SteelMaster Quonset Hut: Sheathing Complete!

Just like that, it looks like a real building! It’s been so fun throwing up this quonset hut! At every single stage, I have several people pull in and ask questions about what’s going here and where to buy one of these for their farm.
The guesses on what it’s going to be at different phases have been fun! My favorite was when only half the arches were up and someone thought maybe an ice skating rink. ⛸
It has looked really stunning through all the steps and there isn’t a day that goes by without strangers pulling in, stopping by to admire, or even knocking on our front door to find out more! SteelMaster just really makes gorgeous buildings! 🙌🏽
I’m excited to move on to the next steps and wrap up this build! Meanwhile, I’m also starting Phase I of our new farm. Separate videos on that progress to come. 🐐 🐣 🍉
If you’d like to see the mini daily time lapse progress videos, check out story highlights on Instagram at @hawkeyegrace under “Workshop Build”.
#archesup #steelmaster #quonsethut #quonset #steelmasterusa #828isgreat #canecreekvalley #gracehomes #gracehomesnc #construction #womeninconstruction #design

[@johnhughes7094]

To this point in the build, can you give a cost breakdown? I am planning to build one of these for a shop and later a house.

[@hawkeyegrace]

Absolutely! I'm going to do a very thorough / detailed video costing out every single aspect of each step once the entire project is complete, but that could still be awhile. So below I have a running total of my costs to date. I *think* this is everything so far...but since I am also the accountant (and haven't had time to catch my books up to date to truly account for every cost going out), this is the running total of what I have scratched down when I just think about each component off the top of my head. **NOTES** - One thing that is NOT included in here is my labor...which does account for quite a bit lot since I'm doing A LOT of the work myself. Pretty much anything I can do (or am capable of learning how to do quickly), I save on labor costs by doing it myself...(or having my buddy tell/show me so I can do it myself. :) I'm incredibly lean when it comes to costs, and I negotiate the hell out of my material costs. - Another BIG factor to keep in mind is that the building itself (from SteelMaster) and SOME of the early materials were purchased back in early 2020...so WELL before the recent insane rise of construction material costs. I've already requested an estimate for the identical building for a neighbor who is interested. Sadly, since the cost of steel has increased sizably (around 25-30% at the time I requested the quote), so the raw materials alone have gone up quite a bit. I also had a lot of batten strips and scraps left over from my farmhouse renovation (which used the same fiber cement board siding and batten strips)...so I saved a little there too. The only costs I have included below are my direct subcontractor costs and hard material costs (without any margin that I would normally charge if constructing this for a client). If I haven't missed anything, here is what I have in so far: Quonset Shell Components SteelMaster Arches: $9,305 (34' x 40' building) SteelMaster IBC Plates: $2,864 Anchor Bolts: $756 Concrete Slab (ouch!): $17,155 Temporary Support Framing Materials: $537 Labor for arch assembly (not including mine): $3,984 (this is a little inflated because I had my guys come out on Saturday to finish on the final day, then had to cut the day short due to being short bolts) End Wall Components Tyvek/Plywood/Sheathing/Jamb Framing & Installation for man doors (Materials and Labor): $3,009 Metal Studs/Framing: $2,904 Fiber Cement Board Siding/Batten Strips/ Flashing: $2,298 R-19 Roll Insulation: $362 Exhaust Fan: $288 Two steel man doors (one fancy w/ built in blinds, one plain): $559 total Off the top of my head, I think that covers everything I've purchased thus far. The insulation is purchased, but I haven't installed it yet since I need to get my electrician in there first for rough electrical. I will be installing the installation myself. The overhead door has been purchased, but I haven't received the invoice yet since it hasn't been installed. I believe we are going to try to get that installation started TODAY! It's a 10' x 10' steel back insulated door with one row of glass that will have a remote, and I think that will run around $2k installed. After that, we just have sheetrock and final electrical. It shouldn't be long now. Everything was delayed because it was waiting on me, but I finally just finished the electrical plan and supplied that to my electrician, and trying to get him on deck for his part. I also have some caulk and special sealant costs since I need to finish sealing up the base plates to stop water from seeping in. I haven't tallied those receipts yet, but I'll be sure to include every last cost in my final cost breakdown video. One BIG pain that you have to either account for a lot of time and/or cost of labor is to go back and tighten all of those bolts on the arches once the end walls are complete. In hindsight, I probably could have paid two guys to quickly go through and to that, but I'm stubborn and on a REALLY tight budget since this hike on construction materials has put me way overbudget. So I REALLY wanted to do that myself...but the problem is that you MUST have a 2nd person on the inside of the quonset to sit there with a socket while you climb up top and tighten every single one of the THOUSANDS of bolts. My husband was the lucky winner who I got to rope into this job, but he's a full-time engineer who works A LOT of hours...so getting him available for more than 2-3 hours at a time is extremely difficult. We broke it up into about 3 sessions and it took maybe 8-10 hours total. The biggest pain is for the inside person needing to jump up and down off of scaffolding and getting into all of these crazy angles for each row. Once you have your flow going, it moves quickly...but just takes some time to knock it out. We finally just finished the last of that this past weekend.

[@otaku_mclovin4209]

@@hawkeyegrace this is the longest comment I've ever seen. Nice place though. Thinking of doing something similar. Just haven't decided on structure shape.

[@hawkeyegrace]

@@otaku_mclovin4209 Haha, true! Brevity has never been my strong suit! 😆

[@O-cDxA]

@@hawkeyegrace Thank you for all of this information ! It really helps to estimate cost !

[@hawkeyegrace]

@@O-cDxA I’m glad it is helpful! That was my biggest hurdle going into this. You are so many videos about quonsets, but not a lot of insight for a first timer. I’m sure volatile materials costs might be different than what I have spent (and actually that volatility has put a pause on construction for now)…but I’m glad I at least can store some items in it and keep them dry in the meantime.

[@smacnee3278]

It’s looking great and glad steelmaster followed up and did the right thing.

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thank you! Yes, I'm so glad they did too! It was a late in the process, but in the end they definitely made it right for me. I've already had 2 neighbors who are seriously interested in purchasing as well, so I'm comfortable facilitating more business for them now that the relationship has been repaired. I hope your build with your Nucor building goes smoothly!

[@Manoffire260]

Just got this in my feed - I love the inset detail, makes it look WAY better and far more architectural. We are currently designing our retirement place on acreage in southeast Ohio. The thought is to build something like this as a house that my son can inherit and use as is, or easily turn into shop/storage as he builds his family. I’m very anxious to view your other videos - thanks to the good old KZbin algorithms. BTW - saw you are from Clinton - I’m originally from Sterling, IL

[@hawkeyegrace]

Hey that's awesome! Thanks for the comment! I feel like it has been FOREVER since I posted an update, but the good news is that we're FINALLY started construction back up this month! Unfortunately, my electrician had some medical issues right when he was scheduled to do the rough electrical. He's since had surgery, recovery, and caught up on his projects so we're shooting to get back to it. Once he finishes the rough electrical, I'll be insulating myself and then we'll be throwing up sheetrock. I thought that he wouldn't be back in shape until next year, so I temporarily used it for storage and things kind of got piled up! Ugh. I'm regretting it now because I need to get it empty again so we can get started back up, so I should have some more update videos to post soon!

[@eherlim]

Thanks for the video and the detailed cost breakdown. My wife and i are trying to build one for vacation home but can't really decide the size that we wanted. Your video helps and we might go with similar size

[@hawkeyegrace]

I’m so glad it was helpful!!

[@treadmarsh1094]

I recently purchased a similar building and have plans to build it into a shop. I like the choices you made for the end walls and might use your ideas with a few variations. Thanks for sharing

[@hawkeyegrace]

That’s so great! I’m so glad that it was helpful! Good luck with your build, I’m sure it will be amazing!

[@6.Overland]

Just discovered your channel. Just dried in my end walls with the ZIP (Ouch!). Great to see someone else’s solutions. Now to solve the seeping IBC.

[@gracemcintire7880]

Ouch indeed! Zip and even just cheap plywood is still so much higher than I'd like right now! I'm building a few chicken cooks and the cost of plywood is just hard for me to wrap my head around right now! Ugh...the seeping IBC issue! I've only about partially resolved that since I have only sealed off the one the exterior of one side and not gone to revisit it completely yet since hardly any water comes in. I'm using Titebond's WeatherMaster 9.5-oz Silver Paintable Advanced Sealant Caulk in Metallic Gray and it's working pretty well. 1/4 of the way through, my fancy battery-powered caulk gun kept malfunctioning (pushing the stopper out and squeezing the caulk out everywhere), so I never had a chance to finish. However, I will say that just caulking the outside of one side has made a big difference. I figure once I get around to doing the inside to finish the one side and then the same process on the other side, I think it will be pretty close to resolved. The problem it's not seeping enough that anything I have is getting wet to make me make it a priority, but also annoying whenever it rains I can't stand seeing the water seeping in. I have so many things going on right now, but I DEFINITELY need to get back to my quonset project and post some updates for everyone. My electrician is still way behind so his delay has kind of held up the rest since my electrical rough is the next thing I need inspected and I can't throw in the insulation until then. However, it has also been nice because it's given me A LOT of extra time to think and I've made some modifications to plans I have coming up ahead. I was originally planning on throwing drywall on the endwalls inside. I love the look of the steel framing, but I really do want to throw some insulation on those walls. However, not crazy about the price to sheet rock those super tall walls and I don't need them that nice. I'm seriously contemplating throwing the insulation in and using this nice wood paneling over the surface to save some money but still able to insulate. I'll try to finish up my IBC sealing project one of these weeks and post the update on that.

[@SnowyOwlPrepper]

Lovely job.

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thank you!

[@kiraleasimms1433]

Beautiful☆

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thank you!!

[@charlesviner1565]

Just subscribed

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thank you! :)

[@12vLife]

Hi. regarding your house. was that custom built? How many sq ft? at 5:50 Is this just 4x8 fiber cement siding with the batten strips at the joints and down the middle? Hardie Board? How thick? Is it screwed down or nailed down? Did you have to pre-drill it?

[@hawkeyegrace]

Hello there! The teal blue farmhouse in the background was actually a hybrid project (part gut/reno and part custom build). When we bought the property, it was an abandoned little house that needed A LOT of work to get it up to code and in a livable condition. I'll be posting a whole series on that renovation separately. I have all of the footage, but just haven't had time to edit it together. To answer your questions: The original structure was 58 years old at the time of the renovation and it was only 962 sq. ft. (a 37' x 26' rectangle). The original plan was to just gut and renovate what was there. However, I was having a lot of trouble finding adequate homeowner's insurance for it (because the house was so small and in such bad condition...but the land was so valuable)...so we decided to add a small addition on to the end of it to help boost the value. The addition was 19' x 26' and that part was custom built. I just popped it on to the end of the existing structure and tied everything together very cleanly so that it looked one a single cohesive home where you couldn't see where the original structure ended and the addition began. It was actually a bit of a pain, in that, for some god-awful reason...the ceilings in the original home are a bit shorter than standard 8'! So after we framed the brand new addition, we had to go and cut down all of the studs so that the trusses on the addition were the same height as the existing structure. I hate short ceilings, so that really sucked...but I was putting a new roof on the whole house and I didn't want the addition to stick out, and I couldn't afford to add a 2nd story to the addition. That left us with a very long rectangle of a house, so I knew I wanted to go with vertical batten strips to visually extend the home vertically and counterbalance that length. Yes, you are correct. For the exterior siding, I went with 4x8 smooth fiber cement board siding. It's 1/4" thick. Yes, it is essentially smooth hardie board. The fiber cement board I used on the house was not name brand Hardie, but the fiber cement board on the quonset is true name brand Hardie...and I honestly didn't see any difference in the two aside the primed finish color. The non-Hardie was primed grey and the quonset Hardie was primed yellowish. In fact, I was a few sheets short of yellow Hardie Board on my quonset and I grabbed a few sheets of the smooth grey fiber cement board we used on the house and it was interchangeable. You're also correct that I ran a batten strip right at the joint and then another one down the middle. They are 24" OC. I'm definitely a little different when it comes to design. I LOVE a vertical batten strip, but I really dislike most uses of it when they are way too tight together. It just seems so busy and crazy when there are so many batten strips (in my opinion). When we were gaming it out, I was pressing really hard for the 24" OC and everyone thought I was crazy for wanting them so wide apart. No one in my crew had ever done batten strips that wide. I told them just to trust me. I think the least amount of space I was willing to go was 18" OC, but was pushing for 24" (and glad I did). Obviously, when you have 4'x8' sheets, you have a limitation on what increment you can use since it needs to be a divisible increment that fits into 4' so you can hit the seams....so that really only left us with either 16" OC or 24"OC. In the end, I'm SO glad I stuck to my guns. It turned out beautifully, and all of my subcontractors agreed that it was the better choice when the batten strips were up. On the house, the were just nailed down with a nail gun...no screwing or predrilling was necessary since we used wood framing, and there is also 7/16" Zip sheathing under the smooth fiber cement. I know Hardie makes a textured wood fiber cement, but I've always hated that wood textured look. I LOVE real wood grain and texture, so that fake texture across the whole 4'x8' sheets has always seemed a bit off-putting for me. However, since the soffit material we used only was available in wood grain, so we had to integrate the wood grain accents in. I was surprised how much I did like that because it gave some visual contrast. I guess I really just don't like the wood grain pattern in the full siding sheet. To complement the soffit, I did use the wood grain pattern side of the batten strip and that gave it some nice contrast. I thought it was pretty cool that the 1'x2" Miratec batten strips we used had both a smooth side and a wood-textured side, so it really gives you the option to choose which finish you want.

[@charlesviner1565]

Greetings from Davenport Iowa

[@hawkeyegrace]

Wow, hello!!! I was born and raised in Clinton, IA!! I worked in Davenport in High School! Went to college in Iowa City…Go Hawkeyes!!

[@charlesviner1565]

@@hawkeyegrace where is Grace Farms?

[@hawkeyegrace]

@@charlesviner1565 We’re just outside of Asheville, NC. Our family moved here and put down roots for our kids and future generations. We thought it would be nice to bring a little Iowa to NC! :)

[@charlesviner1565]

@@hawkeyegrace that's cool 😎. Just subscribed to your channel and look forward to chatting with you in the future. I love Eagle point park in Clinton

[@hawkeyegrace]

​@@charlesviner1565 Thanks so much! I'm long overdue for a trip back home to Iowa...but looking forward to bringing my kids there and introducing them to Eagle Point Park! My husband (from Los Angeles) is a HUGE baseball nut and I'm pretty sure I sealed the deal when I brought him to Dyersville to see the Field of Dreams the first couple months of dating. If only I could have scored tickets to that epic MLB last week! A few of my friends from high school were able to go and I was SO envious!

[@varietasVeritas]

For that price, i think that I would go with ICF! Cover with hydrophobic concrete.

[@phil20_20]

We've destroyed most of our forest lands. It's no suprise lumber is up.

[@SmorgasbordHomes]

Nice!! How many sq ft?

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thank you! It’s 1,360 sq. ft. My last warehouse that I rented was 1,500 sq. ft. but a standard warehouse with 16’ ceilings. The Quonset is 16’ in the center, but definitely feels so much smaller than my last warehouse due to the arches. It definitely takes getting used to the reduced height capacity, but does have a great aesthetic look!

[@johnhughes7094]

Looking at 40 X 50 25 ft high so as to build a second floor for parts storage and loft to live for a short time till the steel house is done.

[@hawkeyegrace]

That sounds AMAZING! I’ve seen some really cool 2-story quonsets and it would be a dream come true to build one someday!

[@gettsum991]

Could you let me know the size of the still building you got and how much you paid for it delivered

[@hawkeyegrace]

Hey there! I itemized out the costs to date in another comment reply on this video.

[@MJ-tg6wb]

What is this building for, it looks commercial. I like it.

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thank you! Once complete, I'll be using it as my workshop. I own a few small businesses (a print shop and a construction/renovation company), so I used to rent a commercial warehouse and during the pandemic it got to be crazy since I was working from home anyway. For years I've been trying to find a little bit of land to build my own warehouse so I could stop renting. It will start out as my workshop, but I've already got plans in motion to build a larger shipping container workshop since we ended up buying 6 acres and starting a farm. So with that in mind, I wanted this quonset to be able to serve multiple commercial purposes. Once I outgrow it and we expand my workshop to another area on our property, I'll convert this to a little retail storefront for our farm once we open to the public. It's closer to the road and really catches your eye. I wanted to make it a nice little shop used for many things.

[@larryvaughn2567]

Yes the high cost of lumber. Economists call it inflation. It's also called price gouging !!!!

[@gracemcintire7880]

It's really crazy how expensive everything has become these day! It has been very difficult to keep up in our construction estimating for projects that have a long timeline.

[@govegan562]

how much did the structure cost if you don’t mind me asking ?

[@hawkeyegrace]

Hey there! Absolutely. I actually received this question a little while back and broke down all of my costs to date in this comment thread.

[@govegan562]

@@hawkeyegrace i just saw it..thank you so much for being transparent

[@hawkeyegrace]

@@govegan562 no problem! Happy to help!

[@samuelmandarelli2645]

It looks like your slab is going to be below the exterior grade when your finished. Not good. Crushed asphalt will track pieces of tar into your building. It stains everything. It’s good for a filler base but it’s not suitable for a finished layer of your parking area.

[@hawkeyegrace]

Thanks for the info! The slab is above the exterior grade, we have a nice slope away on all 4 sides. I’ve been experimenting with crushed asphalt on tractor paths / areas on the farm (farther away from this Quonset). just to see how we like it. You’re correct…overall I’m not sold it alone will would work. We love that it isn’t dusty, but honestly it’s the weeds popping through far more through that vs. crushed concrete that drives me crazy.

[@samuelmandarelli2645]

@@hawkeyegrace I think the lime in the crushed concrete keeps some of the weeds at bay. You would think that the oil in the asphalt would too… I just know from experience that it’s messy as hell. It’s worse in the summer too. The slab elevation comment is probably just the way the video is angled. Good luck with your project!

[@hawkeyegrace]

@@samuelmandarelli2645 thank you so much!! I truly appreciate the info!!

[@charlemarcharlemar2401]

The operative word here is "super". At least it wasn't "awe****". THE most overused and old word in English.

[@hawkeyegrace]

Haha, fair point! I’m definitely guilty of overusing that word sometimes!!

[@drewjohnson4673]

Your blowing into the mic after every comment is not very professional.