# Design Build Carport...? Anyone have experience?



## nrco222 (Jun 11, 2015)

Carports are need on my job over 400 feet of them at 20' wide. We underestimated the cost of these things when buying them from a prefab group, so I ask this:

Has anyone found the best alternate way for building a carport without entirely fab'n it out of steel. Maybe the steel fab guy can put up some posts and spans and our roof guy can come in and put some sort of cheap cover over it.

Please tell me some one has had some experience designing one of these things.


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## TimberlineMD (Jan 15, 2008)

Nothing cheaper than a steel 'W' pan roof.


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## Creter (Oct 13, 2009)

Cheap cover is screaming potential property damage and personal injury to me...:whistling


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## Fouthgeneration (Jan 7, 2014)

Freestanding vs. tied to existing... One 400 footer or 20 twenty footers?

Snow loads, hurricanes/ tornadoes or both in some lucky spots, make designing durable cheap carports very hard. Gas station pump awnings would be the go to guys IMO.

Never give a price for something you don't really know.:no:

Just how do you get paid doing General Conditions??????

Why not call a car port salesperson and ask........ or go to their website and read it, then you can report back and we'll all know more.


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## nrco222 (Jun 11, 2015)

I am a contractor. We were given a a 17 page set of conceptual drawings not to scale on 10-17" papers and told to price it. We did. We plugged in~ 40 grand for the carport section because we talked to our local steel fab guy for a rough estimate. They liked our number for the project so they went ahead and gave the OK to the architect to finish the design and brought us on board. Now we have a detailed set of drawings with huge upgrades and price increases yet they want us to stick as close to our budget as possible. Carports were coming in around 75-100 grand or more for ~50 spots. I was wondering if I could do it for cheaper with my local steel fab bro.


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## mako1 (Sep 1, 2013)

You can always walk which is what I would do on a deal like that.75-100k on carports?
I've been to TN.They build nice houses for that?


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## JAH (Jul 27, 2014)

Sounds like you gave a estimate, now its time for a quote? 
Call your local fab shops.


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