Archived Posts » 60,546,157
Quonset huts
3/22/2012 1:39:15 PM
Anybody have experience with them and can give me pointers? If I can't have a dome built, I want one for a garage and workshop. I'm thinking the classical arch shape and made of galvanized steel.
3/22/2012 1:48:27 PM
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
3/22/2012 2:28:03 PM
don't bury it unless you put a shipping container in it first.
I had to do it ...sorry
I had to do it ...sorry
3/22/2012 2:44:11 PM
A small heavy guage Quonset prolly could be buried, they're tough as nails. Burying a shipping container is a popular and silly fantasy that never ends.
Quonsets are really great buildings.
Highly recommend, if it's done right.
Quonsets are really great buildings.
Highly recommend, if it's done right.
3/22/2012 3:24:10 PM
Originally Posted By EXPY37:
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
3/22/2012 3:31:41 PM
Originally Posted By EXPY37:
A small heavy guage Quonset prolly could be buried, they're tough as nails. Burying a shipping container is a popular and silly fantasy that never ends.
Quonsets are really great buildings.
Highly recommend, if it's done right.
A small heavy guage Quonset prolly could be buried, they're tough as nails. Burying a shipping container is a popular and silly fantasy that never ends.
Quonsets are really great buildings.
Highly recommend, if it's done right.
The missile magazines at the local air attack base are all buried quonset huts. The .mil has been burying them since world war 1.
3/22/2012 3:56:01 PM
Originally Posted By 4v50:
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Originally Posted By EXPY37:
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
You can get most any sort of 'engineered' door you can afford. Properly engineered Quonsets are my choice for going up against hurricanes at reasonable cost. Maybe even tornados but that would require some add'l concrete.
Most of the mfgr's are pretty much the same. Some have multiple 'distributors'. Shop around and do a lot of homework. The market changes and the carsalesmen of Quonsets are out there.
Get their best price and then negotiate it. Hard.
Conceal any buying emotions. Take your time.
Again study and do you homework, depending on how much building you want. If it is a simple garage, not so big a deal. If a large sturdy bldg, then more so.
3/23/2012 7:10:55 AM
What is done to protect the metal on a buried Quonset hut?
3/23/2012 9:13:55 AM
Originally Posted By 4v50:
What is done to protect the metal on a buried Quonset hut?
What is done to protect the metal on a buried Quonset hut?
A Qounset has a multitude of screws and essentially unsealed overlapping panels every ~24 inches.
The base connector area is a major leak point.
The sidewalls are loosely fitted to the arches, there is no "hermetic seal" like a shipping container [if you ignore its floor].
So a concrete structure underground is probably the more reliable solution unless you can repeat burying a Quonset over and over to engineer out the leakage issues before you even need to begin thinking abt surface protection.
For these reasons and many others, burying a Quonset is about as impractical as a burying shipping container.
3/23/2012 1:48:57 PM
Some of these descriptions make no sense to me. The ones we built in the 416th engineer command (mostly in the Sultanate of Oman after GW1) were rolled out in a single arch (like seamless gutters). So there were no “sidewalls joined to the arches”. Then two arches were placed side by side and a self-propelled electric welder clamped on and it walked up and over laying a continuous weld. So no “multitude of screws and essentially unsealed overlapping panels”. After that, the inside was sprayed with expanding foam insulation. Relatively quick, simple, inexpensive and sturdy. I just checked Google Earth and they are still there and in use.
3/23/2012 2:14:20 PM
Originally Posted By MikeJGA:
Some of these descriptions make no sense to me. The ones we built in the 416th engineer command (mostly in the Sultanate of Oman after GW1) were rolled out in a single arch (like seamless gutters). So there were no “sidewalls joined to the arches”. Then two arches were placed side by side and a self-propelled electric welder clamped on and it walked up and over laying a continuous weld. So no “multitude of screws and essentially unsealed overlapping panels”. After that, the inside was sprayed with expanding foam insulation. Relatively quick, simple, inexpensive and sturdy. I just checked Google Earth and they are still there and in use.
Some of these descriptions make no sense to me. The ones we built in the 416th engineer command (mostly in the Sultanate of Oman after GW1) were rolled out in a single arch (like seamless gutters). So there were no “sidewalls joined to the arches”. Then two arches were placed side by side and a self-propelled electric welder clamped on and it walked up and over laying a continuous weld. So no “multitude of screws and essentially unsealed overlapping panels”. After that, the inside was sprayed with expanding foam insulation. Relatively quick, simple, inexpensive and sturdy. I just checked Google Earth and they are still there and in use.
The thing I have noticed with quonset huts is that construction quality and methodology varies immensely. They run the gambit from being kit style structures with little better than pop metal materials to multi acre seamless buildings with walls as thick as my little finger. The ones that the Chair Force uses by us as missile magazines are very thick, the one for the nukes is even thicker. I have seen backyard quonset huts ordered out of the back of popular science that had the structural integrity of a can of Rockstar. The old quonset huts built by the army corps of engineers in WWII for the japanese internment camp here are in great shape despite being moved two or three times.
IIRC, the quonset huts on the tarmac at Ft Sam Houston for the air evac birds date back to WWII as well, though I might be mixing that up with another post.
Hell, I lived in the smaller quonset huts on the Dona ana range on Ft bliss for three months, those were old internment camp quonset huts from WWII as well. We used to hang out on the roof sections of them, had no problems supporting a whole squad.
3/23/2012 4:21:47 PM
Originally Posted By MikeJGA:
Some of these descriptions make no sense to me. The ones we built in the 416th engineer command (mostly in the Sultanate of Oman after GW1) were rolled out in a single arch (like seamless gutters). So there were no “sidewalls joined to the arches”. Then two arches were placed side by side and a self-propelled electric welder clamped on and it walked up and over laying a continuous weld. So no “multitude of screws and essentially unsealed overlapping panels”. After that, the inside was sprayed with expanding foam insulation. Relatively quick, simple, inexpensive and sturdy. I just checked Google Earth and they are still there and in use.
Some of these descriptions make no sense to me. The ones we built in the 416th engineer command (mostly in the Sultanate of Oman after GW1) were rolled out in a single arch (like seamless gutters). So there were no “sidewalls joined to the arches”. Then two arches were placed side by side and a self-propelled electric welder clamped on and it walked up and over laying a continuous weld. So no “multitude of screws and essentially unsealed overlapping panels”. After that, the inside was sprayed with expanding foam insulation. Relatively quick, simple, inexpensive and sturdy. I just checked Google Earth and they are still there and in use.
Why not price out the seamless welded ones as thick as your pinky with the manufacturing equipment for them already on site and compare finished cost of that kind of say, a 12' by 20' shelter ––vs standard concrete construction for a PERSONAL shelter.
My explanation of Quonset bldgs refers to readily available and affordable commercial ones that info can be found abt all over the net and seen all over the country, on farms, in commercial areas, etc..
A little common sense needs to be applied here...
3/23/2012 5:48:18 PM
This should help...
The thickness of this bldg is rather thin gauge. IMO better to go heavier.
The thickness of this bldg is rather thin gauge. IMO better to go heavier.
3/23/2012 5:55:30 PM
These guys in this U-Tube are being careless handling the arches after bolting them together on the ground, good way to get hurt or ruin material. I fire them if they didn't change.
A telehandler is a readily available and good machine to use to raise the arches when partially assembled [larger bldgs], take it SLOW and be accurate.
We've developed techniques to precisely set arches and align them prior to bolting to an adjacent arch.
We also developed other assm techniques and maintenance tools that the mfg's likely don't know about.
My guess is this bldg is 18 or maybe 16 ga steel.
A telehandler is a readily available and good machine to use to raise the arches when partially assembled [larger bldgs], take it SLOW and be accurate.
We've developed techniques to precisely set arches and align them prior to bolting to an adjacent arch.
We also developed other assm techniques and maintenance tools that the mfg's likely don't know about.
My guess is this bldg is 18 or maybe 16 ga steel.
3/23/2012 9:33:08 PM
Originally Posted By 4v50:
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Originally Posted By EXPY37:
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Do you guys have alot of hurricanes in Colorado?
3/24/2012 1:04:44 AM
Originally Posted By Badlatitude:
Do you guys have alot of hurricanes in Colorado?
Originally Posted By 4v50:
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Originally Posted By EXPY37:
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Do you guys have alot of hurricanes in Colorado?
Hurricane force winds occur on occasion here.
3/24/2012 8:07:46 AM
Originally Posted By Badlatitude:
Do you guys have alot of hurricanes in Colorado?
Originally Posted By 4v50:
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Originally Posted By EXPY37:
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
What would you like to know? There's a gazillion things to talk abt.
First, don't insulate for a few years til you've found all the leaks.
Hurricane doors? Are there any for them? Mfgs? Are some better than others? What to look for and avoid?
Do you guys have alot of hurricanes in Colorado?
No hurricanes but we do get high winds. There was an empty semi trailer being used as a billboard on I-25 that was blown over.
3/24/2012 1:37:51 PM
So much knowledge on the interwebs...
http://www.americansheltertechnologies.com/s_c_earth_covered.html
you CAN absolutely bury a metal building!
http://www.americansheltertechnologies.com/s_c_earth_covered.html
you CAN absolutely bury a metal building!
3/24/2012 5:44:00 PM
Originally Posted By thereisnospoon:
So much knowledge on the interwebs...
http://www.americansheltertechnologies.com/s_c_earth_covered.html
you CAN absolutely bury a metal building!
So much knowledge on the interwebs...
http://www.americansheltertechnologies.com/s_c_earth_covered.html
you CAN absolutely bury a metal building!
You can bury an upside down bathtube.
Doesn't mean it makes any sense!
