Agriculture Agriculture Buildings - Steel Farm Buildings

Perka Building Frames designs, manufacturers, distributes, and supports quality agriculture buildings and steel farm buildings worldwide. For over 28 years now, we have been specializing in prefab / prefabricated agriculture buildings for tractor/heavy truck, farm and ranch, dairy facilities, equestrian, and harvest storage. Our prefab agriculture buildings and steel farm buildings come with a 40 year warranty and an exclusive guarantee that our frames will be delivered fast and jobsite ready.

Perka Building Frames actively supports the do-it-yourselfer through-out the building process and maintaining our customer’s safety, during erection, is why we are writing this information sheet. This information sheet was designed to prevent or reduce the risk of agriculture and steel farm buildings collapsing during the erection process.

All Perka agriculture buildings come equipped with an assembly guide, an online builder reference library, and active builder support. If you fill that you may need local help, our networks of nationwide contractors/dealers are available to assist you. Our professional sales and service team will gladly assist you or handle any need you may have during the erection process. One way of reducing risk is providing the necessary support and we are here to make sure your building is erected safely and offer the following guidelines. Note: This information sheet does not address other risks which may arise during erection, nor does it cover the detailed requirements for methods of construction, aspects of sheeting, demolition or foundations.

Hazards

Temporary instability of the structure during erection results in a high risk to those carrying out the construction work and to others in the area. Here are a few incidents on farms that were reported (not Perka customers):

• Three men were erecting a 64 m x 24 m x 4 m portal frame building when it collapsed. They had provided only 16 guy ropes (eight in each direction) to resist collapse. The pins securing the guy ropes pulled out of the ground when the stanchions were being moved into position. The two purlins connecting each portal frame did not provide stability.
• Two people were concreting stanchion foundations within a partly erected portal frame building when it collapsed. No effective temporary or permanent support had been provided to hold the stanchion bases in position. Four frames had been erected, temporarily supported at roof level only by two rope ties tensioned against timber struts.
• Seven frames of a portal frame building had been erected – one was held in position by guy ropes, while some were attached to trees. The first and second frames were connected with timber purlins bolted in position. Purlins between the remaining frames were not secured and the building collapsed as three men were working on it.

Planning the work

If the work involves five or more people and longer than 30 working days, farmers and ranchers should strongly consider hiring a local contractor to plan and oversee the work before it begins. Reputable contractors should be familiar with safety and health requirements to ensure your building is erected properly and without injury.

On smaller projects, farmers and ranchers should still consider hiring a local contractor to ensure safety is included during the erection process. Perka’s web truss steel design eliminates weight obstacles normally associated with steel frames and is easy to work with. Nonetheless, erecting a steel building can be high risk work and may require specialized assistance when farmers or ranchers do not have a general construction background.

In all cases, site procedure should be properly planned before work starts, and should include that:

• make sure that you have a straightforward and detailed step-by-step construction guide given to you as quickly as you can receive one. On this website, under Builder’s Information Center, we have provided you with a copy of our model assembly guides. Make sure you understand the work involved and our assembly guides provide you with drawings/illustrations that do present stability/safety points;
• foundations have been cast and cured in accordance with the specification;
• temporary stability requirements are fully understood and necessary materials are available on site before the work starts;
• all site workers are capable of carrying out the work.

If you need to amend or change details written in the assembly guide to meet your on-site requirements as work progresses, you should contact us with your revisions to the method of construction before starting the work. As the saying goes- “better to be safe than sorry”.

Tips to temporary stability of the structure

Structures can only be safely erected if the first bay (known as the stable end core) is fully stabilized before the remaining steel bays are erected.

Until the stable end core is in position, effective props and/or supports need to be in place to stabilize the incomplete structure. A stable end core for the preferred system can only be achieved when the following elements are fixed into position:

• two mainframes fully connected;
• diagonal bracings;
• roof plan bracings;
• a minimum of three purlins securely connected on each roof pitch.

All temporary bracing should remain in position until the structure is complete. Note: roof plan bracings, purlins or eaves beams by themselves will not provide adequate stability.

Further Advice

Further advice and information can be found on this site or you can contact our sales and service department to help you during normal Central Standard Time office hours. Note: This information sheet contains good practices which are not compulsory but which you may find helpful in considering what to do.

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