Steve Pierce
BENEFACTOR
Graham, TX
So I am getting soft in my old age and hate Texas summers. After installing radiant heat in my work hanger and seeing what it did for productivity in the winter I want an air conditioned hangar. My work hangar is 80x65 with office shop and paint booth taking up roughly a third of it. It is poorly insulated with some old spray in stuff that is falling off and the sliding doors are not sealed. This hangar is the only thing on the east side of the airport and I like being away from everyone and everything. My other hangar is 60x45 on the main airport and I use it to store my own airplanes along with customers waiting to get worked on or picked up after work. I have a tilting trailer that I tow them back and forth with, I hate starting an engine just to taxi and shut down. My initial plan was to build a small hangar big enough for a Cub, insulate it and install a good door and add heat and air conditioning. Well then when you look at what it cost to build you might as well build bigger and it goes on and on. Well now I have someone willing to buy my storage hangar worth the money so I am planning on building a 60x40 or 60x45 next to my existing work hangar. I want to use a Higher Power door, insulate well and heat and air condition. Flying Miss Daisy John Mead is helping me figure that part out. I got a quote for a conventional bolt together metal building from Mueller for the 60x40 for right at $30K and another from Miracle Truss for $42K plus another $5000-5500 in out sourced lumber. It appears the Miracle Truss hangar is easy to construct using wood between the girts but wonder what the benefits are for the extra money. A couple of friends are going to help with the construction and one use to build metal buildings for a living and is quite good at what ever he does so I am not really worried about the actual construction. Anyway, looking for advice, pros, cons, experience, tribal knowledge on a subject I have dreamt about for years and looks like I might be able to finally build and configure it the way I want it. Any advice greatly appreciated.