Wife and I decided we were going to build a new garage to go with the house.
Real simple - 30x40 pole structure, 2 - 10'x10' roll up doors so I could drive a tractor with a snow blower in there to have it close in a bad winter and a walk in door.
Called Cleary and they were right out....shot me a good price until I noticed they lower cords of the rafter were vaulted, not flat.
I tell the rep no, I want a flat bottomed rafter as I don't want the additional hassles of trying to hang openers and lights off the vaulted rafter to say nothing about the problems I would encounter if I ever wanted to finish it inside.
The guy hems and haws....and it drags out and the price goes up. How hard can it be to make the sidewalls 2' taller and give me a flat bottom rafter?!?!?!
Finally the sales guy stops talking to me...and I had cash in hand....WTH?
So...I figure might as well bite the bullet and call Morton.
Morton rep comes out and in 10 minutes exactly what I want is drawn on the computer and I have a price (incidently the price is within $2000.00 of the Cleary price).
All is good - I write him a check for the deposit and I'm put on their schedule.
The semi arrives right on time, unloads the materials and the driver hands me a bill and I write him a check as agreed, the construction crew is a week late but that's fine I'm in no hurry.
The building goes up in 2 days except for the roll up doors (going to be put in by another local subcontractor they are using) and the walk in door.
A week later the sub shows up and puts in the roll up doors. 4 weeks later I still have no walk in door....explination is that the company shipped the wrong color door frame and Morton is waiting for a replacement....fine, stuff happens.
One morning at 4:30AM I heard power tools running in the dark and there was a Morton guy with a flashlight installing the walk in door.
Not surprisingly the door frame was not plumb and the door wouldn't stay shut....plus no keys.
Called Morton rep and complained about the door not staying shut and no keys, 3 weeks later same guy that put the door in came out, reshimmed the door so it stayed shut but still no keys.
Morton rep calls me and tells me he has final bill ready and I tell him that the building looks OK other than a pole shifted and I've got a little zig in one wall and I still have no keys.
The rep tells me they can't find the keys and that they will put in a new lock next week.....like a moron I pay the final bill.
That was November 15th, to this date I still have no keys nor have they been out to look at the zig in the wall.
Tomorrow morning I am going to pull the lock core out of the door and put a new core in myself so I can lock the building.
The Morton rep was helpful and great to work with and I know it was a very small project @ only about $25,000.00.... part of this is my fault for not being a bigger PITA to Morton and refusing to pay when it wasn't 100% correct but still...you would think they would take more care about stuff like this.
Posted 12/24/2012 12:27 (#2773014 - in reply to #2772984) Subject: Re: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
haskell county, ks
morton will take care of your problems. just stay after them. we built a shop/house combo and have been in it for 5 years and morton has followed through on each issue though it seems to take a little prompting. have had water leaking issue and the worked on one end of building and had steel off to remedy and would not put the original siding back up, they replaced it with new. morton has reasons they are higher than others.
Posted 12/24/2012 13:21 (#2773112 - in reply to #2772984) Subject: Re: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
MO
Stay on morton. They WILL forget if you don't. I had some issues with them, mostly with the local salesman not keeping his word on several occassions. Call the main office in IL...that seems to grab some attention.
Posted 12/24/2012 13:39 (#2773155 - in reply to #2773112) Subject: Re: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
Dad Put up a new Morton probably 14-15 years ago. Good building. Dad bought one 3 years ago nothing but problems.They stopped wanting to sell me one and I said as soon as they fix the leaks in Dad's I will buy one.
I was told buildings leak and that is the way it is going to be. Guess what I didn't buy!
Posted 12/24/2012 15:17 (#2773345 - in reply to #2772984) Subject: RE: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
EC Kansas
Not saying you paid to much, but I just replace two post frame buildings, a 60 ft by 70 ft for $22,500 and a 50 ft by 50 ft for $18,500 they are by a local builder, no names on them. I think the names come at a high price.
Posted 12/24/2012 15:31 (#2773379 - in reply to #2773345) Subject: RE: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
kansas - 12/24/2012 14:17
Not saying you paid to much, but I just replace two post frame buildings, a 60 ft by 70 ft for $22,500 and a 50 ft by 50 ft for $18,500 they are by a local builder, no names on them. I think the names come at a high price.
Ours was around $5sq ft also. Not sure I care about the warranty for half price?
Posted 12/24/2012 22:05 (#2774089 - in reply to #2773345) Subject: RE: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
kansas - 12/25/2012 14:17
Not saying you paid to much, but I just replace two post frame buildings, a 60 ft by 70 ft for $22,500 and a 50 ft by 50 ft for $18,500 they are by a local builder, no names on them. I think the names come at a high price.
No offense taken at all....I thought it was a outragous amount as well.
I got quotes from 5 different builders including a couple local lumber yards and independant guys and they were all about in the same ball park ($3K - $4K) of each other.
Even with the poor crops this year, guys are building like crazy and have been for several years now...I'm sure that is driving part of this.
One issue that we ran into with the independants was insurance coverage on the structure and it's contents, if the design wasn't certified by a structural engineer to withstand the insurance companies spec's on wind and snow load....no insurance coverage.
Concrete was nuts as well, 20 years ago a bunch of the neighbors would have gotten together and we would have poured it ourselves....but too many of the guys are gone or too old to come play anymore...lol
Posted 12/25/2012 10:39 (#2774864 - in reply to #2774089) Subject: RE: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
EC Kansas
The bulidings we replaced were both destoryed by a torando the 28th of Feb. The newest one was a Cleary, built in 2000, they put it back in the same spot. Using the concrete that was left for the shop. Some pics of what a torando can do.
Posted 12/24/2012 19:47 (#2773861 - in reply to #2772984) Subject: RE: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
Graymont Illinois
My dad put up a Morton about 20 years ago. The color on the roof had faded badly. Dad was on me to paint the roof, he thought it was rusting. I called Morton, and the building was a week away from 20 years old. They came out and painted the roof for free. For fading color. This was about 2 years ago. I think there is a big difference btw., area reps. Some better than others.
Posted 12/24/2012 20:04 (#2773878 - in reply to #2772984) Subject: RE: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
I have had lots of projects and things built. I have always paid the final bill. However, I never pay the entire bill until all work is satisfactory. I often withhold the last few % until minor stuff is done. Instead of me chasing them down, they call and I tell them what is left to be completed if they want the final payment. I find it humorous that you have to stay after builders to get the job done. However, less than 1 week after they say the job is done, they call and want their money.
My brother built his shed last year. Astro called him for payment a couple of days after they were done and before he even got a bill. He paid them the full amount immediately. Took another 3 months and countless phone calls to get doorknobs, keys, remote openers , electric opener for a small overhead door, few final trim pieces and few other small items. Told him never pay all until job is complete. I have played that game way too many times. Always hold out more money than it would take if you had to hire the work done by someone else.
Posted 12/25/2012 08:10 (#2774540 - in reply to #2773878) Subject: Re: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
North of Iowa
You will always find builders at different price levels, depends how bad they need the business, I went with Cleary, and friend priced both Cleary and Morton, Morton was PO because they lost on my building and came in 10,000 grand under Cleary on his. Always make sure you are comparing the same level of building, they all build a cheap version. Very happy with the Cleary and crew that built mine, was told I had their very best man in the company to build my shed, they wouldn't let local crew build it.
Posted 12/25/2012 12:12 (#2775011 - in reply to #2772984) Subject: Re: Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
A few years ago I was shopping for another building. Cleary was the low price, until I made them meet central Iowa snow code and kicked them in the shins to be CLEAR that when I said I wanted a couple 14' sidewall doors that a 14' eve wasn't meeting my requirements. Then their price went up to match Morton's.
Despite giving them a clear drawing, half the places that quoted (and Morton quoted on the spot at the State Fair) quoted eve height where I wanted door opening height. Lots cheaper that way, but won't clear equipment I wanted to pass through the door. Half the places I visited at the state fair and big farm show took my drawing which had my phone and address and never bothered to quote. One of the cheaper buildings tacked trusses on the sides of the posts and then needed diagonal braces extending several feet in from the wall posts to keep the wind from wracking the building. I came down to Wicks vs Astro. Both seemed to use decent quality construction with laminated posts having a deep slot for the trusses that had a tall heel to take the wracking loads. Astro charged extra for using screws for the tin over nails and Wick didn't, so I bought a Wick.
Some sales types claimed towns wouldn't allow a Cleary because it was built with too few timbers and trusses.
Its critical during the building process that the trusses be braced well. Many a new building gets two sets of posts and trusses because a thunderstorm came along during construction and the gusts broke the trusses. Trusses are only strong in the plane of the truss. Bending that plane is very easy and if there aren't a couple dozen diagonal and spacing braces it doesn't take a strong wind to collapse the whole set of bare trusses. Builders in a hurry skip the bracing, then get to buy new trusses and start it from scratch.
Cleary/Morton Buildings rant
