The Shed

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The school didn't have a storage building of any kind when we purchased it. We have a lot of toys and equipment, so it was decided to add a 40' x 80' prefab farm building by Future Buildings of Ontario Canada. We are pleased with the design and quality, although we had to improvise some of the construction techniques to make the job easier and ensure proper panel alignment. I will describe how we improvised to make the job easier should you ever decide to erect a metal prefab.

The shed has 3 phase 240V electrical. The 50 amp outlet is there for an RV.

Overhead lighting is commercial and designed for high ceiling heights like this.

This photo is instructive.

• It shows that we erected 3 or 4 bottom half ribs in place before completing the overhead sections. We always had a least 3 bottom sections up ahead of adding the upper sections to ensure stability as we put overhead pieces in place.

• Instructions were to leave the bolts snug but not tightened until the building was completely erected. The wooden diagonal braces in the photo were recommended to hold the shape in conjunction with a vertical support pole to the peak to maintain the proper height. We used 2 x 6 for this work. You will notice that a horizontal 2 x 6 was needed to hold the diagonals in place. What a chore... but we soon devised a better solution that eliminated the need for these altogether.

• The bold black arrow points to one of the "L" shaped aluminum strips that came with the building, each pre-drilled to match the exterior bolt pattern. There were about 10 of them. The strips spanned 3 ribs and instructions called for installing them to maintain proper spacing of panels. The idea was to install them to the outside of the building and move them along as you made progress. That meant installing-removing-installing-removing... ouch!  We soon came up with a better solution.

• We used one of their "L" strips and drilled it to match the INTERIOR bolt pattern by using the base plate rib bolt pattern as a template. Then we purchased 4 x 8 foot aluminum sheet metal and had a local machine shop cut the sheets into "L" strips and drill them to match the INTERIOR bolt pattern. Enough were made to install 4 rows of "L" strips for the entire interior length of the building. These interior  "L" strips were installed as we went along to maintain proper spacing. More on this in later photos.

• Because these new INTERIOR "L" strips were drilled to exactly match the required bolt pattern for the building ribs, it meant that each rib was exactly where it was supposed to be. And the "L" strips ensured that the spacing didn't change as we progressed from one end of the building to the other. These were a godsend! Not only did they ensure proper spacing, but they provided a handy rail for installing overhead lights once the building was up.

• Because the 4 rows of continuous rows "L" strips ensured bolt spacing, we discovered that we could tighten bolts as we went along, rather than having to do them all once the building was erected as recommended in the instructions. By snugging them up now, we ensured that each panel was properly spaced and we no longer needed the wooden diagonal braces. Why?...

• Because the rib mounting bolts were precisely spaced and the vertical pole supporting the roof held the peak exactly where it needed to be. With tightened bolts, the ribs no longer sagged. When completed, the roof was within 1" of perfectly horizontal and within 2" of being perfectly square corner to diagonal corner.