car ports

ratface · Jun 9, 2020

I'm interested in buying a carport thru my local dealer made by American Steele
inc. I want to put it on my concrete drive and am considering 12x20 which would
fit nice on my drive leaving me a space next to it to accommodate another
vehicle.

First decision is steel gauge, they offer 14 gauge as a base price of $1015 with
an option to upgrade to 12 gauge for $100 more.

My second decision is to get one side or two sides an additional $500 for both
sides.

I have to put it into the west wind direction so one side will shield me from
North wind. I am in NE Illinois so snow drift will be an issue. So I am looking
at around $1600 before taxes with installation. Anyone ever deal with
AmericanSteele Inc. and would you get the heavier gauge steel upgrade and one or
two sides?

dahlin · Jun 9, 2020

ratfase I would spend the 100 more and get the heavier steel do you have hail storms hail can make holes in 14 gauge. think it was one of the boys from northern Mn that had holes in there roof from a hail storm. Randy

jal-SD · Jun 9, 2020

Do you have a building code where you want to put the carport? Some building codes have wind & snow loading standards on those. Be sure your supplier can provide the necessary engineering certificates if you have to meet a specific code.

kencombs · Jun 9, 2020

Pretty sure the 12-14 ga is the frame not sheet stock. That will be 29ga most likely. I have 12, but if doing it again, I'd go cheap. anything that damages the frame would probable destroy the sheet stuff anyway. But, if they offer extra bracing, get it. It will be wobbly without it.

JDEM · Jun 9, 2020

I have 10 of those steel car ports, all in a windy and snowy area. In my opinion, the heavier gauge steel is a must and so is vertical roofing. The cheaper horizontal roofing is awful when it gets snow on it. I had one large car-port blow away a week after it was installed. I had meant to do a better job of anchoring it but had not gotten around to yet.

DoubleO7 · Jun 9, 2020

Yes, spend the extra $100 for 12 ga, but note that is for the support tubes.I

I would also upgrade from 29ga panels to 26ga panels.

If the 12 foot width is half the width of your slab, think seriously about going to the full width.

Also COMPARE PRICES between dealers as well as brands such as Carolina Carports.
Some of these carport companies set their dealers up with exclusive territories. That allows the local dealer to set the price to suit his bottom line, not hours.

I have bought two and neighbor next door bought six, each one from a different dealer. And each one was a different cost per sq ft.
All were installed by the same south of the border crew in about four hours each.
All were by Caroline Carport.

Also, if your shopping for the cheaper style, i.e. Bent supports with the panels running lengthwise, compare the value of the sides to what the price would be if you added them yourself.
Putting those on are easy to do for two people from the ground.
You can get the metal from your local pole barn metal supply.

tomNE · Jun 9, 2020

most companies i know of install them for nothing. make sure it's tied down well; they fly like a bird if wind gets underneath them!

Mike M · Jun 9, 2020

I would pay the extra for the roof panels that run up and down vertical and not the horizontal ones as these don't drain off well and leak at the seems when installed this way.

old-9 · Jun 9, 2020

The ones i have were only staked down with a 1/2 inch rebar driven into the ground, if on a slab they use concrete anchors. I pulled my rebars out one or two at a time and dug holes with a post hole digger, put rerod back in and filled hole with concrete mix and water. The carports are still where they were. joe

Traditional Farmer · Jun 9, 2020

I had 3 basic Carolina 18 X 21 carports put up about 20 years ago for goat shelters,they are still standing even held up under a 28" snowfall.Have held up better than I ever figured they would.

Texasmark1 · Jun 10, 2020

I see a lot of prefab car ports and sided, opened end sheds like one would use to protect a Piper Cub....just an accident waiting to happen IMO. Considering the area of the sides and size of the angle braces, seems it wouldn't take much wind to develop a force on those walls to send those things sailing.

caterpillar guy · Jun 10, 2020

By the sounds of them I would skip the carport and just build a shed. All the bracing available would be worth more than all the rest of it. Also who would put siding on so water would have to run over the ribs.

1948CaseVAI · Jun 10, 2020

Texasmark1 is right. Build a garage properly anchored to the slab or a foundation. I would sure not want to ride the liability of owning a metal kite in a windstorm unless I had no neighbors within a several miles.

DoubleO7 · Jun 10, 2020

(quoted from post at 10:20:44 06/10/20) Texasmark1 is right. Build a garage properly anchored to the slab or a foundation. I would sure not want to ride the liability of owning a metal kite in a windstorm unless I had no neighbors within a several miles.

Down here they are "hurricane rated" which equals a regular one with auger in anchors going in about three feet, 10 feet apart.

And there are maybe a million of them that escape storm damage.

BarnyardEngineering · Jun 10, 2020

(quoted from post at 06:04:28 06/10/20) By the sounds of them I would skip the carport and just build a shed. All the bracing available would be worth more than all the rest of it. Also who would put siding on so water would have to run over the ribs.

You're not going to build a shed 12x21 for anything near $1600.

coshoo · Jun 10, 2020

I have 2 of them, and am well satisfied. As another said, go the full width of the slab- not much more money, and you can get more stuff in out of the rain. Don't know about the snow load/wind situation- western Washington, where a foot of snow is rare, and winds generally under 20. Lots of rain, though, and I'm glad I had them put siding on the windward side.

As far as the horizontal roof panels, they raise up one end several inches so it slopes, and the rain runs off the end. No problems with leaks. I took great pains to make the area where the base sits perfectly level. Then they came and sloped it, and if I had done nothing, they could have just built it as is and the slope would have been perfect. Oh, well.

mark1955 · Jun 10, 2020

I bought a metal garage building from American steel co, four years ago, love it, (not big enough though, ha ha). 24 x 26, not a very big space to cover but already had a pad there. the cost to build a regular steel I-beam building was, over twice the cost of the carport buildings. mine was 6200, here in west Texas, I have it filled up. the 12 gage is the frame work steel tube, better than the 14 gage. can rust out on the ground side easier, using the thinner gage metal. get the sides, and have them fill in the top ridge of building, with some kind of insulation, to prevent leaking , I hate to look at the ridge line in side and see day light, they did insulate it at time of building it, 6 hrs build time. add more bracing if possible, mark 55

Leroy · Jun 10, 2020

A pole barn will do the same thing. Had a neighbor that had a pole barn put up by a commercial building company. Wind came and pulled all poles out of ground, think it was about 40 x 60 ft. Blew it onto the railroad next door. Would never have thought wind could have pulled all the posts without breaking a single one.

car ports

ratface

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dahlin

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jal-SD

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kencombs

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JDEM

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DoubleO7

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tomNE

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Mike M

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old-9

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Traditional Farmer

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Texasmark1

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caterpillar guy

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1948CaseVAI

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DoubleO7

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BarnyardEngineering

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coshoo

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mark1955

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Leroy

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