Building a hangar - recommendations?

I looked at this approx 2011, and had a talk with Shufflebottom in the UK. It’s basically a concrete pad, modular steel frame, then standard sheeting for roof and walls. A consideration was having a door wide enough for a wingspan. Agricultural grade was green cladding, but commercial grade was blue and slightly thicker, and disproportionately more expensive. It’s probably a UK thing, but it may help to pursue the ‘agricultural’ route. There must be other options.

Would it be on an existing hardstanding or on grass?

The cheapest and quickest option is a polytunnel, but you really want to avoid this unless you can lay down a concrete base. At the very least you want a “C” shape of concrete around the back and side perimeter to avoid moisture ingress.

For a proper building, agricultural building suppliers will be cheapest, but if budget isn’t a factor then you have more options. As soon as you ask for an “aircraft hangar” the cost will raise considerably…

I built an ag grade “shed” (ie hangar) about 8 years ago for our farm strip. Done to a good standard with proper concrete pad, steel construction and full width sliding doors. Fits a PA46, plus a piper cub and various bits of equipment.

I dont know where you are based. I am in the UK countryside where it is unremittingly cold, damp and windy in the winter. After the first couple of winters I wished I had followed my contractors suggestion and put in underfloor heating and a simple air source heat pump, just enough to raise the temp a few degrees and get some air circulating for the coldest month or three and reduce condensation. I think this could be done as a pretty cheap add on. All it would need is for the central half of the pad, to have the water circulating pipes etc. Point of my message is to think through the options carefully before committing. I know of others who have even insulated hangars – using Kingspan or similar.

Buckerfan wrote:

Point of my message is to think through the options carefully before committing.

This is key. I paid a commercial operation 460.00 per month to hanger my Super Cub. I thought everything would be fine until I noticed that my fabric aircraft was soaked every time I went to it.I then looked and spoke with other owners. The whole effort was a condensation disaster. When I spoke with the airfield owner his response was it is a tin shed on top of a hill in the UK. What would you expect? They would not even open a door to allow air circulation. I moved to a sea level corrugate T hanger with plenty of air circulation so problem solved for me. I had not even thought about severe condensation. That hanger by the way was 150k, with concrete floors etc. Aesthetically spot on, practical wise useless for fabric aircraft. As buckerfan wrote consider all options before erecting s structure that may not work for you.

BeechBaby wrote:

The whole effort was a condensation disaster.

Well you wouldn’t want that in a livestock shed either, but there are solutions using different roofing sheet choices.

vmc-on-top wrote:

how much did it cost for this?

For a hangar that is about 18m wide x 25 m long it cost about £120K in 2014, including concrete pad, footings for the steels, fully finished and with fully opening sliding doors that open out past the side walls. But I know that constructions costs have soared since then. So today probably would not expect much change from £200K. However, I have come to believe that the steel work is over engineered and it could have been done safely with less substantial steels.

But I know that constructions costs have soared since then. So today probably would not expect much change from £200K

I know nothing about building hangars (nearly bought one in 2005 but a crooked estate agent just used me to hurry up another customer) but a lot of people started taking the p1ss during covid, and that edifice is now happily crashing down. So don’t take any quote at face value. At work I routinely see prices halve when I tell the blatent opportunists (electronic parts distributors) how much I want to pay.

Re structures, a lot of hangars collapsed due to wind loading and some due to snow loading. Even the UK has had 30cm of snow within past 10-15 years. That gets very expensive.

There are numerous suppliers of modular hangars, and according to a not-so-thorough research I did a few months ago, the best value for money around Europe is to be had either in Poland or in Turkey.