help setting up a carport?
You know those metal carports that are popping up EVERYWHERE? They cost like $795 installed. Anyway, I bought one of these things used a while back from a friend. I had to take the thing down and move it and set it back up on my property (with a little help ofcourse!). I got it for about $300 cheaper than what it would’ve cost new and to have it setup. Thought this was a good idea until I saw my end result. I was not able to keep track of which roof/side pieces of tin went where. So basically I had the parts, no directions and had to wing it. It didn’t come out as smoothly as I had expected. I guess the problem was that I didn’t have the frame set squarely to begin with. I also must have attached the tin at a slight angle (not at the same height to begin with on either side) because as I went up with it I noticed that it wasn’t going to overhang the end of the frame nearly as far as it did to begin with. Starting out on the bottom I was about 1 ft over the frame, then at the top it’s maybe 3 inches over. So the ends are not flush with each other. I’m so disappointed with myself and my lack of construction knowledge. I’m about to move and I want to take this thing with me and re-set it…Correctly this time…anyone got advice besides “hire someone else”???
I forgot to mention that it is a carport similar to the first one shown here:
http://metalbuildings.ucan.us/
and that I have additional metal sheets that go on the sides all the way to the ground.
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Hire me !
Squaring up the frame before you put ANY sheet metal on it is the most important part of the assembly. If the frame is not square and plumb, the rest of it is going to be off.
Then as you add the sheeting to it, keep double checking that it is all squared. If you don’t set the first piece of sheeting square, the rest will be off too.
When setting up the ribs, use a level or a water level to get them level. To get your site square, measure off your sides and then from corner to corner, it should measure the same within a half inch. This will tell you if your frame set up is square. Once your frame setup is square and level, then you can start putting up your tin. Like you, I have always started from the bottom and worked up to the peak, but you have to know what the covered width of your sheet. That you can measure, how much of a rib is covered by the next sheet.
Anyhow, that would be my approach.
Good luck.
been there done that. the advice to ascertain plumb and square is of the utmost importance, however if you are in snow country you should consider re-inforcing roof supports with strucual lumber, this advice is from experience I used 2×6 along side metal roof supports and ran a ridge pole this was after the first heavy snow fall took it to the ground