One of the real joys in recycling is using your imagination to fix, create, or rebuild something that still has great value. This was exactly what we discovered as we took what looked like a pile of junk and eventually created a beautiful structure out of it. The building at one time was the coal storage building for the ASU power plant. It was eventually unecessary when the boilers were converted to gas. We purchased the building for the cost of its removal.
We started by clearing an initial site and then began to create the eight piers on which would be mounted the steel posts that would hold up the building.
The piers ran deep in the ground on the lower slope side of the building due to an error made by a backhoe operator. The piers were made from bagged cement poured into forms and/or a foundation framework made of 12" concrete blocks. We ended up with over 150 bags of cement and 12 bags of mortar in the piers. Next, we put out the steel parts to determine how the building was originally built. After figuring out how it went together, we began to hoist the posts in place, one by one.
We tried winching the metal up using boards to support them, but found this was too unstable. We eventually used scaffolding with a wood beam on top and used a hand winch to lift each in place. The arch beams were lifted in place using a material lift.The two sides were bolted together and then lifted in place on top of the supporting posts.
We borrowed a tractor and made a crane with 2X6s to lift the purlins in place. These are the metal beams that stretch across the arches to form the base to attach the roofing sheet metal.
Then the sheet metal was pushed up by hand onto the purlins and fastened.
Next we backfilled and compacted the slab area and then poured cement.
We have completed almost all of the exterior sheet metal. Added gutters, doors, and framing for the inside shop. We expect to complete trim and windows by summer of 2002
This building will house a bathroom, shop, storage and work area for farm equipment, and will support an array of solar panels and house our boiler for heating the shop, the greenhouse, and the main house.
