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Texas/New Mexico Stateline | There are thousands of these old buildings in our area, but there haven't been any new ones in 30 years or more I would guess. Anybody have a good reason for not putting them up? Other than they are just not as cool as a 100-100 with a polished floor Morton with big picture windows? I was just curious how they compare in cost. And for machinery storage they might be more cost effective?
I can see it being a little harder to get machines in and out since they are long and narrow. But I see some advertised 50 ft across which wouldn't be too bad. |
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Rome, KS | My uncle has put up 2 in the last 5 years. But only the curve, no ends. He "says" the ends cost as much the curves, if that makes sense to you. So he has 2 open ended sheds. I know they are substantially cheaper that way than the polished floors. |
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| Have had a couple of neighbors put up the metal style quonsets, and they both said that by the time they got done with the extra concrete and foundation work, they could have just had a pole building built and have straight sides. |
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| Someone on my mail route put a new one 2 years ago. I'm pretty sure it's a Behlen. I've got 2 older ones and while I like them, I doubt I'd ever put up a new one. |
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near dyersville iowa | I priced a 32x70..12k without ends. I already have the foundation. Im going to get an estimate on a stick build. |
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NW MN | Taller equipment makes curved roof buildings a waste of square footage. Go straight wall and use the whole floor, concrete, dirt or gravel. |
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| WE have an older Quonset, from the late '40s., 40' x 110'. We did put a 24' wide overhead door in it back in the '70s. When equipment was a lot smaller back in the '50s early '60s it was OK. You back a piece of equipment up against the walls on each soide & still have room to move equipment down the middle. Now everything has to be backed in a parked length wise . Always works out that what we want is in the back of the building so everything in front of it has to come out, then put back in. With today's larger equipment you lose a lot of space along the wall because of the curvature of the building. Main use for ours is storing semi trailers in it. Even with a hopper bottom we lose enough space along the wall that you can walk between the trailer & the wall. Building has been pretty much maintenience free since it was put up. Only had to screw down a couple sheets of metal after a big storm back in 2000. If something were to happen to it I wouldn't put up another one.
Edited by boog 1/20/2014 09:13
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northeastern Ohio | I put up two about 10 years ago. One is 45x40 and the other is 55x80.
For the small one I used the 2x2x8 cement blocks for a base. Cost was $25 for each block so a total of $400. It is open on one end. Building cost was $7000. So $4.11 per square foot. I supplied all the labor to erect.
The bigger one I poured a full size slab. Cost was $17,000 with rebar, concrete and labor. The building was $12k. Both ends closed with 16x16 overhead on one end and 24x15 sliders on the other end. Cost per square foot: $6.59. I supplied all the labor to erect.
Last year I had a 60x100 framed building built with concrete walls and full concrete for $90k including labor. $15 per square foot.
The frame building is a lot nicer. If I built it myself, I would guess it would have been around $10 per square foot.
The smaller quonset was easier to put up than the big one. The arches are overwhelming at first, but get easier once the first 3 are set.
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SW MN | I put one up in 1979 and it's holding up ok but I would never put up another one. First with the lost space on the sides they need to be compared with a 10 to15 foot narrower building for price comparison. Second with tapered sidewalls it is next to impossible to hang things on the wall. |
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Saronville NE | They are good sheds, but wont ever compare in storage space as a straight walled building. You cant get stuff flat against the walls with a curved building, if have a cabbed tractor or anything of any height, cause either the machinery will hit the sidewall or the cab will. I have seen a guy take a Behlen rancher style building that's open on 1 side and put it up on a tall foundation and make a nice open front building that you could get stuff against the wall, just cause it had been raised up. |
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South Western Ontario, Canada | Have an older one on the farm.... Never again! Only thing its good for is hay storage with todays equipment.
The wasted space along each wall is huge. |
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East Central Ia | Ours is 50 x 70 and it's built on top of a 2' wall giving more usable space than the neighbors built on ground level concrete.
Never even consider building a new one! Way to much wasted space. Dad always says he wishes he would gave just built a pole shed there. |
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East of Dowagiac Michigan | I put one together for a neighbor 5+yrs ago. Hardware was grade 2 with square nuts. 40x60x14? not half circle, he built for round bale storage one he wanted something with no place for birds to perch in the rafters. |
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New Brunswick, Canada | They have a bad rep for collapsing around here. Uneven snowload and boom down they come. About 10 years ago they changed the codes so they are stronger but the price is way up too. Don't price out well compared to stick built or tarp buildings locally. |
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Rivers, MB | My dad put up a 60x120 half round Quonset. Made by Zipperlock. Very commonly used as potato storages up here in Western Canada for some reason. We find it very usable for parking machinery. I think the key to those sheds is that too often they are made too short, therefore the side walls are on quite an angle. Especially if the shed isn't very wide. Dad was adamant when he built it that it needed to actually be half-round so the side walls were nearly vertical. So its 30' tall in the center which makes it easy to have tall doors in it as well.
We have a 36x90 Quonset shed that's been converted into a shop and its difficult to get stuff right up to the wall. But as a shop, it works great.
We will never build a pole style building. I don't care what kind of warranty you have, if you put wood in the ground, at sometime you WILL have issues.
As the first picture shows, we can get combines, sprayers and 4WD's very close to the wall. We would have at most 3' of "wasted" space at the edge which often gets all sorts of loose ends. Most straight wall sheds I've seen usually have at least 1-2' of "error" room alongside the machinery to the wall so I figure we're not much worse.
No bird issues except on the tracks for the overhead doors.
An interesting bit of info about that shed is that there are next to no screws, fastners, or nails that hold that shed together. The only screws used were to attach the doors and maybe a few for the end walls. Each curve is crimped onto the next one. Whole shed was put up in 3 days I believe.
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Texas/New Mexico Stateline | Nice looking barn there.
I'll never build a pole shed either. Lumber today is junk. It will either be a steel box or something else.
I would love to have a medium to smaller actual "shop" that is more efficient to heat, reasonable cost. Then a totally separate shed for cold storage. The trend around here the past 15 years is like in the Midwest. Build a 100X60 or bigger all insulated, then half the building is packed with equipment that is just stored. Doesn't seem like a reasonable use of an insulated building to me. |
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S.E. Iowa | You might investigate a Curvco Building. They have 2 models one is basically a roof and the other is a half arch. I saw them and was intrigued by their look. I called them but I am not serious yet. I thought the roof thing might be a good cattle shed. I have a 90 ft x 2 ft I beam I was thinking to use for the front. You might have to call them as they dont have the buildings I am talking listed on their website. I got the info from a emailed brochure. http://www.curvcosteelbuildings.com/ |
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WY, OK | Someone must be advertising the hell out of smaller ones, they seem to be all the rage with the 5 acre owners the last few years. Always fun to take bets on which ones will fall/blow down before it gets fully erected. It is about a 50% chance from what I have seen. Our old storage was a large quonset that was torn down and moved probably 50 years ago. I know it had to have some severe upgrades on the West wall to hold up to our winds. Would still be using it if location wasn't wrong. |
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Nunn CO | If I remember right they were so popular in the 70's because the government was offering subsidies for grain storage and they qualified for it. I rent a 45X60 right now, its handy to put heads along the walls and combines in the center, however, if I built another machine storage building I would stick with pole barns. |
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| Pofarmer - 1/20/2014 07:26
Have had a couple of neighbors put up the metal style quonsets, and they both said that by the time they got done with the extra concrete and foundation work, they could have just had a pole building built and have straight sides.
+1 My uncle put up one in 1978. He readily admits that he should have put up a pole building instead. |
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Wi | We haven't built one, but we did move our 60x80 quonset shed to make room for our shop. It's probably 70+ years old, but it was still too nice to throw away we figured. Spent 5k to move it across the farm and use it for bedding (sawdust and paper pulp) storage now. Works great. It was our machine shed though before we moved it.
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Northeast ND | The problem I see with that statement is that a pole building put up in 1978 may already be nearing the end of its useful life. The neighbors Morton building that he built in the 80's moves up and down every year when the frost goes in and out. And not always evenly either.
I know that the quonset my grandpa built in 1956 is going to outlast the pole shed he built in 1970 by many years. And it has kept the equipment drier all those years too.
Just my opinion! |
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Rivers, MB | I'd agree with that. Thousands of quonsets, especially metal ones that are 30 plus yrs old and still have a very useful life and no signs of needing some work to them |
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Wi | mennoboy - 1/21/2014 06:47 I'd agree with that. Thousands of quonsets, especially metal ones that are 30 plus yrs old and still have a very useful life and no signs of needing some work to them
x2 ours is very very old, but the simple construction of them makes them very durable. We don't even have a foundation for it, we just set it on concrete blocks on top of ag lime. |
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| 560man - 1/20/2014 22:00
The problem I see with that statement is that a pole building put up in 1978 may already be nearing the end of its useful life. The neighbors Morton building that he built in the 80's moves up and down every year when the frost goes in and out. And not always evenly either.
I know that the quonset my grandpa built in 1956 is going to outlast the pole shed he built in 1970 by many years. And it has kept the equipment drier all those years too.
Just my opinion! He was basing that off the cost factor of the cement foundation and todays equipment being bigger and no longer fitting as well along the sides. I can't remember the brand of his quonset, but the company is no longer in business and he could no longer get replacement doors when a wind storm blew them off....A quonset is definitely better than nothing!!!! |
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Post, Texas | Thoughts on a Quonset, have one located 30 miles from home, new still on pallets,4years old, 50x100x19 with end and doors 20,000
My equipment is 40ft just didn't know if it was wide enough because of the slope on walls. Just going to use it for storage. What about putting one up, how difficult? |
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Texas/New Mexico Stateline | I saw that on Craigslist. Very tempting. But may have to wait until after wheat harvest. (If there is a wheat harvest) |
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Has anybody put up a quonset, curvet, half-round barn the past couple decades?
