How to build a Hangar

[W.J.Langholz]

I have some good REA poles and was thinking it would be a good start to building a hangar. Anybody on this site build there own hangar?

Ideas...thoughts....stick in my ear comments........??????

[GAHorn]

I built mine out of I-beams/Flange-beams, C-purlins, R-panel, etc. That's how I learned to weld. Pics are already posted in my Hangar Door posts.
http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... oor#p42001

You'll want to consider what type floor you want. A reinforced concrete hangar floor can cost about $5 sq. ft. (My 50' X 50' foundation cost $10K all mat'ls included, and I made that deal with a crew who was out of work for a week between jobs and paid them in cash. By the way, don't settle for less than "5-sack" concrete for a lightplane hangar. Six-sack is even better. Yes, you want it reinforced with re-bar. Not fencing. Re-bar.) A concrete foundation must "rest" for 30 days before you build or traffic upon it. (And if you use a pre-fab steel bldg company, you'll need to get the drawings from them so your concrete crew can "set" the anchors and/or weld-plates. If you do what I did, you'll still have to be ready with anchors or weld-plates before they pour the concrete.)
Also, don't forget to have the concrete guys plan on a "wall-ledge" to set your R-panel walls upon for a recessed/anti-insect lower wall.
If you plan to build a "pole barn" type bldg, you might settle for less foundation, but sink those poles in concrete at least 4' deep. A dirt floor will contribute to condensation and corrosion in/on your airplane. Put gravel into the bottom of the holes and set the poles directly upon the gravel (not on wet concrete) that will allow the posts to drain so that you don't form a "bucket" for water to sit in and rot the foot of your posts. (Later, when it rains, rainwater will flow down your posts and be captured and rot the posts unless you provide a path for it to drain.)

Also, consider winds. A good thunderstorm can easily generate 60-80 mph winds. You'll want your hangar cross-braced with cable. A hangar wall 50' X 16' will be highly stressed by even a moderate breeze. You'll be amazed to realize how much wind load is placed upon a hangar.

What part of the country are you? You'll need to consider snow loads if up north. (Rules out a flat roof.) And you might need heat and insulation.
What kind of door do you intend? Motorized? or manual? (Hint: Large RV's typically require 12' 7" clearance height, so plan accordingly if you ever anticipate parking an RV in there, or someday selling to someone else who might.) Don't forget to plan for a "personel" door opposite the main door for an alternate fire escape route and to avoid opening the main door every time you want access when you don't intend to fly. (Also allows a cross-breeze on hot days.)
Do you want translucent panels for daytime lighting? Consider putting them in upper walls below eaves rather than roofs, to avoid rain leaks, hail damage, and security from breakins.
Do you have any local building codes? Whose land will you build it on? If not your own rural land, then you'll likely run into codes and archetectural design requirements. Do you need water, electricity, fire protection? What kind of lighting do you think you'll want? (Suggestion: Stay away from flourescent lighting in a hangar, unless you LIKE spending a lot of time on ladders/scaffolds chasing flickering/failed light tubes and putting up with troublesome starts on cold days.) Go with ordinary incandescent (cheap and reliable) or sodium halide (expensive/sophisticated.)

The 50' X 50' all metal hangar with 16' eaves and a 12:2 sloped roof I built on my own rural land using my own labor (and some friends) in 2000 dollars cost me almost $30K and the tax appraiser raised my appraisal by $75K. Similar hangars at a residential fly-in community about 6 miles away were being built for $85K-$120K and appraising for their actual costs. They are mostly on long-term leased, not owned, land.

[iowa]

here in iowa
a hangar is basically a 'pole shed'
with schweiss doors.
we built a 5 unit one about 5 years ago
and are building a 4 unit one now.
of course throught the federal funding plan at 5%
dave

[W.J.Langholz]

Dave do you have any pics. The federal Funding 5 % ....?? can you explane that one.

Thanks Willie

[n2582d]

What kind of lighting do you think you'll want? (Suggestion: Stay away from flourescent lighting in a hangar, unless you LIKE spending a lot of time on ladders/scaffolds chasing flickering/failed light tubes and putting up with troublesome starts on cold days.) Go with ordinary incandescent (cheap and reliable) or sodium halide (expensive/sophisticated.)

Willie,
I beg to differ with George. On the advice of a local electrical supplier I installed T-8 flourescent lighting in my 40'X50' shop. There have been a lot of improvements in this type of lighting since the days of our youth. Since installing them 6 years ago I have not once had to deal with "failed light tubes" or "troublesome starts on cold days". The lights turn on instantly. My shop is lit up like Dr. Dave's operating room and with light from four rows of light strips there is no work done in a shadow. With all 80 32 watt bulbs on I use 2560 watts. The shop lighting is divided into quarters so I can use only 640 watts if I want. Back in 2002 I paid around $1250 for the lights and fixtures. See http://www.lithonia.com

[W.J.Langholz]

Gary

I agree on the T-8's. Did my farm shop 2 years ago, like them alot.

The "G-Man" Horn is good, but sometimes we need to help him out a little.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I'd be more impressed if you guys were reporting good fluorescent performance from an unheated hanger in Alaska.

Here in south eastern PA it gets down to 0 and not uncommon to be weeks below 30. I have 8 foot fluorescent tubes in my unheated garage that I salvaged from a store remodeling project 40 years ago. They are NOT the latest technology. They work OK to about 40 and lower than that need some warm up to light but they eventually will light. You may get better performance from newer stuff but I personally wouldn't expect it.

In my climate I'd probably go with fluorescent and supplement them with regular incandescent or quarts lights when needed in the really cold times. BTW if it's that cold I'm generally not spending much time in the hanger anyway.

[W.J.Langholz]

Gee Whiss Bruce....we might be thinking about putting on our long sleve shirts @ 0 but no call to be thinking about jackets yet, least ways here in Minneesoata don't ya know.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Gee Whiss Bruce....we might be thinking about putting on our long sleve shirts @ 0 but no call to be thinking about jackets yet, least ways here in Minneesoata don't ya know.

Well don't ya know I didn't know your from Minneesoata W.J.. I did note N2582D is from California. Now I suppose there may be some cold spots in California and I'm no expert on California, but I can't think of any.

[jrenwick]

In Minnesota we need the "HO" type of 8-foot fluorescent lamps to work in the cold. They light right away in freezing temperatures, but it takes them a while to get to full brightness. My own hangar is insulated and heated. I keep it at 46 degrees in the winter, and the HOs of course work just fine at that temperature. I installed them (ten units) myself. I had one with a bad connection in it, and after fixing that, I've never had to touch them.

The best sorts of heating systems, IMHO, are the overhead radiant tube type (http://www.rec.udel.edu/Extension/Poultry/APENv2n1.pdf) if the hangar is going to be unoccupied most of the time, or radiant in-floor heat if you're going to be working in it full-time. I have the overhead radiant tube type. It warms the hangar up very quickly when I crank up the thermostat. The main difference between that and any forced-air system is that it heats the people and objects in the hangar radiantly, including the floor. The air eventually gets warm as the floor warms up.

[n3833v]

I have the HO's mounted vertically in my hanger so some light is on top and the rest of the light is under the wing. Don't have to climb ladders to replace bulbs . Just make sure the spring load is at the top.

John

[W.J.Langholz]

John

I like the verticle too. I had mine up already in the farm shop b/4 I saw this at a truck wash. Did you put a couple on the ceiling too? I think you will almost have too when the space gets wider.

[jamyat]

I built a "quonset" style steel building, 50 X 50. I settled on it partly because of cost, partly ease of construction, and partly because of wind resistance. It was the lowest priced building I could get in 1997. It goes up quickly, but you have to have a fairly large crew for the main structure. It took about 12 - 15 hours to erect the 24 arches. Another 8 hours for the endwalls, and another 8 hours just to tighten all the bolts. It gets really windy, tornadoes and all that, in Oklahoma and these buildings are supposed to be the most wind resistant. I am sure someone will comment on the curved walls restricting storage along the sides and that was a concern for me. I special ordered the building with an extra section in each arch to make the sides more nearly vertical. You can get buildings with straight up sides that then curve into arches.

I also used Horton Stack Doors instead of a bifold door. Horton is in Wellington KS and also makes STOL kits for airplanes. These doors fold like French closet doors. They have special ball bearing carriers on the bottom of each section that rides on a steel rail. The rail can be flushed into the floor or mounted on top of the floor surface. Mine is mounted on top of the floor. They are very easy to open and close and require no electricity. They close so easily that there is a chain with a hook at each end so that you can anchor the open door so it can't close. Even a slight breeze of 5 knots can cause the door to close if the chain is not fastened. The door also comes with siding already attached. Since the weight is all on the floor, the frame structure does not have to be as heavy as that for a bifold door.

I also used florescent lights and have never had any problems. It doesn't get really cold in OK, so I just bought the standard ballast. I could have bought cold weather ballasts. The coldest I have seen in my hangar is about 36. The lights come on instantly but are a little dim for a minute or two.

[N2540V]

My hanger came with standard shop type 4 foot dual fluorescent lamps (Seattle Washington area (PWT)).

They flickered and drove me nuts.
I have removed almost every one of them and replaced them with new lamps that the ballast works at colder temperatures.
I do not have any regrets on that decision. They are much nicer. They were a little more.
I could not find them at any of the large hardware stores (Lowes, HomeDepot, etc), and finally found them at my McClendon ACE Hardware.

I had moved a couple of the older lamps to the rear - You just reminded me that I need to replace them also.

[flyguy]

I have some good REA poles and was thinking it would be a good start to building a hangar. Anybody on this site build there own hangar?

Dam sumbodi sure derail an hijak this kwestion frum ole whisky juliyette ! ! Poles fer hangars aint redi fer lites an doars an paint. Gots tu git er stood up an dun fore wireying an doars! !

Pole barns have stood the winds on the Kansas prairies for years and are OK material if that is the way you want to go. BTW even the most structurally sound steel building may reach a point of failure if the category of the winds are strong enough. I saw the doors on the big maintenance hangar at Desoto Parish Airport sucked out of their bottom tracks and the back wall of the building implode when a Cat 4 tornado came through. The doors swung out at the bottom ant the tops fell on the two planes just inside. Parts of the back wall fell on the workbench area.

As George described (FORE HE GOT OFF TRAK) put your poles way deep. Are they creosote treated or CS? if they are CS you can concrete them in to fill the hole. Creosoted poles work better with plain dirt filled and tamped. For strength - let-in the side purlins and let-in diagonals on the insides of the poles. You can drill and put eye-bolts for fastening tensioning cables also. If you use manufactured trusses for the roof, use clips or angles that put the roof purlins on edge. Long sheet metal pieces expand a surprising amount and the placing the purlins vertically will allow enough movement for the sheets to move and not loosen the screws.