Steel I-Beam Choice for Aircraft Hangar Apartment

joasis

BTW, there are several reputable metal building manufacturers in the Houston area....you should have no problem having good quotes in a week or less. They will have to know specific details, such as how far from the actual coastline (for codes, wind velocities), and how the building will be situated on the lot, etc. I would concentrate on drawing up what you want, and looking for a general contractor that might give you a labor only bid, since it sounds like you want to manage the project yourself.

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diy-581

I noticed yesterday where the University of Houston is creating a new building near the Brazos River in their Fort Bend County campus... From the quick glance that I got of it as I drove by, it appears that it might be made in a manner that would work for the hangar I'm considering building... As far as I can tell, there appear to be clear spans of sufficient sizes for aircraft... It appears that it is going to be a 4 story building, but there should be no problem scaling it down to only 2 stories and making it not as wide or long... I think I'll go over there and talk to the construction company today... For this type of building, I believe that they use the corrugated metal forms and concrete for the floors on the upper levels... Although I would like the idea of a solid concrete floor on the 2nd floor, I have to say, I like the flexibility of having a wooden floor so that any future remodels are considerably easier since plumbing and electrical can be moved around so much easier... Basically, it's easier to drill a new hole in a plywood decking than it would be to drill a hole through a few inches of concrete slab... As in most things in life, it's a tradeoff...

It's about 29 miles from the coast (assuming that you consider the Gulf side of Galveston island the coast and not the bay side of the mainland)... It's about 55 ft above sea level, so combined with the distance, storm surge is not an issue... I'm leaning towards overengineering the wind loads though... If it doesn't cost too much more, I would like to conform to the South Florida wind codes... One thing that we learned when Hurricane Rita came through was that even though the sustained winds were not that bad after it had been ashore for awhile, there still was a lot of damage from the smaller F1 type tornadoes that got kicked up along the way... Short of a monolithic concrete structure or building underground (not really an option if you are also worried about flooding), you're not going to protect yourself from an F5 type tornado, but you might be able to minimize the direct wind damage from the low F1s that are more common when hurricanes hit around here... Of course, the real problem with these low level tornadoes is the debris that they pick up and toss around... A metal skinned building is not going to do much for that sort of potential damage...

Well, I want the capability to be able to manage it myself, even if I don't actually end up doing it... It's kind of like changing the oil on my car... I know how to do it and when time permits, I prefer to do it myself, but if I'm in a hurry, I'll have it done at Wal-Mart or wherever while I'm shopping for other things... Of course, I always check their work to ensure that they did it right (I had a car catch on fire because a Firestone store forgot to put the oil filler cap back on the engine)...