I was going to buy from a local dealer and right before I signed the contact I checked the factory website they had a close out special. I was going to pay more and get a smaller building from the local guy. If you are thinking about it check the factory website for closeouts. There are only a few companies that actually manufacture the buildings. What happens somebody pays a down payment they cut the metal and get it ready then the deal falls through. They don’t want it sitting around so they deal. I saved about $3500 and got 8 more feet of building. The price started out at $10,500 and I dickered around told him if the price was right I'd buy right now - the metal, couple buckets of bolts, and the plans were $7,000 delivered 48' x 30'building. I have heaver gauge metal because of hurricane codes 150 mph rating.

The concrete was the largest cost and that was the only thing I contracted out. They had to scoop out the old dirt because it was a horse corral, bring in new dirt, there is a lot of metal in the pad footing every 18”, and the pour / trowel the trough once the building was up. The contractor charged me $10,000 all together. During the time of the FL building boom that was not bad for a 1440 sq’ pad.

I hired some workers from the rode side of questionable green card status to help lift the arches and bolt the arches together 3064 bolts. I wired the building with some advice from an electrician friend and the old man at home depot electrical department. I had an electrician check everything out and hook me up to the live power.

Palm Beach county has many building codes and that was a real pain especially just after 4 hurricanes in two years. I had to remove all non-native trees from my acreage and was not suppose to cut several native trees. They had to check for under ground cable, soil compression and percolation. But with a basic investment of $19,000 I wanted to make sure I pulled permits and built to code. That is one reason I left the ends open at the time the county would not let me put ends on the building. Now I like it, but other times I think about putting ends on. All together as I have it fitted out with lights/electric and the air compressor system I’d say I have about 23K in the building. I figure about 2-3 years rent of warehouse in town and they are in bad neighborhood and 20 miles from my house. It’s nice to have the shop 50’ from my house.

Mike Shappell