Re: [VAL] Introduction and (surprise) a question!

["Tom" <thomm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bill,

Welcome to the vintage group.

I had a garage built for us by Morton Buildings www.mortonbuildings.com and 
they did a fantastic job from start to finish and I believe they are the 
best in the business at what they do.  Morton Buildings has been around for 
a long time, they just had their 100th anniversary last year if I'm not 
mistaken.  Morton is out of Illinois and they have sales centers all over 
the USA, they are some of the nicest people I've ever had the opportunity of 
working with and their fit and finish of their buildings are the best 
around.

Our largest Airstream (we have 2 of them) is 34' and this was the size we 
wanted to house along with our other Airstream of 29'.  In the back of my 
mind I was thinking that it would really be nice if when we returned home 
and maybe the weather was bad and/or for security, how nice it would be just 
to be able to pull in with the tow vehicle and the trailer, get out, lock up 
the building and go in the house.  So this is what we did.

Another thing we thought about was later on down the road we might want an 
RV like a motorhome so we should design in NOW for that possibility with 
taller, wider doors.  This decision also gave us taller exterior walls to 
support those taller, wider doors.

In the end we built our Morton Building with these dimensions:  42' wide by 
60' long.  On the 42' end or front street-side of our building we included a 
set of sliding "aluma-steel" doors that open up to 18' wide and have an 
overhead clearance of 14'.  This would allow us to pull the tow vehicle and 
34' Airstream straight in and then we could lock the doors behind us.

On the 60' side of our building we added another set of the "aluma-steel" 
sliding doors that open to a width of 22.5' and they have a 12' overhead 
clearance.  The next door we added was a steel, 9-pane walk-through door 
which is how we enter the building when it's locked up.

In our case with Morton Buildings we had the building put up FIRST, and then 
the concrete floor was poured.  This was the way to go and you might give 
that idea lots of thought before you put up a pad first and look for 
building on top of it next.  The reason?  IF you put the building ON the pad 
you will need a lot MORE concrete to support those side posts.  Our posts 
are about 5' into the ground, they are laminated 2x6's and 2x8's making for 
really BIG, sturdy posts.  Concrete was added to the post footings after the 
holes were augured out to depths of about 5'.  With the concrete poured 
AFTER the posts and building was put up we eliminated a huge cost of extra 
concrete that would have been needed as footers for buildings of our size 
and HEIGHT; the higher you go the stronger the footers have to be except if 
you do it like we did.  As it is the posts are guaranteed for 50 years AND 
we had the entire property where the building sits treated for termites 
BEFORE the concrete was poured.  We really don't anticipate any problems 
with the wood.

Under our concrete floor I added 4" of gravel so that NO moisture could ever 
'wick up' through the concrete floor.  On top of 4" of gravel that was 
packed down we added heavy plastic sheeting, then the concrete wire 
reinforcement and only then was the 4" of concrete flooring added.

When we installed the concrete flooring I had the concrete mixing company 
add strengthener to the concrete so that we now have a base that will 
support 3500 p.s.i. and I will never worry about our floor being unable to 
support any weight I will put on it.

Morton Buildings will also give you up to a brand new building IF it should 
be destroyed by weather in the first 5 years -- they are really a great 
company.  Any damage due to weather will be fixed for free during the first 
5 years and I don't know of any company that will do that for you.  Their 
warranty and guarantees are the best in the business but they are not the 
most expensive either.  I did my homework and looked into lots of building 
companies before settling with Morton Buildings.

With the 12' side walls and the Morton designed curved roof trusses we have 
14' of overhead clearance down the length of the building.  This not only 
will be good for a motorhome or bus in the future but it also gives us 
enough clearance to build overhead storage platforms and stairs should we 
decide to do so later on.

I would suggest to you that you totally fumigate this older Airstream 
regardless of how much longer it stays out in the elements.  Rodents are so 
destructive to any trailer and their urine and feces will rot even the 
wiring insulation and worse.  I suspect that once you fumigate the fun will 
begin when you finally get to work on this trailer.  I would also advise you 
to put out plenty of mice bait and sticky traps for the mice that will STILL 
find a way into your garage and the trailer is locked up, they are that bad! 
Bad as in bad company.

If I can answer any more questions for you I'd be happy to help out if you'd 
send me a note to thomm@carolina.rr.com and I'll get back in touch with you.

Good luck!

Tom
WBCCI 5303