Midwest Steel Carports

[LyleB]

I'm looking to get a carport for my new Scamp. Anyone have any experience with Midwest Steel Carports? Any other recommendations?

Would there be a problem with pouring a cement slab after the fact with these steel carports?

[ARVZ]

Typically the light steel buildings are footed onto hold-down bolts that are poured into concrete footings. By the time you laid out, graded, and formed for the necessary footings to hold the building up and keep it from blowing away, you may as well pour the slab at the same time.


If you pour the slab later, the structure will be in the way when you screed and float and trowel. Leaving the siding off up to 8' so you can work around all sides of the building will help. You can also pour the footings wide enough to surround the structural elements completely so the slab can be poured inside the interfering legs or posts.


When you pour adjacent floor areas like this, pin the new slab to the old one by drilling rebar into the edge. Use construction adhesive on the rebar to make it really stay put.

Make sure the sub-slab is compacted the same degree on both sides, and use a high quality water barrier underneath that ideally is placed extending into the new slab area from under the footings pour so you can overlap a couple feet with the new barrier. Pour directly onto the barrier sheet; NO SAND LAYER over the barrier!!! Polyethylene sheet is degraded by concrete eventually, so find something better, or use a couple layers of 10mil black poly if you have to.


The barrier sheet is the only way to have a dry building that won't make your trailer moldy and rot things you set on it; concrete pumps moisture out of the ground at a furious rate.

[GOB]

I've never used Midwest but I've bought a couple from Carolina Carports. They did a good job.

[thrifty bill]

+10 I have two carports and a garage all built by Carolina Carport. They are nationwide, not limited to the Carolinas.

One carport I have is on gravel, they just drive long rods into the ground. You can pay extra and get mobile home anchors. On the concrete, I had the pads poured first.

Easy enough to do the pad later, just put it narrower than the carport. Giving up an inch or two per side is nothing. Don't bury the steel framing into the concrete.

I also paid extra (not much) for heavier gauge steel, and I got the vertical roof (drains much better). I also got half side panels. I ended up enclosing the rest of it with opaque roof panels I picked up at Lowes on close out.

Fortunately, I have a duplex that does double duty as workshop and camper storage, so matching the house wasn't as important. They do look surprisingly good. The garage is really just a vertical roof carport with side walls, windows and doors. Insulated too.

[gordon2]

Dont forget your building permit. It will dictate some of the design. And perhaps you dont need a permit, or you do but will ignore that fact. Many have built carports where a permit was required but not got the permit. Some did OK, others got caught by the aerial photography done by the county and the employees who compare year-to-year photos looking for un-permitted buildings.

[Raspy]

I'm in the process of doing a 12X25 steel carport now. I poured the concrete slab first and thickened it up where the bottom steel plates, or box section pieces, will bolt down. I think it's much better to pour the slab first. Then you get a very nice surface at the right slope. Building the structure will be easier.

My neighbor put one up out in the yard and put concrete filled sono tubes in with J bolts to mount the building. It worked, but it was not very easy. In his case, it's just a trailer parked in there with hay on it, so the surface was not important. In my case, I want a nice smooth driveway that includes the carport area and I want to be able to get under the trailer on a creeper.

The "vertical" roof panels do seem like the best for water drainage and they match the look of conventional construction. There are a number of truss designs for different spans and wind loads. I am trying to keep the overall height low while still getting my trailer in, so I'm looking at the truss design and whether I need to cut some off of the telescoping side posts to fit. I'm also doing what Bill mentioned, going for the heavier gauge steel. Mine will be closed on one side (south, to keep the sun out) and open on the other, with both ends open. It backs up under the eves of the house and lines up with the 10' high garage door.

The company my neighbor has used twice, and the one I'm considering is VersaTube.

[trainman]

I thought about buying one of these carports, but my wife has other ideas and thinks we need something that looks much better then one of these type carports. She is thinking Cedar, or steel frame with cedar trim, you know expensive. It does look like there is one large manufacture of these type of carports, I'm sure there are others. When I called them they asked what state I was in, then went to that states seller and I talked with him, had to order it with him, but would be delivered by a Texas installer, with a Texas installer name on it. Get the idea on what's happening here.

trainman

[kayaker51]

Just had a Carolina 18 x 21 carport put up . Love it great job, my Scamp and a 14" boat inside no problem.

[Dale Thompson]

We had Midwest install a 12x36 carport for our motorhome last summer. They were able to supply the engineering drawings that were required by the building department at no charge and worked with me to schedule the install. We put in a concrete pad in advance. They drilled into the concrete and anchored the frame into the cement. I would have preferred to have the bottom track flush with the concrete. The only way I know to do that would require that the carport be set up and blocked up off of the ground so that the forms could be build around it and the concrete could flow under the tracks. I took the easier and stronger way. After a year, we are happy with the carport and the way it was installed. I only wish I could have made it larger.

[floyd]

I bought the 12X22 version for my Scamp when we lived at another house.
I used landscaping timbers with custom stakes plus Screw stakes on the four corners (maybe overkill)
I filled the floor area with road mix gravel packed tight. that kept the trailer and frame dry.
You could pour a floor with bolt anchors if you choose or start like I did and pour the floor later.
I bought extra material and enclosed the sides all the way down, then framed in a back wall with a storm door.
In the front I placed the carport behind my privacy fence and made two sections of fence into gates at the front.


ONE IMPORTANT POINT
When you order be sure and get enough sidewall height, because the trusses are cantilevered on the sides and intrude into the space somewhat.
I got one of these because of price but also because no permit was required where I lived.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by ARVZ

Typically the light steel buildings are footed onto hold-down bolts that are poured into concrete footings.

Not necessarily so. Mine is anchored to the ground with duck bill anchores at the corners along with 3' rebar stakes in 8 places. It hasn't gone anyplace in 10 years. I have gravel as the bed under. I think concrete would be better for ease of putting the trailer away. (rolls easier on concrete)