The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk What's an old outbuilding worth?

Theres a guy nearby with a 30 x 60 building.. 12 foot high walls, wood framed, steel siding, 1 man door and two overheads.

It's sitting on a concrete foundation, but has a dirt floor. Build in 1977 has been empty for some time.. I guess it has a few skylights in it that have been busted out for many years.

He's taking bids on it till the 10th.. and i'm going to look at it this afternoon.. I was kind of curious as to what the average price of something like that might be, considering i'd either have to pay a professional mover to move it, or trar it down piece by piece and re-assemble it.

Moving it wouldnt be that big a problem, since it's about a mile away and nothing but country gravel roads between here and there.. altho, the bottom would have to be seriously braced i'd think.. and that might get into some real $$.

Your thoughts and ideas are appreciated.. and if anybody has had any experience with pulling down such a building and putting it back up, i'd like to hear the pros and cons.

Fumblin, Years ago my Dad bought an old country schoolhouse down the road from use, we too lived on a gravel road. The expensive part was having the overhead utilities dropped to pass under. You may not have this problem, but something to consider.

I've been involved in demolitions regularly, and moves as well - sounds to me like the kinda structure that would be best disassembled and reassembled to your likeing - it would require a pro and some major bracing to move it whole with no interior structural walls, and usually the structure of a steel-clad isn't great as they count on the clading to give rigidity

anything can be moved, you'd hafta get quotes locally to decide, watched this get moved - interesting and cost tens of thousands

rent that crane you showed w/ the 38 and get a couple friends and you could have that down in 2-3 days, up again about the same

Bill

A professional mover would certainly be able to move it. I'd get some quotes from them, and weigh that against the costs of having a new building put up from scratch. Like Cheesehead mentioned, be sure to include if power lines have to be moved, because that doesn't come cheap!!
In most cases, you should get the building itself fairly cheap, if not for free, simply because it's not economically feasible to pay very much, and then also pay moving costs. It don't take long till it gets cheaper to just build new.
Good luck!!

I went and looked at it.. seems like the best plan would be to peel all the metal off and bring that home in a load, then go back and bring all the ceiling trusses home in a load, then cut the walls down in 15 foot or so sections, and bring those home.

Thanks for all the input!

Well you could look at it like this. It costs about 11,000 for the materials to build a 40X60 pole building. Thats no labor, no concrete, one hand door and one over head door, no insulation, 12 ft side wall. Thats the cost I would pay from our supplier, when I order a building package for a customer. Its not hard to take one apart. just remove the roof trusses and section the walls into some thing you can haul on a semi.

Fumblin,
you could take your 2 Ton over there, hook her up, put it in bull low and drag it home! Tell the guy he can keep the divets in his property!

The building is wood framed, wood trusses, covered in tin. No insulation, no floor.

Two overheads are there in servicable condition, the man door is garbage. (I walked in without opening the door).

My calculations suggest I can build a pretty nice 40x60 with 12 foot walls for under $10,000 and i'd have myself a nice wood framed building with steel siding in whatever color I choose.. and not have to hassle with 30 year old wood, or spending a weekend pulling the thing down.

The tin thats on there is that old gun metal looking couragated stuff.. sure I can paint it.. and repaint it every other year or so, but thats not something i'd have to hassle with if I built new.

Hell, for just under $20,000 I can have a 50x60 steel building put up and I wouldn't have to do anything but sign the check!

I'm gunna low ball it and see what happens. but i'd guess if I stand around long enough, i'll find somebody with a building that side they'll give me for free if I get it off their property.

Unless you know for sure that he has other bids, I wouldn't offer him too much. You might get THIS one for free!
I think this fellow might discover that his building isn't worth as much as he thinks it is!

Something to consider is the condition and size of the overhead doors. If they are in good shape, that might be an indicator of how much to offer. Maybe a maximum offer could be a fourth or a third of the cost of new doors that size.
I would guess that trusses for a building of that size may require a crane (or tractor with a tall front end loader) to get them down. If you don't have one, that could be an added cost.
What I would do is call a house mover and try and get an estimate on moving the whole thing intact. I have seen pole buildings that have been moved, so it can be done.

The most important thing to consider, is it in good enough shape that you won't regret it or that wife won't complain everytime she looks out the back door. If she hated it, that would cancel out any savings that you would reap, and she most likely would never let you forget it.

If you are happy where you live, and you plan to stay there a long time, I say build new.

This is what I would do... If you could get the thing DIRT cheap, a grand at the most, you could always use the roof trusses (very expensive new), scrap the steel (metal like that brings good money) or even re-use it. As lumber prices are very high right now, it would be economical to use as much of the old as possible, but still plan on buying some new materials as well. It also depends on how much time you have... might be better to just write a check for a new one!

If you lived closer to me, I could build a block building for you, but that might hurt your checkbook! :p

Yea block would be nice.. but a little too pricey for my tastes.

At the local auctions, i've seen nicer overhead doors sell for $50.. sure NEW doors are pricey.. but new doors also are not nearly as heavy, and insulated.

The house on the property where the building is looks like it's been vacant for some time.. in fact the entire property looks like it's been vacant for a dozen years or so.. my guess is he's found a buyer for the property, but needs to have the building gone, and figured he'd make a fast buck.

I called him back and told him I wasn't sure how many bids he got, and mine may be the low.. but $500 was what I offered.

He seemed offended and said "Well yes, thats pretty low" and I thanked him for his time and he said "Whatever".

I gotta be honest, i've seen dudes get PAID to tear down nicer buildings, but I didn't tell him that.

Comparing that building to what building new costs is kind of like me comparing my '46 1/2 ton to a brand new Chevy 1/2 ton.

It ain't even the same thing.

To me, i'd pay the guy $5,000 if he could put it in my lawn, and all I had to do was hand him the cash. If you consider the hassle and labor involved in pulling it apart, loading it, trucking it, and re-assembling it.. especially in he dead of winter.. it just dosen't hold a whole lot of value to me.

I'm just going to go back to the original plan.. find some old telephone poles, and put up a pole building with new metal on the side. It'll cost me more than $500, i'm sure, but at least I won't have to tear something down.

I would'nt use old telephone poles. I worked for the phone company for 36 years and they dont pull them out till they are about to rot down. They will rot under your new building and you will have a big problem. Spend the bucks for new square poles and it will be easier to get it square and plumb and it will last a long time.

I agree the new insulated doors that they make today are far superior to the old heavy wooden ones from years ago. I guess I was assuming that the doors were the newer type.

It still wouldn't hurt to get a bid on the cost of moving it. Ask lots of questions about raising power wires, crossing bridges, cost per mile etc. You never know, this deal might not work out, but another one that is better might come along. In that case, you would already have a rough idea of moving costs that would be involved.

It never hurts to know too much, just in case that great deal comes along.