Preparation Advice for Do-It-Yourself Steel Buildings

One of the most attractive features of steel buildings is the fact that they’re easy to erect. The pre-engineered and pre-fabricated panels are delivered to your building site ready to assemble, and only need to be bolted to a foundation and bolted together. If you’re considering a steel building for your property and planning to erect it yourself when it arrives, these tips can help you ensure that your new storage building or home office goes up as quickly and easily as promised.

The Foundation is Key

The foundation for your steel building is the most important factor in making sure that your new structure is stable, safe and even. In most cases, smaller steel buildings, such as garages, barns and storage buildings, only need a cement slab foundations, and some of the smallest structures need no more than a poured concrete pier foundation. However, because getting the foundation – and the placement of the anchor bolts – right is so important to erecting your building safely, many manufacturers highly recommend that you hire a professional contractor to pour the slab foundation and secure the anchor bolts in place. Make sure you supply your contractor with the technical drawings for your new metal building so that he can get the anchor bolts properly placed.

Clear the Way

In addition to preparing the building site for your new steel building you’ll also need to clear a space for the building components to be placed when you offload them from the delivery truck as well as making sure that the truck can get to your building site. If you’re planning to put your new steel building in the backyard, for example, the truck will need to be able to get as close to your staging site as possible.

Have Help Available to Offload

The delivery driver for your steel building components generally contracts to transport the pieces. More often than not, his job is done when he pulls into your job site and you unload the truck. Make sure you coordinate with the steel buildings supplier and the delivery company so that you know exactly when to expect delivery of your metal building and arrange to have help there to unload the walls, supports and other steel building components. As you unload, tick off each piece against your contract and examine it for any obvious defects. You’ll need to notify the company immediately of any problems or you may not be able to get replacements for missing pieces.

 A reasonably skilled home handyman should be able to assemble smaller steel buildings with the help of a few friends and some power tools, as long as you’ve done the preliminary preparation adequately. It’s an affordable way to get the garage, storage or home office building you want and need.