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Do THIS Before Choosing a Fabric Structure
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Jan 24, 2024
When choosing a fabric structure, there are 5 main questions you need to ask yourself. Failing to do so can lead to a result that you weren't quite picturing. Ask yourself these 5 questions, they are as simple as they are fundamental and they must not be ignored! It's extremely important that you do this before choosing a fabric structure. Once you've answered each question, you'll be on your way to picking the perfect fabric structure for your needs! 🎪 Calhoun Super Structure: ► https://bit.ly/45Z0tI9 🔔 Subscribe and never miss an upload: ► http://bit.ly/BLRchannel ✅ *_Step-by-step_* plans to build your life of *_true freedom:_* ► https://baileylineroadlearning.com/ 🏡 Free, expert advice to *_build and customize_* your dwelling: ► https://baileylineroad.com/
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0:00
Well hi, it's Steve Maxwell here and in this video I'm going to explain to you
0:05
everything I've learned so far about choosing a fabric structure. And by
0:11
fabric structure I mean something that's got a metal framework and it's covered
0:16
in fabric. And I don't mean the small things you might buy from a hardware
0:22
store to park your car in. What I'm talking about are larger structures
0:26
they're under tension from the fabric so they're typically engineered and fairly large. The one I'm putting up here at my property on Manitoulin Island
0:37
Canada is 42 feet wide and 80 feet long. You might need something smaller, you
0:43
might need something bigger, but that's generally the scale that I'm talking
0:46
about here. And I want to cover five main questions to ask yourself and answer. And
0:52
these would be the length and width you might need. That's pretty obvious but
0:57
it's easy to make a mistake and generally undersize your shelter. The
1:03
brand and design that makes sense. And by design I mean mostly the shape of it
1:08
What type of foundation are you going to put under this structure? Because you
1:13
can't just put them directly on the ground. They're large as I said. And how will you get the structure raised? Because these are large enough
1:22
that nobody can do them by hand. There's certain machinery that's involved and
1:27
that also begs the question of whether you put it up yourself or whether you
1:31
get a contractor to do it for you. And finally the fifth point is what will you
1:35
do with the interior space? And I'm going to be giving you some some examples of
1:42
different things to do. Minimalist on one side and some pretty impressive examples
1:47
on the other two. So let's get started with what size is right. I really
1:54
recommend not just guessing. That's the easiest thing to do. You say well you
1:57
know I need one you know 30 by 50 or whatever. In my experience though people
2:03
tend to underestimate the amount of storage space they need. And that's why I
2:08
recommend starting with a scale drawing of some kind. Just on paper. Just some
2:13
doodling. You know I could put my compact tractor here. I could put my boat
2:18
over there. I could put our four-wheelers over here. That kind of thing. But don't
2:24
just stop there. Because the next step I recommend is doing some sort of a mock-up
2:28
on the ground. So maybe choose a spot somewhere out of the way. Maybe in the
2:36
location where you want to put the shelter. And mark it out some way. Nothing
2:42
fancy. Some strings in the ground or something like that. And then try moving the equipment in there. This could take you half a day or so. But it's time well
2:50
spent in my experience. Because it's going to give you a sense of how much
2:54
space you really need. And once again it's not just storage space you're
2:57
looking for. But it's also access space. You have to really get to the stuff and
3:03
get it in and out without too much hassle. So when you've got everything
3:07
figured out, you should add 20% or so. Because it's very easy to
3:12
undersize any kind of a shelter. Now there's something I've learned from a
3:18
smaller shelter that I that I've had here at my place for quite a while. It's
3:21
only 16 by 30. So it doesn't really qualify into the category I'm talking
3:27
about now. But I did order it with doors at both ends. And I don't just mean a
3:33
door a person can walk through. I mean a door big enough to bring things
3:37
in and out of. And that's enormously helpful. Because it means you don't have
3:42
to have you don't have to preserve continuous access to the things at the
3:47
back. So that you can get them out the front. Because there really is no back and front when you can open up both ends. You can also get a lot of very nice
3:54
ventilation through a building like that when both ends can be open. So just a
3:58
little thing. But I consider it to be pretty valuable. One other thing to keep
4:03
in mind too with these fabric structures. The widths are generally offered incrementally. So you know 25 feet, 30 feet, 35, 40 feet. Those are kind
4:15
of set frame widths that different manufacturers will use. But there really
4:22
is no limit to the length. Because you can just keep adding more frames and
4:26
making a longer cover. So this photo up here now is kind of interesting. This is
4:31
probably the biggest fabric structure I've ever seen. I don't know how wide it
4:36
is. Just eyeballing it I'm thinking 50 feet maybe wide. But the thing is 612
4:44
feet long. And as I said that's just a matter of adding more frames. So not very
4:49
likely that you're going to want to have a shelter this long. But it's just important to understand how it's sized. That you know the widths are standard in
4:58
increments and the length is pretty much just whatever you want. So now another
5:03
thing too. When I was first considering my shelter I thought boy wouldn't it be
5:08
nice to put some heat in there in the winter time. Because in my case I'm going
5:13
to be using it for equipment storage and equipment repair mostly. So yeah sure you
5:19
can put insulation blankets on the inside. It's it's done all the time. But
5:23
there's a big drawback. And it's what prompted me not to go this route. And
5:28
that's because you don't get any more of the natural sunlight through the cover
5:35
Most covers are white and when the sun is shining on them you get a beautiful
5:41
diffuse light inside. And in fact that actually that sunlight can warm things
5:46
up considerably even in the winter time too. It's kind of like a greenhouse effect in a way. But you lose all that with the insulation blankets. So you lose
5:54
the lighting and the nice ambiance that you can get in there. You'll see some
5:59
photos later about what I mean and how nice it can look inside. But know that
6:04
insulation is possible. But there is a bit of a drawback to it too. So second
6:10
point. What brand and design. Well these are serious structures and the the top
6:19
companies engineer them. Which means that they don't just have sort of on-the-shelf
6:24
designs one size fits all for a given size of shelter. They actually take into
6:30
consideration snow loads where you are, wind loading, foundation type, things like
6:35
that. So that's one thing I looked for in a company. I wanted I wanted a company
6:41
that that took the engineering seriously. Because if you think about it you're
6:44
really trusting that structure to do a lot for you. When you've got equipment
6:50
and tools and maybe animals inside you do not want a failure under any
6:55
circumstances. So another question to ask is how long the company's been in
6:59
business. Companies come and go in this field. It's really been kind of popular
7:07
over the last you know 30 plus years. That's when they really started to come
7:11
on. I remember when I first started seeing these fabric structures. So you
7:15
want to look for longevity. Local service. You know maybe there's a branch falls on
7:22
your cover and and rips it. You know is there someone to come out and and do a
7:27
kind of a proper welded repair on that. You're not going to need a lot of
7:32
service but sometimes you might want to appeal to to someone to help you out. And
7:37
so that's another consideration. Here's something too. It's one thing to have a
7:43
manufacturer that you trust. But if you're going to have that structure put
7:47
up by someone else it probably won't be the manufacturer directly. It will
7:52
probably be one of their dealers slash installers. So you want to check that out
7:57
too. You know what's the reputation of the company that's going to come around
8:01
and do the work. If you're not going to do it yourself. Because that's important too. You can have a great product but you want to make sure you have a great
8:08
dealer and installer too. So all these things considered I went with a company
8:13
called Calhoun. They've been at the ground floor of fabric structure design
8:18
and construction for more than 30 years. I've seen their structures around the
8:25
countryside because they got their little name on the top. So you know who made it. And I've seen them hold up very large structures. Never any issues. They
8:38
struck me initially as a first-class operation. And as I worked with them
8:43
coming up with a design for my own structure I continued to be impressed
8:48
One of the first people I dealt with was a man named Dan Delzel and he's the
8:54
director of sales and operations. And he was very helpful in helping me work
8:58
through some of the things I'm going to talk to you about here. You know in particular the shape of the building and the foundation that's chosen. Now when we
9:07
got into the nuts and bolts of actually designing and engineering my structure I
9:11
was talking with a man named Alan Ball. He's the engineering manager at Calhoun
9:16
and and he was very helpful in terms of answering my questions, making
9:23
suggestions, pointing me in the right direction to people who've had experience with structures like I have. I had some questions for them how things
9:32
worked out. So all in all I'm very pleased. And that's the home page of
9:38
their website. Now they provided me with some very complete engineered drawings
9:46
And the first use for this sort of thing is in getting your permit because most
9:51
places, most jurisdictions require some kind of a permit to put up a structure
9:56
like this. But it's a very easy process when you have engineered drawings like
10:00
this. That comes as part of the package. So this is the cover of the thing. It's about a dozen pages long or so. I'm not going to go through
10:07
everything but a lot of details here. This chart is interesting because these
10:14
fabric structure companies don't generally engineer the foundation. And in case, as you'll see, it's kind of an unusual foundation because it's an
10:22
unusual situation where I'm putting this structure. So I turned this chart over to
10:27
an engineer, a friend of mine, and he generated the engineered drawings I
10:33
needed in order to build that foundation properly. So you get that information
10:37
here. This is a top view of the structure that you can see. And the details in the
10:42
middle are measured drawings for all of, in my case, the ends of the
10:48
steel legs as they will bolt to the concrete foundation that I have and also
10:54
to the other components further up on the structure. So measured drawings, very
10:59
helpful that has been. Some more drawings here showing where the internal bracing
11:04
goes once that the frames go up. An end view here. In my case, if you look in the
11:11
middle, you'll see I've specified a 14 foot wide, 14 foot tall door. And I have
11:19
one of those at each end, like I said. I'm going to be working in a person-sized
11:25
door to one side of each of these big doors. And that's something that will
11:30
come later. It's not really part of the engineer design for reasons that I will
11:35
explain later. More details about all the fittings and how they go together. I am
11:41
going to be putting up the structure myself. And I'm going to be covering more
11:46
about that, producing videos and different things. But these details in the drawing package are really, have been very helpful. Now believe it or not, I
11:56
mean this, this thing, you know, 42 feet by 80 feet long, that's a pretty big
12:00
structure. But it arrived on the trailer that you see here being pulled by a
12:07
pickup truck. That's one of the nice things about these, these structures is
12:11
that they don't actually take up a lot of materials, which means in my case, we
12:18
unloaded, this is the trailer from Calhoun, we unloaded it here because he
12:23
couldn't get where we're going, because it's kind of a bit of an isolated
12:27
situation where the actual structure site is. And you'll see more about that
12:30
later. But I was surprised at how small and compact the whole package was. All of
12:37
the metal parts there are hot dipped galvanized, very heavy zinc coating
12:41
They're never going to corrode, even though they're covered in fabric of
12:44
course. But even if they stood out in the weather, they could probably be there for a hundred years or more and not change one bit. So very impressed with quality
12:53
so far. Now getting down to the nuts and bolts. What kind of a foundation will you
13:00
put under this thing? There are different options and the five that I've mentioned here are not the only options, but they are probably the most popular
13:07
And I guess the most popular of the choices is wood posts set in soil. That's
13:16
what I would be using in my place, except I didn't want to put this thing up where
13:20
I have soil. Here on Manitoulin, there is some good farmland, but there's also
13:27
bedrock, exposed limestone bedrock. So I didn't want to use up any of my good
13:32
land for this shelter when I've got 40 acres of something like bald rock
13:39
surrounding my field. So that's where I'm putting it. So I couldn't be sinking wood
13:44
posts into limestone bedrock. But that is a common approach. It's economical, strong
13:49
simple, and doesn't even really need to be engineered because it's such a simple
13:53
approach. They know what size of posts you need for a given structure, stuff
13:57
like that. Precast concrete foundation blocks, these are those big heavy things
14:04
that they move in place with an excavator. And they're heavy enough that
14:09
when they're parked side-by-side, you can anchor a fabric structure to them and
14:14
that will be sufficiently strong. So a very simple option. It's going to cost
14:19
more than the wood posts of course, but no real engineering required there
14:25
Sea containers, yeah, believe it or not, you can use sea containers as a foundation for
14:29
these things. More on that in a minute. Helical anchors, so these are like corkscrews
14:35
that go into the soil and provide a kind of a footing for each of the
14:41
posts that are part of the frames. But once again, you need lots of soil for
14:45
that. And then the option that I used is poured concrete wall with steel legs
14:52
bolted to the top of it. So let's just take a look at each of these types now
14:56
This is the wood post foundation. As I said, pretty simple. Some people put up a
15:01
shelter like this and just leave it that way. If you're just storing farm equipment
15:06
or something like that and you don't need an enclosed shop space or anything
15:11
then I've seen plenty of structures where they just stop right here and it
15:17
works fine. It serves the purpose. This caught my eye when I was first starting
15:23
my journey and figuring out what kind of a shelter I wanted. And as you see on
15:28
either side here, these are shipping containers. These are the kinds of things
15:32
that they load onto ocean-going freighters and move stuff all over the
15:35
globe. So I thought, wow, gee, that seems like an interesting idea. You've got
15:40
secure space on either side. You can make use of the roof of these things
15:45
which of course is inside now for storage. And then you've got the space in the
15:49
middle too. So it all seemed fine and dandy, but then I talked to Dan Dalzell
15:54
about this and he said, yeah, it can work, but the challenge is the sea containers
16:00
on their own are not sufficiently strong to take the pressures that is going to be
16:06
put on them. You may see in a windstorm or heavy snow load situation. So the steel
16:12
sea containers need to be reinforced with more steel. That didn't seem like a
16:18
lot of fun to me. And when I was figuring all this out, the price of sea containers
16:24
shot through the roof. So I've got other ideas now, but that is an option that
16:29
some people, excuse me, some people use. Here's a close-up of my situation. So
16:35
that's limestone bedrock. There used to be forest here, maybe a couple of inches of soil. So I cut and chipped all of the trees and had the site scraped. And then
16:46
I also pressure washed where the foundation wall is going to go. And
16:50
that's why you see the dark area to the right there and the lighter stone
16:54
underneath. This is actually a concrete form I'm building. But because I'm
17:00
building it on bedrock and the bedrock is pretty flat, but it does taper as you
17:06
can see, regular forming techniques are kind of challenging because it's difficult to get plywood or rigid concrete forms to conform to a bedrock
17:18
shape. So I'm using, I'm building a form frame and then putting a fabric, a
17:27
special concrete containment fabric on the inside. Now what you're seeing here
17:33
is the outside wall of the form with the fabric installed and then there's
17:38
fiberglass rebar which is epoxy down into the rock. That's part of the
17:44
engineered specs that I got from my friend about what sort of foundation we
17:49
needed here. There remains to be erected the frame forming the inside of the
17:57
forms but I wanted to get all the most of the fabric work done before that. So
18:03
you'll see on the far side of the forms there's some steel rebar that's going
18:08
down into the rock that supports the form on the outside and then there's also some rebar similarly pounded into the rock on the inside. That's going to
18:16
be supporting the the inner frame. So an unusual situation but I think it's
18:22
pretty well ideal for the circumstances that I have. This is a an aerial view of
18:28
the of what you just saw with the form not poured with concrete yet but that's
18:35
my situation and that's why we had to bring in the materials on farm wagons
18:41
instead of that pickup truck trailer rig that you saw earlier. So the big
18:48
question how will the structure get raised? That's one thing to build a
18:52
foundation that's pretty simple but if you're dealing with a structure that's
18:56
say 30 40 50 feet wide the the peak of that could be 30 or 40 or even 50 feet
19:03
high by the time you get to the top of the the curve of the hoop or whatever
19:07
shape your structure has. So that means you're going to need some equipment to
19:13
raise that you know sky jack or lifts or something like that. So that's really
19:19
what you need to ask yourself right up front. Am I comfortable renting and using
19:26
equipment like this? With some help of course you won't be able to do it by
19:29
yourself you'll need three or four competent helpers as well as that
19:34
machine I would think. So are you up to that? Are you up to learning how to do
19:39
that? That's the question and if the answer to that question is no well then
19:46
you'll want to get a contractor to help you do that. In my case the answer is yes
19:51
I've never done this before but I think I can handle it I'm gonna give it a try
19:55
and so I'm my project is owner led let's say and just to give you a glimpse
20:04
this is a pretty big shelter this is probably far bigger than anything you
20:10
might consider putting up but it does give you a sense that you know you're
20:14
gonna need machines these things the frames are sort of partially assembled
20:19
on the ground and raised in place and they also have to be braced until you
20:24
get enough frames in place that it becomes self-supporting so that's another trick. You will find some stuff online I've got a connection with a
20:33
contractor who does this sort of thing all the time I'll be peppering him with
20:37
questions when the time comes so but that's really really what you need to
20:42
decide can you handle on your own or not. Now this is the fun part I think and
20:49
this is deciding what are you gonna do with the interior space as I mentioned
20:53
before you can just leave it plain a lot of people do that you can optimize the
20:58
interior for basic storage you can also configure it for livestock housing makes
21:04
it a great livestock barn and even optimize the space for public events
21:10
because as I said the interior ambience of these structures is is quite
21:17
attractive actually nice and light and airy and well let's just take a look at
21:23
some of the things so plane storage hay storage a great option for handling hay
21:29
especially nowadays when so much hay is put up in in big fat heavy bulk ground
21:34
bales that weigh 800 pounds each or something like that so they can be
21:38
loaded in there's no issue with the floor being strong enough or anything like that as you'd have in a regular barn. This is also pretty open this is a
21:49
an equestrian arena not much beyond just the regular structure but it has
21:58
been dolled up a little bit there's wood on the inside and just to make it look a
22:03
little nicer and sand on the on the floor that will be smooth from time to
22:10
time with a tractor and harrow but still pretty basic. This is kind of a neat
22:15
thing I've never met the man who put this up but that's his workshop in size
22:19
nice big workshop but he's extended the roof structure to provide a kind of
22:25
front porch to sit on which is a great thing front porches are great I love
22:30
them on houses love them on anything and so there's a bit of an innovative use
22:35
for for the the porch concept. Isn't this a great little barn? Once again light and
22:46
airy no need for artificial lighting during the day and you know breezy you
22:54
can open up both ends completely it's a wonderful environment for livestock and
23:01
buildings like these are used for even much bigger operations than this not too
23:07
far from where I am there's a dairy barn dairy cattle and they live and get
23:13
milked in situations like this so that's one of the more extravagant interior
23:19
finishing approaches I think but take a look at this isn't that lovely this is a
23:24
wedding reception public gathering space and you've got all the beauty of natural
23:30
light with none of the risks of a thunderstorm essentially the bottom is
23:37
open so there's lots of air coming in there I don't know whether that can be
23:41
closed or not if it gets really windy but the point here is these things can
23:47
be very beautiful and not just for storing your tractor or your goats
23:51
either anyway just to sum up so how big you're gonna make the thing what brand
23:58
and design what foundation type how are you going to get the thing raised and
24:03
what will you do with the interior space so anyway if you got any questions I'm
24:08
happy to answer them email me at steve at stevemaxwell.ca thanks for watching
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