Another "I want to build a hangar" thread

txflyer

txflyer

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We finally made up our minds.

We want to build a hangar on our farm in TX that will serve the skywagon and serve as a shop big enough to get the plane and a decent size cab tractor and a truck or two in it. We're willing to budget a hundred grand on it, so I'm sitting here in la-la land wondering how big can I go with the slab and improvements?

I've never walked into any barn and said "gee, I wish it was smaller!" I'm thinking 40X80, but maybe I'm shorting myself. Or dreaming on the cost already. :dunno:
 
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40x80 would house a van or PC12!

The only area I see folks shorting themselves is the height.

If I ever build one I'd want storage space / bunk above to keep my floor clear.

Also seen some folks decide to get into floats, buy some amphibs and have issues fitting in some hangars.
 
Height is a big concern.

Both builders I've talked to wanted to know what height I wanted my door right away.

I didn't know what to tell them really. 12 feet? 14? 16? When I think about it, it would be the bee's knee's to be able to pull a combine in with the header on if we needed to. I need to study heights of combines.
 
That should be reasonably doable. How expansive are the soils in your area? Will you need to post-tension the slab or just pour a slab on grade?

I'm kinda partial to Quonset huts myself. A 60x60 would make a nice hangar/shop.
 
Depending on cost, I would put in as tall a door as possible. I suspect in relative terms 16' door up front will be cheap and offer far more versatility down the road.
 
timwinters said:
That should be reasonably doable. How expansive are the soils in your area? Will you need to post-tension the slab or just pour a slab on grade?

I'm kinda partial to Quonset huts myself. A 60x60 would make a nice hangar/shop.
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Soil does have some clay and they may want a tension slab just because that's getting standard around the South Texas area pretty much.

For less than a grand, a slab engineer will come out and sample it and tell me. It may be $$$$ well spent if he determines we can go with what's cheaper ... :dunno:
 
WingNut42 said:
Depending on cost, I would put in as tall a door as possible. I suspect in relative terms 16' door up front will be cheap and offer far more versatility down the road.
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I just went over on a combine forum and they were all saying they can get under a 14' door.

But I agree, taller is better. I may want that Aerostar someday.. :wink2:

I think 14' is a good target. We're going to add another door for the tractors and trucks on one end. The hangar door will NOT be on a gabled end, it will be on the side of the building down on one end.
 
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One thing I'd do, not get a bi-fold door, ain't that bad to push some sliders, simple and they don't eat up any height.

I'd bet 18' would be good, could fit a King Air :D
 
James331 said:
One thing I'd do, not get a bi-fold door, ain't that bad to push some sliders, simple and they don't eat up any height.

I'd bet 18' would be good, could fit a King Air :D
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The more I think about it, and the little use that the hangar door would actually get, I think I do want sliders. Maybe Horton.

No power, no pulleys, no cussing when the lights go out (they go out often out there).

You push em open, you push em closed. Done. :)
 
Shop around on the pre-engineered steel buildings. You should be able to get a lot of building for something in the 40 to 60 thousand range.

http://www.factorysteeloverstock.com/

Those prices are just for the skeleton and sheathing but it works out pretty good for the finished building. Don't let them upsell and buy all doors and windows yourself...along with the slab and anchors. They'll prolly do a pier foundation system (you buy the piers) for a few thou which might be of interest.
 
I'd go at least 60x80. A buddy built one that size on his place and could accommodate multiple planes, all his tractors, mowers, etc. for maintaining his grass strip, plus a ton of other stuff...and still had room at the back to segment off a nice 20x60 heated shop!
 
LDJones said:
I'd go at least 60x80. A buddy built one that size on his place and could accommodate multiple planes, all his tractors, mowers, etc. for maintaining his grass strip, plus a ton of other stuff...and still had room at the back to segment off a nice 20x60 heated shop!
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60X80 it is unless we get way over $100K.

I can go about as big as I want on the plot of land.

I think all we need is a half bath inside a small framed in lounge with just a standard 110V window unit. I'll put it on the East side so the wall doesn't bake in the afternoon. Even with insulation, the West wall is going to get hot.
 
Clark1961 said:
Shop around on the pre-engineered steel buildings. You should be able to get a lot of building for something in the 40 to 60 thousand range.

http://www.factorysteeloverstock.com/

Those prices are just for the skeleton and sheathing but it works out pretty good for the finished building. Don't let them upsell and buy all doors and windows yourself...along with the slab and anchors. They'll prolly do a pier foundation system (you buy the piers) for a few thou which might be of interest.
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Wow! A 50X100X16 is $24,700 with insulation? No f'n way!

I'm being disemboweled and fed my own entrails by some of these builders if that's it.

I don't know what slab and labor costs are, but that's cheap for the metal and blanket. :yesnod:
 
txflyer said:
We finally made up our minds.

We want to build a hangar on our farm in TX that will serve the skywagon and serve as a shop big enough to get the plane and a decent size cab tractor and a truck or two in it. We're willing to budget a hundred grand on it, so I'm sitting here in la-la land wondering how big can I go with the slab and improvements?

I've never walked into any barn and said "gee, I wish it was smaller!" I'm thinking 40X80, but maybe I'm shorting myself. Or dreaming on the cost already. :dunno:
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For $100k you can go 60x100 easy.
 
txflyer said:
Wow! A 50X100X16 is $24,700 with insulation? No f'n way!

I'm being disemboweled and fed my own entrails by some of these builders if that's it.

I don't know what slab and labor costs are, but that's cheap for the metal and blanket. :yesnod:
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I had to buy a couple buildings a couple years ago and the metal was pretty cheap. Didn't use the guys in the link but basically shopped internet to find a deal. Builders design to meet local code and can usually recommend an outfit to assemble which cuts the local gougers out. The builders were happy to design for any doors we wanted since it was less material for them to produce. Doors get expensive and are added cost.
 
txflyer said:
Wow! A 50X100X16 is $24,700 with insulation? No f'n way!

I'm being disemboweled and fed my own entrails by some of these builders if that's it.

I don't know what slab and labor costs are, but that's cheap for the metal and blanket. :yesnod:
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That's about right, I don't know the pricing of slabs anymore but I would expect half that again, and that again for assembly labor if totally contracted out. I would expect everything but the door to come in around $50k including site prep for a dry building. The door is another matter and can be cheap or expensive. For me in TX I built a cheap door that hinged near the top with a drill stem pipe at the top to act as a counterweight, and used an over center strutted cable rig to lift the bottom of the door from the gable. This gave me a 16'x50' sunshade when open as well.

I built my whole 60x100 building using deeply buried drill stem for posts, salvage pipe for beams and rails, and 'seconds' tin along with some lighter box section for the door and had less than $16,000 in it. I had no concrete and made the 'finished floor' section out of shipping pallets. It was multi function barn/hangar/shop as well.
 
Henning said:
I would expect everything but the door to come in around $50k including site prep for a dry building. The door is another matter and can be cheap or expensive.
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$10/sf? I don't think that's very likely, even for just a shell. Just the slab & foundation will run roughly $5 if done properly.

And the $25k building price likely doesn't include tax or shipping and definitely not erection. Just the building will be close to $50k by the time you get it on site and erected. And that appears to be a bottom of the barrel cheap building.

txflyer said:
The more I think about it, and the little use that the hangar door would actually get, I think I do want sliders. Maybe Horton.

No power, no pulleys, no cussing when the lights go out (they go out often out there).

You push em open, you push em closed. Done. :)
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It also saves you money on your building because the structure doesn't have to be beefed up to carry the weight of a bifold. I like sliders better in no snow country.
 
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Interesting little ditty here that I just found.

Lester (a premier wood framed metal building mfgr) has their own "power pivot door" and it's set up so that it can be operated by your tractor's aux hydraulics if you lose power.

http://www.lesterbuildings.com/Our-Buildings/Farm-and-Ranch-Buildings/

One side note, I'd recommend not going less than 26 ga metal if you want a good building. Many of the cheaper mfgrs go with 27.5 and even 29 ga. Some if it is sliced so thin that it only has one side!

Also finding a decent building that's built close to you should save you money. Shipping from a factory four states away can cost a few grand.
 
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I bought a 45x50 pole building hangar last year that was completely unfinished inside. The best thing I did was insulate the crap out of it. I put a tin ceiling and 2x6 studs on the walls. I had the blown in cellulose insulation and the walls have 71/2" and the ceiling 11/2' . Did the walls in 7/16 osb, cheaper than dry wall and you can hang stuff and bump into it without damaging it like dry wall. Anyway all that adds up to it is really cheap to heat and even though we had a couple months of 90-100 degree days it never got over 78 in the hangar with the door closed. Also go with the one piece hydraulic door. You can seal them really well so it keeps the dust and dirt out. Also do at least a 45' door. I think 60x60 would be more usable than 40x80. Don
 
timwinters said:
$10/sf? I don't think that's very likely, even for just a shell. Just the slab & foundation will run roughly $5 if done properly.

And the $25k building price likely doesn't include tax or shipping and definitely not erection. Just the building will be close to $50k by the time you get it on site and erected. And that appears to be a bottom of the barrel cheap building.



It also saves you money on your building because the structure doesn't have to be beefed up to carry the weight of a bifold. I like sliders better in no snow country.
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I hate sliders period, especially in TX though where you always have to push through drifts of dirt. A counterbalanced, cantilever slab door is simple and cheap to build and provides a nice big sun/rain shade.
 
Another thing to consider when putting in doors is a smaller access door a little bigger than a standard entrance may come in very handy. My neighbor has a rollup door as his regular entrance that's about 5 or 6 feet wide and probably 7 feet tall. He can drive his golf cart into the hangar without having to open the main door and doesn't have to shuffle equipment around or open the big doors. This makes for easy access to the side of the hangar away from the main door. If you use the hangar for storing any smaller pieces of equipment such as mowers, golf carts, ATV's, UTV's (mules) or small trailers, you'll find that extremely useful. I wish that I had that on my hangar so as to reduce the equipment shuffle! It's a small upgrade that greatly improves quality of life!
 
Thanks for all the input.

No more than the hangar door is going to be cycled (raised and lowered) the simplest solution is always the best.

What I'm seeing looking online and talking to one person is that sliders can be just as expensive and in some cases more expensive than a bi-fold. You have to set railroad irons in concrete and build an extension onto the side to hold the sliding doors unless you go with the Horton style.
 
txflyer said:
Thanks for all the input.

No more than the hangar door is going to be cycled (raised and lowered) the simplest solution is always the best.

What I'm seeing looking online and talking to one person is that sliders can be just as expensive and in some cases more expensive than a bi-fold. You have to set railroad irons in concrete and build an extension onto the side to hold the sliding doors unless you go with the Horton style.
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I wouldn't do sliding. The simplest is a pivoting slab that ends up inside overhead.
 
Why not call Morton builders and have them price what you want plus look at their alternatives. I've seen two hangars they've done. Very well done. If you don't like the price, move on. I've been in a hangar with sliding doors for years. If kept oiled they work great , slide easily , no problem. Simple to build, not expensive. It's a pole building with a concrete floor. There are no floor tracks. The doors close and steel rods drop into pipes in the ground at both ends. Simple, effective.
 
I would go with the dirt floor pole type barn for the combine (no door) attached to the slab metal building for the areoplane. You could still build the hanger shop a bit taller and put a lift in it to double stack the planes. Or engineer the roof so that it has enough extra weight bearing capacity to lift a plane. A gantry crane along the roof line would be a handy touch. Frame in a nice shop separate from the steel building. I had an uncle that had a metal building built then just framed up the inside for his home. Put a facade and a covered drive up area and you never knew it was a steel building.
 
The hydraulic and pivoting doors are all the rage right now, but I have to wonder what all that apparatus is going to look like in fifteen years.

I looked at a big hydraulic door setup on a new hangar. The tanks, electrical, valves, hoses, etc. it all looked like you needed an engineering degree to work on it.

Hoses grow old and crack, pistons loose their rubber, the hydraulic setup I can see so many things going wrong with it. And God help you if you push the button and only one piston works and you don't catch it quickly.
 
Friend has one on his main work hangar. Has worked flawlessly for over 15 years and it gets opened a lot. Don
 
Currently doing the 2 hose at a time hydraulic hose replacement on a 14 year old tractor. Break 1 buy 2, then the next time it only takes a few minutes to replace instead of a 30 minute round trip to WCT. Already rebuilt all four cylinders. 2 of them went in one weekend. Hydraulics are fun when they don't leak.
 
When we had our first farm I owned a 1963 Fordson Super Major backhoe. It was nothing more than a tractor surrounded by hydraulic leaks!
 
txflyer said:
The hydraulic and pivoting doors are all the rage right now, but I have to wonder what all that apparatus is going to look like in fifteen years.

I looked at a big hydraulic door setup on a new hangar. The tanks, electrical, valves, hoses, etc. it all looked like you needed an engineering degree to work on it.

Hoses grow old and crack, pistons loose their rubber, the hydraulic setup I can see so many things going wrong with it. And God help you if you push the button and only one piston works and you don't catch it quickly.
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Basic hydraulic systems see an overhaul about every 10 years. Most any tractor shop can build the hoses for you for a few hundred dollars. Toss in new seals on the pump and cylinders (might not need them) and you're still under a thousand dollars. Hydraulics are dirt simple and all the moving parts are bathed in oil except the electric motor.
 
yakdriver said:
Friend has one on his main work hangar. Has worked flawlessly for over 15 years and it gets opened a lot. Don
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There's a ratty WWII hangar at my old home drome, doors still slide easily, with old dudes only using one arm without breaking a sweat, that's give or take 75 years with near zero maintenance.
 
A hydraulic door doesn't get anywhere near the cycles of something like a tractor so really gets almost no wear on the seals. The only hoses are on the rams, the rest is all hard line. Also the hoses are on the inside of the hangar so don't get any UV damage. There are 10 hydraulic doors on the field here ranging from 40-60' and there has been no problems with any of them. It's nice to walk into my friend's hangar after a big dust storm and his airplanes and floor are clean. Don
 
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