9.0 Starting on the Steel Quonset

It took two Saturdays and two groups of helpers to erect my steel Quonset hut garage for our Earth Sheltered home.
Eventually, it will be covered in 8 inches of concrete and steel, which will then be covered by a hill of dirt that covers the top by two or three feet.
The blog post about the build is here...
www.homeintheearth.com/2014/10...

[@jazzbonewest]

Good video. I picked up one great tip. When you showed your dad raising the 2x4 attached to the center of one arch it made perfect sense. Thanks.

[@dethmaul]

THAT was a good idea. The legs of the section flattening out and losing shape and strength. I'm sure glad i watched this video! I would have never thought of that. Well, there's a 30% chance i would have sparked a curiosity when looking at the scraggly leg sections lol

[@1966cambo]

I will be putting mine up this spring, it is much wider and is going on top of shipping containers, should be really interesting!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Sounds very interesting... Put it on KZbin and I'll try to send traffic your way.

[@dethmaul]

Make sure you reinforce the containers! They're only meant to support crazy loads on the corners. The floor is probably rated for normal loads, and probably no load for the roof. And anyone reading this, burial is a BAD idea unless you have like 4 feet of rocks in all directions from it to make sure the dirt doesn't press onto the sides and cave it in.

[@zbigniewteterycz1571]

SUPER IDEA . POZDRAWIAM .

[@frankwick3989]

Thanks for the in depth info! I want to build on too. This is great info.

[@reactanddraw7871]

The work song fro. Phenis and ferb is in the background

[@jonathanwilliams5201]

Your video is super excellent. Thank you.

[@gary24752]

You should have a shoulder for the panels to sit on that would be at a lower elevation from the finished floor in order to prevent water from running across your slab.

[@426superbee4]

I think there the greatest invention since the wheel. There affordable , wind proof up to 200 mph, and strong! I like them so much thinking of living in one. one day. 1 person can put it up. believe it or not. Just working on one on the weekends about 4 hours a day, it took 3 of us a month to put a big one up 35'w x 53' L x 16' H. They need to be insulated with foam. our is 10 years old and no surface rust at all and still shiny new looking.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

+426 SUPER BEE... I did put up one section with two people, but I would recommend 4. And actually the more the merrier. I think one person would have a very hard time. First, simply moving the pieces around by yourself and positioning them where you need them would be awkward, but holding the bolt still on one side while you tighten the nut by yourself would be very tricky or require some sort of creative solution, like gluing the bolt down... These steel master sections are two ft wide and curved. I could not reach both sides at the same time...

[@bradcordrey4727]

Yo should build houses out of them but roofers and vinyl siding people would raise hell. I built a 28 x 28 garage and it took a solid month

[@426superbee4]

No the 1st arch is the hardest ! once get 5 of em up its a breeze! then can do 1 or 2 people one hold it as you slide it up on the arch its really hard for 1 person but it can be done 1 piece a time ! we put the sides on and bolt 2 joints and side them up over the arches then put the Stiffener Plates in bolt it down

[@426superbee4]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth i agree need at less 2 people and no more than 4 ~ having 2 scaffolds really helps to. one setting them up . other for bolts nuts and bolting them down.. REALLY we just slide 2 bolted pieces on the arch slide it up and over into place > With the stiffener plates! a must to have

[@lizwynaco2222]

Way cool. Good time lapse to keep the vid moving along.

[@j-man699]

This actually goes 1/3 faster building one arch, in place, piece by piece. There’s a method to bolting it. One 34' x 16’ arch = 2 men in 2:45.

[@426superbee4]

With just me and a helper, we just slide a piece or 2 togather, of the arch at a time up on it and bolted it down once we had the bottom up. Hell it was easy Lmao the hardest thing was bolting it down. / next hardest was with the 1st 3 arches, is pluming it. with a bobber pushing it until it was plumed its best not to tighten the bolts down on the 1st 3 arches until its plumed ~ Rest is easy and then tighten all the bolts down as you go ~ I love these building

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yup, what gauge? What span? What height? What design? I am sure there are lots of variations that can make this easier or harder.

[@426superbee4]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Quonset hut, 35' W x 16' H x 58' L on weekends took 2 months to build a hell of a lot of bolts and nuts we used ratchets and electric tools to tighten them> i can't remember what gauge it is? but its heavy galvanized metal 12 or 14 gauge

[@mikeajacksonreaction]

Thank you.

[@yikesmcgee1283]

Quirky worky song !!!!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yup, good stuff.

[@ronlanway6667]

This was painful to watch

[@reactanddraw7871]

Yeah

[@coasterkat4432]

Luv the music! that’s awesome! 😄 thanks for sharing your advice & information

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, the music was worth the copyright strike ;) The fraction of a penny I would have got for you watching it went to Disney instead, but that show is so great I don't even mind.

[@CrowBarActual]

ratchet straps work pretty well some times.

[@templecatt]

You used the Phineas and ferb building song omg

[@CaptainShack]

How tall is this thing? Seems massive. Trying to figure out how tall I want my personal workshop. Thanks for making a great video!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

+TheXPGamers This size (S30x40) comes in two heights. Mine was 14.5ft tall in the middle, the alternative was 17 ft in the middle. The taller one lets you put in a second floor with decent head room.

[@adrianm6156]

MY HAT GOES OFF TO YOU. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO MAKE THIS. I AM CURRENTLY BUILDING MINE AND THE INSTRUCTIONS REALLY SUCK. I EVEN THINK THEY DID NOT GIVE ME ENOUGH BOLTS FOR THE WHOLE PROJECT. I FOUND THE FIST ARCH TO BE THE HARDEST. HOW DID YOU GET THE FIRST ARCH TO BE PERFECTLY LEVEL AND STRAIGHT? THE FIRST ARCH IS CONSTANTLY MOVING AND SWAYING. IF YOUR FIRST ARCH IS WRONG I THING THE REST WILL BE AS WELL.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, the first arch was like wet spaghetti. I was seriously doubting my ability to complete the project. This is why they tell you to finger tighten the bolts (not too tight) and put the first 4 arches in. Then, after things are a bit more stable, you can square up the first 4 before moving on to the rest. You are not supposed to fully tighten the bolts until the end. As for the quantity of bolts, I had much more than enough. I still have about 15 lbs worth of bolts and nuts (most of a bucket full).

[@user-vr4gq4pt8p]

we made big wooden cradles on long 2 by 4s. Like a giant fork for support on each side. After you get about 4 up, they support each other.

[@hemidart7]

The key part to this is the Anchoring of the footing why don't you show that???

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Its not really a "how to" video, but anchoring was pretty easy. I just had brackets and used a hammer drill to drill down and then used concrete anchor bolts to attach the brackets to the concrete. Later (in another video) I cam back and filled the grove with grout.

[@caputto1000]

Nice

[@Jamestfarrell]

SteelMaster isn't willing to pay to have a tech support person in there on Saturdays? Another important thing to know about them!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I think I tried to call, but didn't get thru. Not sure what they would have told me anyway other than "try harder, you'll get there."? Perhaps they do have Saturday support, but they were already on a line? I had no complaints about SteelMaster. I'd recommend them (and I have).

[@josephmedina6445]

Hi, thanks for recording your project. Did you make it an earth berm? I'm thinking about doing the same and would love to know if it worked. Cheers

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

+joseph medina Actually, the plan is to cover it over (side to side) with several feet of earth (burial, not just berm). The end walls will still be mostly open. The end walls are done now, and I have the video almost ready to post, but we won't bury it until later in the year.

[@josephmedina6445]

+Simon HomeintheEarth Thanks for the response. Will the shell be able to support the weight of the dirt or will you be reinforcing with some kind of framing? I look forward to the next vid! Best wishes

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

+joseph medina Yes, the steel quonset can probably support the load, I have seen pics of these being directly buried (just waterproofing). That said, I only plan to use the quonset as fancy formwork for rebar and shotcrete. It will really be the concrete and rebar that supports the final earth load.

[@josephmedina6445]

+Simon HomeintheEarth Ahh. yeah the rebar and shotcrete sounds right. Thanks for sharing bud! Best of luck.

[@LibertyCatechism]

Wouldn't there be a way to frame structure with the rebar and use shotcrete without the quonset as the form?

[@ArtisanTony]

Most of these buildings have panels that are 24 1/2" center to center of the bolt holes. Not 24"

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I wouldn't have said that if it wasn't reading it directly from the instructions provided with the steel... Its not a rigid thing though.

[@ArtisanTony]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth I have experience with Metal Pro Buildings in Canada and Curvco in the US and both of them are 24 1/2" :) Most of these systems come with base plates that establish the spacing of the bolts.

[@pauljohnson2372]

What are the dimensions of your b you building? I'm working on one that's 30x30 with 12' of vertical side wall

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

It is an S-type, 30 wide, 40 long and 14.5 tall. That is the shorter one. You can get one that is ~18 tall so you can fit a second floor in there.

[@pauljohnson2372]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth we"ll pour concrete mid week. It's an A type, 18' to the ridge, garage with an in law suite/guest loft

[@kennikuhlmann-clark9860]

How come you didn't use the quonset huts as 'frames' for the rest of the house, instead of making those arches?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I wanted to try a bunch of different things and I didn't just want a series of "boring" quonsets, but my wife and I have joked a few times since that if we had done that (4 Quonsets in a row with no basement and maybe one tower between two of them because I couldn't resist), we would have been done years ago and would have been well under budget.

[@mfriguy4564]

So you left your arches at more than 24” on center? Or did you ever correct it? I have a baseplate on mine that forces it to 24” but the reat of the building doesnt conform to the 24”... im having so much trouble with mine and its so frustrating

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yup, I fought it for hours, but eventually gave up. The building seems fine, just a little longer than planned for.

[@cooltheplanetstat]

How did you resolve the spread problem? We have the same baseplates, and are at the end of our tethers. We have tried lots of remedies but none have resolved the spread problem and the resulting misalignment. Were you able to finish the building?

[@marshallbega6180]

did you do the 16 x 16 footers

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

It is a "slab on grade" footing. My friend and I got it ready by clearing the site, setting up perimeter boards, placing insulation, WWR and even some radiant floor pex, but then the concrete crew showed up and fixed the way that I had done the groove for the Quonset hut. I guess they have more experience with these things. Then the professional crew poured and finished the slab (the had a power trowel, etc.).

[@PhatNguyen-eg7ls]

i am wonder will a forklift will help with the lift?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, if it could go high enough. I have seen it done that way. A telehandler would be even better. But when you don't have those, you use muscle power and teamwork.

[@bladerock9041]

What do these cost? Can they be used underground?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

mine cost 7k for the 22 gauge steel, delivered from Steel Master Buildings. Officially, burying them voids their warranty, but I have buried it and so have many others. You can find a video of that process on my channel. By the time I put in electrical and plumbing and covered it in 2 tons of rebar and shotcrete and then put on garage doors and windows, etc. plus final burial, mine ended up costing $36,600. I did most of the labor myself (except for the shotcrete and installing the first 3 garage doors). If I paid for labor, maybe it goes up to past $50K, which is still a pretty good price per square foot.

[@qzorn4440]

wow there is no EZ way of getting an outdoor building... either DIY do it yourself with several people plus jig & tools or just pay the price and have a turn key shed with installation. 😏 thanks.

[@stuckinthepastproductions4329]

Richard Simons?

[@waft101]

How did it work out without the bracing during erection?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

? Not sure what you mean. I think it worked out fine. A bit floppy at the start, but then fine once we had a few rows up there.

[@waft101]

Thanks. The bracing that keeps everything in line and straight. The manual had diagonals and some in the peak as you go.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Oh yea... Not diagonals, but there were some pre-drilled angle iron pieces that we were supposed to put along the outside to keep the spacing right... they wouldn't fit. Even when we just had two ribs. I tried to make it work, but just couldn't. Eventually, I gave up and let the building just be a little longer.

[@thechumpsbeendumped.7797]

@2:38 4x 240lbs = 960lbs and is less than 1/2 a ton, not almost a ton.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I'm Canadian, so I was probably thinking 1000 kg in a ton. Still not fully used to working with US units. Yes, 4 arches would be less than half a ton.

[@thechumpsbeendumped.7797]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth All you have to do is remember that there are 2.2lbs in a kilo.

[@deezplace]

Shame about the music

[@theadoresnibblegoober6258]

Should have watched Jimi steel mater fail video first

[@balmoralpjk]

I HATE time lapse videos! They make me dizzy. Your videos would be so much better if they weren't time lapsed!!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

+Patrick Karcher But they would be very long ;^)

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

+Patrick Karcher In this case, the wind really contributed to the dizzy feeling.