Pre-fab Steel Garages

I don't have experience with EXACTLY what you're asking about, but I own a marine dealership and we did put up a 4,800 sf service facility which was a steel pole building. The companies that make these structures are very efficient and they can be customized to the point of being pretty nice. For our application, the building ended up being less than half the cost of a conventionally framed building and met our needs perfectly.

I don't have a point of view on the concrete specs...

 

Are you planning on building your own port terminal? What's up with the link?

 

Try www.gaport.com . I looked at them recently also. Not the best for weathertightness, but a good option to keep the sun and most of the other weather out.
BT

 

We're in the process of putting up an all-steel construction house (5,200sq ft), garage (2,800sq ft), and observatory (~600sq ft). The fabricator and builder is a company called Northern Steel (www.ecosteel.com) out of Delaware. We're building in a remote part of NM and so we chose them for a number of reasons...less prone to catch fire, no termite issues, and they can put the finished structures (w/ doors & windows and finish trim) in about 6 weeks. PM me if you're interested and I'll send you our contact person's name/email.

The one thing I will warn you about is that they don't seem to be price competitive on smaller structures. We needed two 120sq ft well houses built and we wanted to go with Northern Steel for them but they were coming in 3x to 4x what we could do with sticks and metal panels ourselves.

 

Before you get too involved with the project, check your local codes. In this big government world that we live in, you might be surprised at how many laws you will be up against. Garage sq. footage vs. house sq. ft. vs. lot sq. ft., rainwater runoff (grass vs. anything else), setbacks, height and style all will be judged during the permit process. Even out in the country it can be a big problem getting permits to just run a driveway to the road. I hope you don't live where there is a Home Owners Asssociation, that is the worst obstacle.

There are several garage enthusiast forums with a lot of good advice. Here is one.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/

 

The nice thing about prefabs I have seen is that the gable structure of some don't need those dumb poles in the middle of the garage. Building a garage almost always places a support pole in the worst place. Also, on the conctrete check with the requirements for putting in an above ground 2 post lift. Check with Mohawk. Then if you decide to put a lift in you can do so no problem. You are also best off with 15ft interior ceiling height for lifts too if you can. Well that's some things to think about