OT - Certified vs Non-certified Metal Carports????

Looking at some metal carports online today and one of the things I noticed was the certified carports come standard with screw-in mobile
home type anchors vs essentially long spikes to hold the carport to the ground.

On our land, we ARE the Saudis Arabia of rocks - so driven-in anchors or even screw-in type would never make it into the ground. I would dig
a post hole, drop some threaded rod in it with some kind of disk on it at the bottom, fill with concrete and bolt down the carport.

So is the difference between 130 mph certified metal carports all in the anchor type or that and additional construction, like heavier gauge
material, extra bracing, etc.

Is a certified carport even necessary anyway? I've seen them collapse under snow load, maybe from wind damage - just don't recall. What I
do know is that probably 99% of the carports around my neck of the woods are very likely uncertified and the cheapest thing money can buy -
yet they stay standing year after year.

Going to put up 2 or 3 of these around the place - some for hay and at least one for equipment. Just trying to get the best bang for the buck.

Thanks!
Bill

Without comparing plans/spec's for each, its going to be hard to accurately comment on something like this.

I would be inclined to agree that the certified model/design, takes all aspects/details in consideration to the design to arrive at the number you stated, 130MPH. The building itself has to be designed to tolerate the winds per the specifications, in this case 130 MPH as applicable to loading considerations to their product. It would do no good to anchor a flimsy building substantially, anchor will hold, but the building fails. So I would expect better materials, some design redundancy, bracing and whatever else is needed to meet the criteria.

In theory, for what you propose to do, given the conditions you describe, if the manufacturers anchor design will not work in the conditions you have, I would have the manufacturer confirm the type you want to use,(what you described above) so you know in your conditions you have met or exceeded what is needed to hold. Ideally you would want to actually test it to meet spec's or to failure, note the details of same and compare to what the building needs. That may sound ridiculous for something like this, but there's validity in doing this to KNOW the what you have, but not likely feasible for a typical owner. Common sense applies and there is sure to be an alternate detail that will work.

I would imagine a concrete detail, tied into the sub-soils properly should suffice to provide enough resistance, I'd just let the manufacturer detail that for your job. If you go through the trouble/expense of putting up the hay, value of any equipment you store there and a strong weather event occurs, its good to be on the overkill side. Well as much as is feasible without it being wasteful just the same.

I am NOT a big fan of carports. At least for in Ohio. You get a lot of moisture collecting under the roofs that drips. And the ones with the ribs of the metal running lengthwise leak at the seams too. I see now several of them are running the metal seams up and down. This should help stop the leaking. Some sort of vapor barrier may help the moisture dripping ?
Many of these places don't seem all that cheap either ? since you are digging post holes I'd price out some poles and materials to just built a pole building frame with a roof on it. This is what picnic pavilions are made like in my area.

Here in western Washington, we don't get heavy snow loads, but do get high winds coming from the south west, and can happen winter or summer. We mostly have rain all winter. Five years ago I wanted protection from wind and rain for my old AC's, and some hay. I went to carports.com, and bought 3 carports that ere 20 ft. x 21 ft., and had them set up as a single building, with two open ends. I poured four concrete runners, 22 ft long, 1 ft. wide, and 2 ft tall. About one foot was in the ground, and they were squared, and on 20 foot centers. This was 2 weeks before the shed arrived, so they had a little curing time. I paid a little extra for taller frame work, so I could drive through without my mufflers hitting, and also gained some height from my concrete runners. The concrete is too heavy for the shed to lift in the big winds, and the frame work is lagged down to the runners with 1/2" quick bolts. After the shed was up, I took measurements, of the south end opening, and went to Tacoma Truss Co.and had frame work made for 6 half doors, to enclose the south end. I set 4 treated poles at the south end of each runner, to hang my doors from, and covered the Half doors with matching sheet metal. We rarely get weather from the north, so I left the north end open. My hay and machinery stays dry, and I can drive thru if I want to. It looks good, and does what I need, at a cheap price. I can stack 2 round bales on end, for height, but have to watch hitting the metal roof with the loader bucket.

Bill,

I can't help you on the carport question, but might be best to ask the carport guys.

What got me was your comment about being the Saudi Arabia of rocks. Decades ago I lived in Romeoville, IL. which was the rest of the Middle East of rocks. Three houses in the whole town that had basements. The other few thousand of us were either slab or crawl space for the lucky ones. That whole town was built on shale, and I didn't know until I bought there and tried to dig out my crawl space to build a basement. The shovel didn't go deeper than a scratch, and a pick axe not more than 1/4". Want a flower bed? Rent a jack hammer to make a hole, import dirt.

Good luck Sir, I feel for you from experience.

Mark

I put one up a few years ago, and layed down railroad ties and then spiked a 20 foot 2 by 4 to the ties and fastened the car port to that. I don't think any wind is going to lift them heavy ties off the ground.

Bob

Certified by who?

I have a "non - certified" 18 x 21 carport. We had it on top of a hill for 5 years and it never moved with 3' rebar pounded into the ground. Moved it down the hill, pounded in the same rebar stakes and added 3 sides and it never moved for 5 more years until a couple weeks ago.

The shed opened to the west and normally the worst winds seem to come out of the south, north or east with a storm. We had 30-60 MPH sustained winds from the west for 2 days - on day two the shed flipped end for end. This surprised me considering the shed was mostly full of hay, I figured it wouldn't be an issue until the hay was gone. When it flipped the end wall scooped up abut 10 bales of hay that landed in the roof - which seemed to keep it from blowing away. 4 days later on a calm Saturday morning I lifted it part way up with a loader and then we pulled it the rest of the way over. Landed almost where is started from. A few roofing screws to tighten up the seams and it doesn't even leak. On the peaks on the front (where I lifted it with the tractor and loader) and the back (where it stood on end twice) are beat up. For $599 I can't complain too much. From now on I'll tie the frame of the shed to baler (stored with the hay) to keep it from lifting.

Metal carports comes in various size so as to protect vehicle from weather or other element. Well, certified steel structures are important to me, as they adhere to standards needed for building permits. On my friend's recommendation, I recently had installed metal carports Oregon and completely satisfied by the material and protection it provides.

Here in the good part of California, everything should be engineered to hold an 80 Lbs per sq ft snow load. No cheap carports last a a year here.