Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Metal carport.

I need to put up a covered parking place. The "metal car ports" look pretty straight forward. Anything to look out for or recommendations?

Size would be 20Wx30L. Have a camper and a boat that are both about 10' tall so it'll need to be 10' posts. We don't get much snow, a couple inches at a time usually. Do get some good winds every year but the location should be pretty well protected.

Not pouring a slab. Thinking about just leveling, gravel, sono tubes for footers.

I've worked with a few of those, and found them to be extremely demanding as regards getting the "footprint" of the end arches dead square, on the diagonal,..... then ensuring parallelism in the intermediate ones as the tin goes on.
Until one gets the tin up, the arches are annoyingly squirmy, and require good clamping as one progresses,.....O snorkel lift or some kind of boom truck / man-basket rig is nice to have on site, too.
Measure twice, cut once.


GTC

I went with the industrial duty soft sided shed, works great and holds up to heavy winds and snow...I added a heavy tarp on top, then only need to change that if problems would arise...been 5 years looks new. I have way too many oak trees here to listen to acorns bouncing off of tin 24 hours a day, you can design them how you'd like including doors/no doors etc.

I would go with a fabric covered building with doors on each end for the size you are talking about. Here is a company that has a lot different approaches:

For some reason this will not allow for just clicking to go to their website but just go to Farmtek and look down the left side for garages/vehicle storage.

I had one when I lived in Ms. that was 24'x36' with 15' clear height in the center. I took 4' rods and staked down the runners on each side. The sides came down to about 4' off the ground and the ends were open. Full length sheets of metal for the roof and sides.

Built one that size last spring at deer lease to cover camper and Jeep. We put it up in a day and a half. I used Fiberglas pipe for the poles. 4x4 or 4x6 poles would work just as well. Braced properly, wind won't be a problem. Not hard to square with string and tape measure. I used a builders level to establish elevation of roof framework. Hardest thing was digging holes in that rocky ground. Posthole digger and spud bar.

watch what you buy,some models are not rated for snow or wind. if it falls on your car /truck/boat your insurance won't cover it. check on your county/city regulations.

now any of the gable roof canopies can strengthened very easily. add a cable across the bottom of the gable from one side to the other will make them carry a huge load.stake it down really good. they will get blown away.

watch what you buy,some models are not rated for snow or wind. if it falls on your car /truck/boat your insurance won't cover it. check on your county/city regulations.

now any of the gable roof canopies can strengthened very easily. add a cable across the bottom of the gable from one side to the other will make them carry a huge load.stake it down really good. they will get blown away.


around here the mexicans will install one in a few hours. not really any money saved by building it yourself.

I was surprised how many made it through the hurricane untouched.

Lots of them here didn't...

It looks like a toss up. about half were gone.

What would I gain with the fabric/soft sided structures? They seem to be comparable in price, or even more expensive? Was planing on no sides. May add them later.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'd build a pole structure and turn the metal the right way.

Look better and won't blow away.

You can enclose it at a later date if you desire.

I thought about the pole building. I'm not much of a carpenter but could surely get it done. Hmmmm. Prefab truss? I'll have to try and figure out costs for a pole building.

The allure of the metal structures is cost, look decent, and as mentioned, installation is included.

What do you mean by turning the metal the right way?

Cold, real cold, unless insulated very well.

On the basis of limited experience: create leveled footers for the posts (block or pour); very securely anchor posts to ground; use diagonal wire/cable to tighten/strengthen where possible. For siding, check square as you go.

Metal roofing isn't designed to be installed horizontally, the ribs catch rain/snow instead of letting it run/slide off.

Wish I lived closer. I could cut you some rafters in about an hour.

FieldGrade is absolutely correct. Do not install metal siding horizontally. In the winter it catches snow and causes huge ice dams because of freeze/thaw cycles and no metal building is engineered for that load. In the summer the horizontal ribs collect water and result in mold/moss build up in the short term and premature corrosion in the long term. Lay purlins horizontally across the supports and install metal cladding horizontally. Insure that supports are spaced properly for snow and wind loads for your area. Be advised up lift from wind is an issue you need to address properly in a building with the sail area you are considering that is exasperated by not enclosing the sides. Collar ties (horizontal support from one side of the gable to the other near the peak) and girts in the corners substantially add to the loads the supports can carry. Metal buildings generally fail at the seams of the cladding between supports or the cladding rips off the supports.
To save cost for the floor you can use old asphalt ground up. It compacts nicely if you keep water and petroleum products off of it. Metal buildings are quite competitively priced and Mexicans install them so inexpensively and quickly I would not bother to do my own install but definitely oversee to insure they do not screw you on the support spacing. Whatever you do STAY AWARE FROM from AMERICAN STEEL CARPORTS of Kewanee, IL. The company does not honor their advertised 20 Year Warranty and they would screw up a wet dream.