Metal Building, What it Costs, and One MAJOR ISSUE!

Don't put your down payment on a metal building until you watch this video. Get answers and enjoy!

[LegacyCustomTackle]

Hey bud. I have the same type of building. What you need to do is seal the outside edge between the concrete and your aluminum siding. Do not use regular silicone. If you have a Lowe’s or Home Depot nearby, get you some QUIKRETE Self-Leveling Sealant 10-fl oz Polyurethane Masonry Sealer for Concrete. It goes on real watery, as it is self-leveling. But it will fill in and seal the cracks between your steel tube floor plates and your concrete pad. For your size building, you will need about 3-4 tubes. Holler at me if I can help any more. Thanks for the vid!

[garrytalley]

Nothing is perfect. And of course, hindsight is 20/20. I just had a 30x45 building put on gravel. Lots of fun here. Wanted the building more than the floor. May eventually do it the hard way a section at a time with the building up. I do like the installation, and I do need storage at the farm. Because it is at the farm the floor is optional. I need it to store tractor equipment and vehicles like tractor, boat, extra truck, trailers etc. Whatever needs to be that I don't have enough room in the other barn for. Yes, I have another barn with a concrete floor. The bottom line is metal buildings if done right can last a very long time. Especially when you take good care of them. Lumber is expensive and has drawbacks from metal as well. Termites can't eat steel. Steel does not rot like wood. Metal roofs on metal buildings are better than shingles on a wooden one. Let's leave it on that.

[mikesewell]

Just had a 24 x 40 steel building installed on concrete slab. I used silicone caulk on outside and inside of steel floor supports.
Also you will need to caulk the saw cuts on the out side and about 6 inches inside due to wicking when it rains.

[spikemorbid]

Code changed years ago when we were building wood frame house's. We had to put a foam like padding between the green plate and the concrete to prevent the same situation you are talking about.

[stevemelton]

I found buying a container or gallon of flex seal seals off the bottom great, plus it is outdoor friendly and UV protected. Take a paint brush and put it on thick. It will seal great. I tried many things and this works fabulous. Clean area and let dry before applying. It will seal the metal/concrete area. Do not use the spray but the gallon container. Be careful if you insulate your building correctly if you are finishing it or don’t want condensation. This is especially true if you have air conditioning in building. I had interior of metal building sprayed with foam and built a floored attic with finished area below. I insulated the attic above ceiling also in addition to the interior roof foamed. I used roll insulation above foam on interior walls of finished area. Absolutely no condensation. If you finish a metal building and don’t insulate it correctly, you will get moisture and mold in the walls. One also needs to consider an attic ventilation system ensuring proper intake for airflow assuming you out a ceiling in and so forth. A ductless mini split system works fabulous in these conditions.

Flex Seal Gallon is the ticket. I put it on 2 years ago and it still fabulous. I will likely clean lightly in a few years and add another coat just as a preventive.

[GoatZilla]

This is why I would go for eaves/overhang on all sides of the building, an EPDM gasket between the sill plate and the concrete, tape seal over the exterior of that concrete/sill interface, and then overhang the siding.

[chuckmilburn]

I have a metal building also and my building is one foot smaller than the slab and I had the same problem with water coming in under the wall so I ran a beed of caulk around the building and that stopped it from leaking. I also live in South Carolina.

[clayjacobs]

I built these in the 90s. I couldn't see your trim package like gable covers and such. Should see little to no light up top of building. They can get it tighter than that. As for the leaks at roll up doors there should have been sumps in the slab where the doors sit when closed and in the area where your door frame base plate sits should have run a good Butyl rubber sealant across that area, there may be a way to temove some screws and drive some wedges under it enough to al it real good. Honestly we put sealant all the way around and foam corrugated blocking all the way around the outside walls. Keeps the field mice and bugs out. As for everywhere there are no doors the dirt should be graded down at least 8 to 10 inches below the top of the slab and the sheets should hang down at least 2 inches from top edge of slab, I like 3 inches but it all depends on their package, to late now lol. You might want to get up on tge roof and walk it and inspect the black washers to make sure non are busted or crushed or not tight enough. Look for missed screws or holes they may have missed.

[nickmitchell]

The company I work for offers a concrete sealant package that blocks 80-90% of water from coming in. It’s basically a foam piece between the steel and the concrete and then our installers silicone both inside and out. Now over time when the steel expands and contracts due to the weather the silicone will separate over time but that typically will fix your water issue

[barryhunt]

Thanks for the video, I'm intending to build me a shop this year, prices are so crazy, but if I don't do it I'll never do it, I'm getting old.

[darrinjones]

I bought that foam sill seal for when you build a house you put that where the exterior wall and floor meet, had the guys put that between the concrete and the square tubing no leaks at all.

[InHarmsWay]

Bought a place in SW Georgia a year ago with a 900 sq ft garage from Alan's. Looks just like yours. I had to caulk the sill and all window openings, added 2" spray foam to ceilings and walls, added a Mr Cool system and had to add double wall polycarbonate "shutters" to the inside of the aluminum frame single pane windows because the condensation on them was horrendous. Then removed the crappy roll up garage door and installed an expensive insulated and sealed garage door. Spray foam also covers all the support channel so there is no condensation anywhere inside. Now my wood shop is super comfy all year. I do still have a floor leak in one spot that I need to re-caulk.

[rooster]

lol, C ment?We use concrete in WI....dont want to put it down but thats just a glorified steel tent....what it is for $15k.In WI that thing would either blow away or be like open air in it during the winter.Ill say its not bad for say $20-25k.my stick built 36x44x12 shop is at $100k(completed)and that was 4yrs ago.

[jwilli]

My building is pretty much the same type from Carolina Carports. I put clear silicone around the bottom between the slab and the frame. I used spray foam on the gaps in the corners.

[ChimpsAI]

Overhanging roof (if an option for this model) and extended sloped concrete pad around the entire structure would mostly eliminate that water intrusion issue and decrease dirt splatter on the bottom of the building's exterior walls. I would spray foam the interior to prevent interior condensation. Otherwise, great value for the interior space.

[NYTROeast]

You are supposed to slop the concrete all the way around the building in a 1/4 inch DOWNWARD SLOPE-AWAY from the building so that any water that falls onto the exposed concrete will roll AWAY from the inside of the building

[mrbrown]

I know this is an old video. We got a Quality sreel building from North Carolina they came up to NY and put the building up for us on our concrete pad and they put a foam strip under the building and when it snowed or rained it would be damp about a foot inside the building all the way around it and went on for 2 years we tried silicone didn't work we ended up jacking building up and putting down sill seal and pressure treated 2x4s around and then another layer of sill seal and fastened the building down on top of the pressure treated wood with long concrete anchors and we have not had a moisture problem since.

[clayjacobs]

I just saw it. Tgere is no flat kick trim that covers the top of your wall sheets pushes up tight to the bottom of the roof sheet. Screw washer rubber will start breaking down in the future and when you get a bunch go ahead and replace them all. We put them up for homes in the country.

[mark]

Pro tip, suggest referring to slab as "concrete" and not "cement". Cement, (portland cement) is just one ingredient in concrete.

[kingscourt]

As far as bang for the buck, these steel building seem really good. That is a pretty big structure for the money. I'm sure the convenience/practicality that it provides is huge.