Toro Steel Buildings

[ahart]

Anyone have any experience with Toro Steel Buildings? They’re currently negotiating a price on a 58x40 container roof system with me. Curious if anyone has dealt with them and what your experience was. I have acquired (2) 40’ high cube open side containers and intend to build a structure out of them. I want a roof system that is easy to expand on in the future when needed. I like the fact that they are 58’ of free span. Side walls will come out to 14’ 6” and peak will be around 21’

What are your collective thoughts?

 

[ahart]

I went ahead with the roof system from Toro steel. There’s a job foreman where I contract to that bought one and it’s actually on the ground at his place so it seems like they come through with their end. They claim delivery will be sometime in May. I’m going to add to this thread when I begin the job and as it progresses. My intention is to pour a pad between the containers and use it as a workshop area. Insulation, end walls/doors will come with time as well.

What are thoughts and suggestions on a base to set the containers on for long term?

 

[Steve Frazier]

Post some pictures of your progress.

Ideally a concrete pad would be best for the containers but if you're looking to make it less expensive depending on the soil conditions I think I'd go with about 6 inches of compacted item 4. It's called different things in different regions, it a blend of fines and aggregate up to 3/4 inch and is used as a road base here. I'd put 2 to 3 inches of 3/4 inch clear stone over that to wick moisture away from the container.

 

[CM1995]

We have a similar setup at our yard between two 40' containers. Put both containers on some pre-cast concrete parking bumpers we salvaged from a demo job in order to keep them off the ground, then used some reclaimed demo steel to build a roof between them.

It's important to keep the containers away from ground water.

 

[ahart]

The parking bumpers had already entered my mind, wondered if that would be a good idea or not.

 

[crane operator]

A lot of the ones we set, they will take a post hole digger to make a footer, and then put sonotubes up to "grade". The 4 corners and then usually 2 or 4 in the middle. Technically the 4 corners should be enough. That's all they touch on when they are on the boat.

We also set a lot of them on the little concrete blocks or gravel, but where you want to tie the two together and have concrete between, I think I would do the footer/ concrete posts. Keep the frost from moving them

On your open side high cubes, do they have the accordion doors that open the whole side, or is there a bar in the middle so you have 1/2 and 1/2? I just looked at some 40 and 20's that the whole side opened up rather than a series of doors, and I don't know which I would rather have. I'm not putting a roof over, I just want the side doors for convenient forklift accessible storage.

 

[DDoug]

What is the snow loading in your area ?

 

[ahart]

@crane operator these have 4 sets of doors down the side and one on the end. I don’t know whether I’ll leave the doors on or take them off eventually.

@digger doug as far as snow load, typically not much. I suppose it’s possible we could get a foot at one time but it’s been years since we did. Engineering says it will handle the snow load for our area. It’s double 12 gauge which should be nearly 3/16” thick for the structural steel. Roof pitch is 3/12

 

[ahart]

Structurally, the four corners would be fine I’m sure but what about ground moisture? Would I be better off to pour a 4” slab the length of the containers?

 

[crane operator]

You could put down plastic and cover it with some clean gravel as a moisture barrier, if you were worried about that.

I was asking about the side doors, because of the fabric roof rafters. If it was a full open side, I would be putting in some posts where the roof lands on the conex. I would probably put a steel beam on the roof, above the sidewall of the conex to spread out your rafter loads. The roofs on the conexes aren't terribly heavy, nor flat, and a beam would give you a good spot to anchor the rafters. If yours is separate doors, it should have the end frame posts all down the side.

You could put concrete under the conexes, but if I had to spend the money on concrete - I would rather have a concrete apron in front of the building, as extra working area, and just put the box on piers.

 

[skyking1]

I'd aim at better grading and drainage over concrete.

 

[CM1995]

The parking bumpers had already entered my mind, wondered if that would be a good idea or not.

Worked so far for us, they were free and I charged to remove them.

 

[ahart]

@skyking1 grading and drainage won’t be an issue on this job, resources are plentiful in that department.

 

[ahart]

Got the first container delivered and unloaded this evening, one more to go. A John Deere 324E skid steer and a little JCB telehandler with about a 5k capacity picked it up and the truck drove out from under it. Tare weight on the box is 9750 or so it says. I was prepared to use my truck crane as a helper but I’m glad it wasn’t needed.

Had a webcast meeting with Toro steel today to finalize the plans so they could finish things on their end, still looking at a May delivery date on that. The guy I work with is getting ready to start assembly on his so I hope to have some first hand pictures sometime in the near future.

 

[CM1995]

Nice. I want one of those 40's with side doors for our yard for storage. Super handy for accessing things.

 

[ahart]

I agree, they’re a bit higher priced than conventional containers but the convenience of being able to get to everything makes it worth it. I’m going to put one with the open side facing the inside of the shop for tools, work benches, and other storage. I’d remove the doors on that one. The other I’m going to put the open side facing the outside. Leave the doors on that one and use for outside accessible storage and possibly partition one bay off if the kids get a 4H animal or something.

We just got nearly 8” of rain in the last 7 days so it’ll be awhile before I can start prepping the pad.

 

[ahart]

A little update to this thread.

Concrete pad was poured two weeks ago, steel structure arrived yesterday. I’ve got to inventory the materials to make sure it’s all there and get started assembling. Containers are ready to me moved and set in place when it dries up, we’ve had 5” of rain in the last week.

 

[CM1995]

Slab looks good.

 

[ahart]

@CM1995 tye concrete guys did a really great job on that.

 

[ahart]

Decided I’d try to get one of my containers moved into place yesterday since it was reasonably dry. Pulled about 200ft with my 4440 John Deere and used my service truck to move it over onto the pad. Worked better than I anticipated. Need to get some stone on the approach so I can get my truck up on it and get the side doors removed.