Carport suggestion

Typically, car ports are not built as well as a steel pole barn. some of the car port suppliers use proprietary attachment and structural members. That aids in installation and material costs. It makes it more difficult to remodel or upgrade, however.

FWIW, I built steel buildings for Lester buildings, they are a fairly big player in the Midwest. All of our posts were secured in-ground with iron strap to a concrete "doughnut".

This is one of those things for which branding doesn't much matter. Most are locally constructed, from readily available stock materials, so what you want to find is a reputable local contractor. Even if you get some branded package or kit, who puts it up can be more important.

I know who I would contract here for the job, but he can't help you in Cincinnati.

GHEICHER-
I cant seem to figure out why its not letting me send you a PM so I am trying to post on here for you to maybe view. I posted a little while back about getting a rv carport style building. You responded to my thread and I really liked the pictures of the rv carport style building that you had carport.com build. I got several quotes and they were very competitively priced, so I may go with them. I am trying to decide to go with either an actual pole barn or an rv carport building. Hopefully you don't mind answering a few questions about carports.com product....
1.) How sturdy and stable is the building? I fear it blowing away since it isn't actually concreted into ground by any way....
2.) Did you chose the vertical roof options which comes with the extra bracing on the roof?
Thanks a lot!

Gheicher-sounds like I may steal your idea. Thanks for the helpful info

jbres wrote:
gheicher-I like your idea of having them do all the framing work and roof, and then do the sides yourself and buy the sheets of metal from local supplier. How hard was it to install the side pieces yourself? I would imagine that would make a major cost savings for myself.

So as to have something to which to fasten the siding, I filled in between the vertical metal supports with 2X4s, both at the top and about 4 ft from the bottom. Fastened the 2X4s to the metal posts using L brackets and sheet metal screws.

The metal siding, actually metal roofing, was cut to length by the supplier. Special colored self drilling screws that had a waterproof washer was supplied with the panels. These screws were used to attach the siding to the 2X4s but I had to drill a small hole first when attaching the siding to the metal supports. I had to do some minor cuts at he top of some panels for the roof rafters. Also about 10" of the last panel at the end had to be trimmed. I used a reciprocating saw with a metal blade. Two sides were done this way.

The right side was a bit more complicated since I wanted clear polycarbonate panels in the center to provide more light into the interior. This required using more 2X4s and more but smaller panels.

Was able to do all the work myself, but it would be a bit easier with a helper, especially handling the larger panels. Each panel spanned a 3 ft wide area.

gheicher-I like your idea of having them do all the framing work and roof, and then do the sides yourself and buy the sheets of metal from local supplier. How hard was it to install the side pieces yourself? I would imagine that would make a major cost savings for myself.

Got mine through carports.com and believe it is made by TNT. I bought the heavier 12 gauge metal, 21 ft X 18 ft that has survived the winters here in the Laurel Highlands of PA unscathed for several years - A smaller one covers my patio. I enclosed the RV shelter with metal siding (3 sides) purchased from a local supplier. Carports.com were easy to deal with, cost effective, delivered the unit within a few weeks and performed the set-up in a couple of hours. I had to prepare a level area ahead of time for the set-up and they used long rods driven into the ground and large lag screws on the RR tie base to secure the unit.


The patio unit (in winter) is partially seen to the right of the gazebo.

I purchased my Versatube building from a Versatube dealer in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He sent a 2 workers to my home and installed the building in 2 days. They stayed overnight in a near by hotel.

Geoboy- did you buy your versa tube from menards?

If you're considering something that is enclosed and has a door, your wall height will have to consider the header for the door. Most guys up this way use a 11 1/2" doubled or tripled glue-lam for the header. You'll have a doubled top plate on that and probably a bottom sill so a 14' wall height gives a bit of leeway.