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?
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?
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.
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.
The parking bumpers had already entered my mind, wondered if that would be a good idea or not.
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.
What is the snow loading in your area ?
@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
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?
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.
I'd aim at better grading and drainage over concrete.
Worked so far for us, they were free and I charged to remove them.
@skyking1 grading and drainage won’t be an issue on this job, resources are plentiful in that department.
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.
Nice. I want one of those 40's with side doors for our yard for storage. Super handy for accessing things.
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.
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.
Slab looks good.
@CM1995 tye concrete guys did a really great job on that.
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.
How are the doors going to open ?
They’re not. They are getting removed
Going to weld down some steel plates so you could pallet jack between box and concrete? Looks good.
Steel plates wouldn’t be a bad idea, I’d also thought about filling the slot with mud but the steel might be a better idea.
Got a chance to work on the steel structure today, assembly is fairly straightforward once you figure out what the different pieces are. The braces at each end and in the middle don’t come coped so I spent a couple of hours with the plasma cutter and grinder getting those all prepped and ready to install. I did fully assemble one of the center spans which is a double beam as opposed to the ends only being single beams. Fully assembled, they are unmanageable unless laying flat so going forward I’m going to assemble them one half at a time and bolt them together once it’s time to set them. I think they’re going to be quite cumbersome to brace up and get square until the perlins are installed. Definitely not going to be able to do that part by myself, will require a few extra hands.
Moving along with the building, slower than I’d like but I don’t have much extra time right now. I got the side doors removed that I wanted off, the steel is all assembled in 1/2 sections to save real estate, I’ll put the halves together when it comes time to set them. Not 100% sure what the best plan is to get them up there and square. They’re not very rigid. There has been a suggestion of putting two of them together on the ground and then setting them but that will be a 13’ 4” span between the two and I’m not sure I could handle that without a big crane. It’s 56’ between the containers so quite a span to cover. Thoughts/suggestions?
How tall are the legs off the top of the conex? I.E, how tall overall is the center of the building. I'm thinking a pole on the bucket of the loader tractor with the service truck crane. Lift one side with the tractor, hold it in place with the service crane (or the other way around), then lift the other side and can use both to line them up with each other. Use some cables or ropes to hold the first rafter in place, tied off to a pickup or some other deadman. Then lift the second rafter and tie it to the first one with your purlins. If you wanted to get fancy, you could rent a telehandler. And use it in place of the tractor/ service truck. I was just wanting to know how tall it was going to be, to know if the service crane or tractor will reach it.
@crane operator The legs are 5 ft, roughly 21’ in the center. Neighbor man has a telehandler and plans to assist with it, I think physically getting them up there will be relatively easy, it’s getting the first one square in the center that I’m worried about.
That container with the side openings is going to be mighty handy.
I like to start at one end of the building, and work toward the other. You can stand back and eyeball the rafter for straight and get pretty close. Don't get too bent about perfect straight on the first one, when you put the next rafter up, and get two together, then rack them forward or back to be straight and lock that "pair" down. Just cable the first one to a old tractor/ disc pickup out beyond the wall from the center of the rafter. Then also tie it back to the two conex walls. Just to keep the first one from falling over while you put the second one up. Once you make the pair with purlins, it should really stiffen up. Rack it a little with the cables to get it straight, then right on out the building.
I’m sure it’s just the fear of the unknown and once it’s all tied together it won’t be so bad. Either that or it’ll end up in a pile on the ground, not sure which. I hadn’t thought about tying it off to my pickup truck flatbed or the tractor. Thanks for that.
Good luck, I'm sure it will go fine. I found that best two pieces of equipment are a telehandler and a big scissor lift for working on steel buildings. The bigger lift enables you to bolt purlins from the same lift, throw purlins on the handrail, and have 2 guys in the lift and throw them up and bolt them in. Get one with 12-16' of deck space, if you are crooked, some have outriggers. The work pretty nice for putting on sheet steel, but you should be able to work off the conexes for the roof, maybe for sidewall.
My father-in-law has a lift nearly identical to the one in your picture, the work platform will be nice vs working on ladders. Between the service truck crane, the telehandler and the lift platform, I’d say we will be able to handle it.
^ worth a week's rent to get it done efficiently and safely.
Working on the building a little bit this morning. The end beams will sit on the factory corner blocks that are made into the containers. The centers will sit on the 2x3x40 tubing that goes between the corner blocks. The difference in height is 32mm. I happen to have 16mm plate that was cut off from a sanitary job, what would it take to weld those to the mild steel on the containers? Or would I be better suited to find 5/8 mild steel plate to make the shims out of?
I need to set a 20fter semi permanent. Was planning on RR ties but concrete patio blocks sounds like a much better idea
I have a 53ft van trailer for storage. I didn't expect how much of a pain it'd actually be. I need to pull out an air compressor all the way at the front. It's going to be a multi-day job.
I don't see a thing wrong with using the plates you have. Do the upper rafters land on the lower posts that are between the doors? Or is the rafter landing in the middle of the door opening?
I somehow missed this thread. Interesting project.
The Corten steel on these things is similar to the steel used on the ISO tank frames I work on. ER80S-G wire is generally recommended. Maybe, Welder Dave will stop by.
We use NR-211 or NR-212 Innershield on containers. I assume that 16 mm plate is 304SS? I'd probably use Innershield on that too, you're going to have to at least cold galv the welds since they're going to rust at the container so there's no point in messing around with 309 rod or wire, especially for shims.
If NR211 or NR212 Innershield works on containers then pretty much anything will work. Those are basic low penetration general purpose wires that aren't designed for dynamic loading or anything under load. With stick I'd just use 7018 (because it's what most welders have) and spray some cold galvanizing on it. Once in place I don't think anything is going to move. Everything just sits there. If the shims are stainless then 309 would be preferred. Not sure if you can buy 309 in small packs. You can buy small packs of high strength rods that are stainless based though. If the shims have weight on them they probably don't need much to hold them in place so wouldn't bother with stainless rods. Interesting project. If my property gets approved for rezoning I'm thinking of putting up a fabric building. Would like another pole shed but they are ridiculously expensive now. Shipping containers for sides is something I'm considering. I want it to be hard to break into the building and can't afford a concrete floor but shipping containers would be good for tools, the drill press and other things that need a flat surface. Have to compare the cost of different footings.
The second one lands where the arrow is and the third one will land just to the left of the top latch hooks on the next door. 13’ 4” from the end
This is the inside around the doors, seems structurally sound to me. I was wondering if there would be a need to bridge the shim steel between the upright posts on each side of the door, not sure on that.
I would say that the door openings are not strong enough to carry your rafter load. Get 6" of wet heavy snow up on that 58' clear span, and there's going to be a lot of weight up there. I would build my own posts and header rather than relying on that door frame.
X2. Was going to say the same.
It would have been nice if they would have designed/ made the rafters to land between the door openings.
I would like to keep the door way completely open so do you think I should use a 4” square tubing and cut a hole in the top for it to run through on each side of the door and bridge between them?
I think you would have a lot more room on top of the conex to build a header, than trying to do it inside the conex door opening. I would have posts on each side of the door, with a little arm coming off the post to tie it to the wall of the conex. Have the header span the whole doorway, with posts on each side. Shorten the leg of the rafter, by the height of the header.
This way you can share the load of the header, between the conex walls and the posts, and not lose any room of the doorway. Except for what the posts take up inside the building. I would avoid making any holes in the roof of the conex. It will leak.
I'm sure the OP's county has published snow load calculations. I'll wager at least 30psf.
I do have the lean-to kit for it so there wouldn’t be any weather on top of the box. The roof edge goes all the way to the outside of the container.
Any updates on this? You're building my future shop. Love to see some photos.
I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve completely stalled out on it. The outfit I contract to got some big jobs for 2026 and I’ve been working 90 hrs a week for over a month trying to get equipment ready to go for them. I’m likely going to have to find someone to finish it for me.
My advice would be to do what you do best and hire out the rest. It's the reason we send big repair jobs to a shop - we are a dirt moving company not a mechanic shop. Speaking of - Do you have time to reseal the pivot bar on my 953C? Probably need to both sides at the same time.
When you're a small outfit or O/O it can be really hard to get the stuff you want/need done while trying to look after your customers needs. My hat's off to O/O's that have done it for many years.
Made the call today to hire this job out. Kills me because I’ve always done for myself but I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is outside what my equipment can handle and the risk of injury is just too high for me. Hopefully soon I’ll get to post someone else’s progress on this project.
Any updates ?
Nope just another contractor that has no follow-up on doing the job. Pretty normal these days
Well I set some conexes the other day, and I was just wondering how the shop project was coming along. I gave up on losing sleep worrying about this.
Yea don’t lose any sleep over it, I’m confident we will get it done eventually, my guy says he’s gonna get on it soon. I’ve been working 80-90 hrs every week so it’s been fairly easy to ignore the lack of progress. I’m building a new service truck and running a second business pressure washing equipment on the jobsite so I’ve had my hands full.