Shop build - metal or wood?

[cruiseroutfit]

awesome...

I think for things like office buildings it's more about giving the ccupants time to get out.

Correct. Things would be very different if the structure was supporting a level above it, however mine was simply supporting the light weight roof. Thus fireproofing on the beams isn't required and would have only made a bigger mess to deal with post fire. It was a raw deal and I was worried that the shell and structure would be a total loss but in the end the repair was straightforward. Had it been wood I'm confident it wouldn't have failed (i.e. collapsed) but I don't think it would have been a clean repair and I'd be worried about the smell over time. Can you imaging charred beams above your head.

 

[1995zj]

Sweet... did you tell Sherm I sent you? I liked his work so much I had them build it twice. Oh, a fire was part of that decision.

Yep, sure did. He of course remembers your build quite well haha.

 

[Thardy]

We built my dads shop a few years ago monolithic poured slab, wood frame. Turned out way nice. I don't remember the dimensions though. It seems like it is close to what your building, plus a 16x16 tool room built off the front. It's a pretty nice set up.




The roof doesn't really look that bad. The only pic I could find was a snip pic from google maps.

 

[Kevin B.]

Bumping this old thread - can we talk more about the wood vs. steel? I'm looking at a prefab from Catapult Steel (very similar to #8 in this slideshow - http://www.catapultsteel.com/drm_695/metal-garage.php), and wondering if I can do a basic wood-framed building for less. My total budet is 10k, and that's got to cover demo of the existing garage and extending the concrete pad too, so I'm counting pennies. That prefab from Catapult would probably come to around $7000, delivered and built. I'm sure materials for a wood structure would be less, but then I've got to factor in my time to build it too and I'm sure that'd be a couple months of long weekends for me.

Anybody build their own woodframed garage/shop? What was your square footage, and how much did you spend total? Any guess on man-hours?