My Advice About SteelMaster
To anyone considering buying and building a SteelMaster building, based on my experience: Save all communications with the company, even phone conversations. Before you sign anything, completely understand the document you are signing - it may differ from your expectations. If you have a legitimate problem and aren't getting anywhere with SteelMaster, file a complaint with the BBB and Virginia Attorney General's office. (SteelMaster will suddenly be much more interested.) Consider buying concrete anchor bolts through SteelMaster - they can get a better price than you can. If you do, order them early - they may take a long time to ship. If you receive the parts for the building and are not erecting it immediately, take their storage suggestions seriously, or the parts will not fit well later. Make sure your concrete pad is flat, or later water will collect along the base. Before you start construction, call SteelMaster technical support and ask what you need to know that is not in the instructions. If you don't get a good answer, call again and talk to someone else. Make sure you understand the blueprint completely - Individual dimensions must add up to the expected total. For construction, you need to have at least 4 "alignment tools" (punches, with a narrow tip, gradually widening enough to fill a bolt hole). The more punches you use at one time to align panels, the less risk of distorting the holes. Two people can erect a SteelMaster building. We put up a 30' wide, 42' long shed. On our best days we put up 3 arches. On the building's ends, there was a fair amount of sheetmetal cutting required. Overall, I am pretty happy with our SteelMaster building, but you may correctly infer that there were some problems along the way.
By Ken S.