Toro Steel Buildings

How are the doors going to open ?

They’re not. They are getting removed

Going to weld down some steel plates so you could pallet jack between box and concrete? Looks good.

Steel plates wouldn’t be a bad idea, I’d also thought about filling the slot with mud but the steel might be a better idea.

Got a chance to work on the steel structure today, assembly is fairly straightforward once you figure out what the different pieces are. The braces at each end and in the middle don’t come coped so I spent a couple of hours with the plasma cutter and grinder getting those all prepped and ready to install. I did fully assemble one of the center spans which is a double beam as opposed to the ends only being single beams. Fully assembled, they are unmanageable unless laying flat so going forward I’m going to assemble them one half at a time and bolt them together once it’s time to set them. I think they’re going to be quite cumbersome to brace up and get square until the perlins are installed. Definitely not going to be able to do that part by myself, will require a few extra hands.

Moving along with the building, slower than I’d like but I don’t have much extra time right now. I got the side doors removed that I wanted off, the steel is all assembled in 1/2 sections to save real estate, I’ll put the halves together when it comes time to set them. Not 100% sure what the best plan is to get them up there and square. They’re not very rigid. There has been a suggestion of putting two of them together on the ground and then setting them but that will be a 13’ 4” span between the two and I’m not sure I could handle that without a big crane. It’s 56’ between the containers so quite a span to cover. Thoughts/suggestions?

How tall are the legs off the top of the conex? I.E, how tall overall is the center of the building. I'm thinking a pole on the bucket of the loader tractor with the service truck crane. Lift one side with the tractor, hold it in place with the service crane (or the other way around), then lift the other side and can use both to line them up with each other. Use some cables or ropes to hold the first rafter in place, tied off to a pickup or some other deadman. Then lift the second rafter and tie it to the first one with your purlins. If you wanted to get fancy, you could rent a telehandler. And use it in place of the tractor/ service truck. I was just wanting to know how tall it was going to be, to know if the service crane or tractor will reach it.

@crane operator The legs are 5 ft, roughly 21’ in the center. Neighbor man has a telehandler and plans to assist with it, I think physically getting them up there will be relatively easy, it’s getting the first one square in the center that I’m worried about.

That container with the side openings is going to be mighty handy.

I like to start at one end of the building, and work toward the other. You can stand back and eyeball the rafter for straight and get pretty close. Don't get too bent about perfect straight on the first one, when you put the next rafter up, and get two together, then rack them forward or back to be straight and lock that "pair" down. Just cable the first one to a old tractor/ disc pickup out beyond the wall from the center of the rafter. Then also tie it back to the two conex walls. Just to keep the first one from falling over while you put the second one up. Once you make the pair with purlins, it should really stiffen up. Rack it a little with the cables to get it straight, then right on out the building.

I’m sure it’s just the fear of the unknown and once it’s all tied together it won’t be so bad. Either that or it’ll end up in a pile on the ground, not sure which. I hadn’t thought about tying it off to my pickup truck flatbed or the tractor. Thanks for that.

Good luck, I'm sure it will go fine. I found that best two pieces of equipment are a telehandler and a big scissor lift for working on steel buildings. The bigger lift enables you to bolt purlins from the same lift, throw purlins on the handrail, and have 2 guys in the lift and throw them up and bolt them in. Get one with 12-16' of deck space, if you are crooked, some have outriggers. The work pretty nice for putting on sheet steel, but you should be able to work off the conexes for the roof, maybe for sidewall.

My father-in-law has a lift nearly identical to the one in your picture, the work platform will be nice vs working on ladders. Between the service truck crane, the telehandler and the lift platform, I’d say we will be able to handle it.

^ worth a week's rent to get it done efficiently and safely.

Working on the building a little bit this morning. The end beams will sit on the factory corner blocks that are made into the containers. The centers will sit on the 2x3x40 tubing that goes between the corner blocks. The difference in height is 32mm. I happen to have 16mm plate that was cut off from a sanitary job, what would it take to weld those to the mild steel on the containers? Or would I be better suited to find 5/8 mild steel plate to make the shims out of?

CM1995 said: We have a similar setup at our yard between two 40' containers. Put both containers on some pre-cast concrete parking bumpers we salvaged from a demo job in order to keep them off the ground, then used some reclaimed demo steel to build a roof between them. It's important to keep the containers away from ground water. Click to expand... I need to set a 20fter semi permanent. Was planning on RR ties but concrete patio blocks sounds like a much better idea

CM1995 said: Nice. I want one of those 40's with side doors for our yard for storage. Super handy for accessing things. Click to expand... I have a 53ft van trailer for storage. I didn't expect how much of a pain it'd actually be. I need to pull out an air compressor all the way at the front. It's going to be a multi-day job.

I don't see a thing wrong with using the plates you have. Do the upper rafters land on the lower posts that are between the doors? Or is the rafter landing in the middle of the door opening?

I somehow missed this thread. Interesting project.

ahart said: Working on the building a little bit this morning. The end beams will sit on the factory corner blocks that are made into the containers. The centers will sit on the 2x3x40 tubing that goes between the corner blocks. The difference in height is 32mm. I happen to have 16mm plate that was cut off from a sanitary job, what would it take to weld those to the mild steel on the containers? Or would I be better suited to find 5/8 mild steel plate to make the shims out of? View attachment 351364 View attachment 351365 Click to expand... The Corten steel on these things is similar to the steel used on the ISO tank frames I work on. ER80S-G wire is generally recommended. Maybe, Welder Dave will stop by.