and so it began...

[Indy4570]

I posted about buying a 30' x 40' x 15' tall fabric building a while back.

viewtopic.php?f=125&t=105039

So three of us, me n the wife and a guy staying here, all old farts, went to take this thing down. From the time we left to the time we got home was 15 hours. But we did it all in a single day. we also got some other things. A few windows, some lumber, a ton of metal shelves from old retail stores.
so this thing all disassembled sat in my trailer all this time.

this is how it looked at the previous owners place. Note the overlap. we will get back to that later.

[Indy4570]

so we took it down. I could hardly climb the ladder by the time we made the last few ascents to remove bolts. We let each hoop down with ropes. 104 separate parts not including fasteners. By the time we got everything in the trailer it was heaped.

[Indy4570]

one of the extra freebies we got was 4 treated 2x12x 14ft boards, 2 each nailed together with a nailgun. we separated them, pulled all the nails ran them through a planer and put them to good use with some legs I had laying around. Had to fab a few steel parts that were missing but it was worth the effort, some italian olive paint I had in stock and boom, a new chilling area!

[Indy4570]

I failed to take enough pics at the start as this thread was an afterthought. I had to move many many things to get the site cleared enough to start putting this thing up. a 5th wheel trailer, my cargo trailer, a parts hay baler. A chevette with an isuzu diesel engine I swear I may put in a cub one day . and a truck topper, lumber, etc. As well as remove a ton of rocks and several trees. Oh, assorted tractor implements too

Oh. I broke the John deere with this Project ( pushing down trees.) I have used it to clear virtually all the land for my homestead. it was nothing but log skidder ruts and stumps n trees when we got here. I have ripped the loader off of it, flipped it over on its side. Turned the tie rods into pretzels. And even broken I am still using it!

rib #1

[Indy4570]

Work was slow as I haven't been feeling the greatest. Not feeling good at all made me quit smoking about 11 days ago. Rib #2 I put up myself. Thats all I got done that day.

Rib #2

[Indy4570]

The next day I used some chain, a binder and a cargo strap to fasten a 3 point boom into the bucket of the JD. This helped us get 4 ribs up that day.
I had no instructions and could not find any online. I did manage to find a few pictures and some vids that pieced together some ideas that helped. Plus we did take it down. It turns out it wasnt assembled right when we took it down. More on that later.

rib assembly on the ground

[Indy4570]

OK finally the last hoop went up and the frame was done! Errrr... No it wasnt done turns out the pipes to connect the last rib had all been shortened by about 16 inches. The why was determined to be due to improper assembly. So, we had braces...so we cut those down to the proper length to replace the short stays and recycled some old tubing from a shelterlogic building that died years ago for the braces. Now for the fun part. these bows,ribs, hoops.. they are not exactly right so to get the feet at 30ft apart takes some doing! When you have them there they are under some tension!

all hoops up and a pic of the Rube Goldberg boom

[Indy4570]

So getting all these feet in the right place on uneven far from level ground turned out to be a challenge. The wife and I got one wall in a straight line and even though I wasnt running on all cylinders I managed to get the thing square and lined up. I hung the lights up early just for fun.

yes, I hammered all those pins in from a seated position The building used 50 pins made from rerod with a nut welded on top. most had to be straightened. We were also fighting rain while trying to get this done. A little progress each day was enough.

lining it up sick and lights

[Indy4570]

canvas at last!! yesterday and today, well tuesday and wednesday saw the canvas going on. Still have some lacing and some ratchets to button up. a few small tears to patch. then some limestone, some shelving, pallets, and tractors as well as a ton of other items, engines, parts, just things stored in bad places right now. I will update as more progress is made.

hope you enjoyed my lil project!

[Urbish]

Looking good, sir!

[T-Mo]

That sounded like a lot of work. I'm glad you got it up, just in time for winter also.

[Slim140]

That's a lot of work but the fruits of your labor paid off, looks great!

[Stanton]

I'm also glad you got that up, before winter and with no major mishaps. I hope this new-to-you storage area will serve you well.

[Dale Finch]

I think we are ALL exhausted just looking at those photos! What a huge job to tackle! But the end is near, and a fine space you will have. Congrats on your progress!

[Lt.Mike]

That’s a big shelter!
I’ve had a 12x8x20’ for about 9 years.
I’ve found snow and branches to be it’s Achilles’ heel. Really bad storms have made holes from dropping branches but a second tarp pulled over is an effective fix. It also took flight a couple times before I decided to commit to a location for it and use the screw in anchors provided. It hasn’t moved since.
The round shape yours is should shed snow and I’m counting on that with the second one I’m about to put up. If you don’t have a snow roof rake on hand you may want to have one just in case. If snow/ice builds the weight can crush the frame. I’ve made it a habit to keep an eye on mine when we have a storm.
This one I’ve had has a squared off roof and I have to clear snow more than 2” deep. That means getting up every 2 hours or so for an overnight storm but that hasn’t happened too much and I’m retired so it’s not the problem it was when I was working.
One other thing is I found if it was all closed in things would get damp inside but with one end open to the air it stays dry. It’s raining today but I can step inside and kick dust.
Yours is huge so humidity probably won’t be too much of an issue.
It’s not a metal or wood framed building but it’s been pretty damned good especially for what it cost.