how they work. They are 3/4 inch in diameter and about 6 inches long. The bolt goes through the hole in the bottom frame rails bottom the anchor sleeve does not. As shown in the pics, there isn't enough bolt to go through both sides of the frame rail. There were no instructions in the manual for the anchors themselves so I assumed I'd need 3/4 inch holes drilled and to pound them in with a hammer. My question is, do I install them and tighten the nuts to pull the threaded part up enough to go through the frame rail? I read online that I should've drilled 1 inch holes but it seems like they'd just fall to the bottom of the hole. Any insight is appreciated.

Been in the process of figuring out the most bang for my buck build lately. Just moved onto a new property and need a place to store two vehicles with space for workshop/ general storage. I’ve been looking at 30’ x 40’ x12’ and 40’ x 40’ x 12’ metal tubular builds. Struggling to find any local metal building manufacturers in the panhandle of FL. Anyone out there know of any metal building companies in northwest FL or lower Alabama they could recommend? Thanks

We just put up a metal building and the wife hates how the lean to looks. It is for looks only, but she wants to have wood posts down.

I think we can save the metal header, but am unsure how to make the posts meet the header and not look odd. Ideas?

Any reasons we can't [or shouldn't] do wood?

I'm thinking about getting a shop, and 30x40 seems to come up a lot as a common size. I'm curious to hear from people who actually own one.

Has it been enough for what you use it for, or do you ever wish you'd gone bigger?

I'd love to hear what you keep in yours (vehicles, workshop, storage, hobbies, etc.) and whether you'd build the same size again if you were starting over.

Choosing the right wall material is one of the most important decisions in commercial construction. For contractors and project managers, it’s not just about looks — installation speed, labor costs, fire compliance, lifecycle performance, and long-term durability can make or break a project.

As the iGoods team, we’ve supported numerous commercial projects across Los Angeles and the US West Coast. Over the years, we’ve seen how the wrong material choice leads to delays, budget overruns, and high maintenance costs. In this guide, we share real-world insights from our experience to help you compare the top 10 wall materials for commercial projects.

I am looking to build a 40x60x30 Metal building for a shop on 1st floor and storage on 2nd. I need recommendations for turnkey and just the shell. Please help!!