Hi Tom
My name is Steven and I am from Ireland. I’m a metal fabricator, not qualified though, but I have worked for 3 years with steel. The first place I worked was with a company making helicopter simulators for 2 years. The second job I had was making different things but I never made a handrail for a wheelchair ramp.
I just wanted to get your advice on a hand rail for a ramp. I wanted to know how I should measure the angle of the slope for the ramp? And also would I need to cut the posts each the same length that go inside of the handle part and the lower rail that will be above the ramp itself? How would I measure the length of the square tube at the angle for the post because each end cut will be cut at an angle so it can be welded to the upright posts at the start of the ramp and at the top if the ramp. I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards
Steven

Steve from Ireland sent the above email full of questions concerning building a handicap ramp. I posted a short video of Tom giving a few tips on how to build a metal handrail for a sloped sidewalk or ramp. One thing to keep in mind is to contact a local building official to investigate any building codes that are required in your area. Another key is to make sure you start with a well poured ramp. Sometimes you have to deal with an existing concrete ramp, but if you are starting from ground zero, make sure the ramp is smooth and even to begin with. A good ramp will allow you to compute your metal handrail by rise and run method. You can actually take the measurement, duplicate the angle and draw out the handrail on your shop floor. If the ramp has a dip or two in it, use a strait two by four or a piece of square tube, lay it on the ramp, put an angle finder on it and find the exact angle. This gives you the angle of all the posts. All vertical metal posts should be level, or plumb. The top handrail can be made out of one piece of metal tube. The bottom bumper rails can be cut out to fit between the individual vertical metal posts. Additional guardrail should be added if local code dictates.

Thanks for the question Steve and best of luck with your project!

Real estate is in the news. There are homes for sale, low interest rates and potential renters everywhere. It may be a good time to look into purchasing investment property. There are a few things to keep in mind while looking at property for sale. A handy way to remember some key ideas can be found in the “three S’s”. Tom suggests considering 1. Site 2. Services and 3. Structure.

Site:
Take a look at the home, condominium or apartment building from the outside. Is the concrete curb and gutter in good shape? Does the driveway need to be repaired? What does the existing landscaping look like? Are there problem trees and/or shrubs that may need to be removed? Is the overall neighborhood a good area? It is important to look at nearby amenities like schools, shopping and public transportation hubs. Also, look at the neighbors adjacent to the potential property. Are there vacant homes or buildings? Are the yards and structures in good condition?

Services:
Another area to closely examine is the public services that fuel the home. How does the water come into the house? Examine the piping in the house and out to the city line. Is the pipe made of copper, pex or is it galvanized? Sewer services will usually be cast iron or clay. Is the servicing sewer line buried underneath the neighbors lawn. If there is a break or a repair needed this could become extremely costly. How does the electric line enter the property? Many older structures electrical panels are an insufficient size. Also, know where gas lines are. What are the phone and television options?

Structure:
It is important to give close attention to the structure of the unit. Take time to examine the foundation. Check for cracking, water stains, flaking and settling. It is a good idea to be familiar with the type of soil the structure sits on as well. Look for cracked walls as well. Do the doors and windows close easily? Where is the furnace and hot water heater located? Is the floor even or are there obvious variations?

A rental property can be a great investment. Just ask a few questions before purchasing.

Tom helped a local contractor build a tornado safe room for a new construction project. The home owner wanted a concrete and steel “basement” located underneath his garage floor. The garage is a 40 X 50 foot structure. The homeowner poured part of a basement in the garage on one end. The idea was to have a concrete slab floor poured over the top of the hole to form a safe room. The steel and concrete floor will enable the homeowner to still utilize the entire garage floor for parking and storing vehicles. The safe room below can be used to store valuable items as well as serve as a place to go in the event of a tornado or other emergency.
As the foundation walls were formed, beam pockets with weld plates were added so that the steel beams would sit flush with the foundation and the bottom of the concrete slab. Steel beams were placed in the beam pockets across the opening of the newly formed basement. The opening was then covered with metal floor pan. The floor pan supports the concrete floor as well as add additional support to the garage floor. Floor pan is generally made out of galvanized steel. The tornado room ceiling will then be tied into the entire garage floor while the concrete flat work is completed. This allows the whole concrete floor the expand and contract over time.
The picture shows one heavier beam that sits perpendicular to the rest of the steel beams. This allows for an opening for a stairway down to the tornado room.
The smaller steel beams are W6 X 9 lbs per foot. The heavier beam is a W6 X 25 lbs per foot. There is a steel post near the end of the heavier beam. As building continues, additional re bar and concrete will be added.
The tornado safe room will be tied into the remaining structure and will be made entirely of concrete and steel. The picture at the bottom of the page is a view with galvanized floor pan covering the basement prior to concrete.
If you are interested in building a tornado safe room in your new construction, it is important to remember that it should be professionally engineered.

It is exciting when we get a job into the shop that will remain in the community for decades. Tom was asked to help weld on a steeple for a new church building in town. The congregation at Laramie Valley Chapel has been waiting for the addition of their steeple for several years. A large crane was used to lift up the 56 foot steel structure and then Tom and Colter welded it onto the existing building frame. Also in this video, a local construction company places the all stainless steel cross on the top. Two guys were lifted up in a steel box along with the attached cross. Once in place, the cross was bolted onto the top of the large steeple. All and all, the cross sits about one hundred feet off the ground.
Two guys were hoisted up in a steel box and when in place, bolted the cross onto the top of the steel steeple. All and all, the cross sits about one hundred feet off the ground. Check out the short video of the action. I wasn’t able to get video of the steeple being lifted by the crane. If anyone out there was able to get pictures or video, send it my way!

Greetings,
WE have been busy hanging and taping drywall. We should have the garage taped, textured and painted by the end of next weekend. The idea is to finish this area out, get the mechanical, heating, and water going (close the door and pretend the rest of the house is done).
Will work our way through the rest of the house from here. We have 300+ sheets of drywall coming our way for the rest of the house. Aldrich lumber will start stocking the stuff today, beginning with the second floor.
Greetings to All,
We keep plugging away. We have been fortunate with the weather. The snow has mostly kept to the higher elevations. The recent views of Carter mountain and the Absarokas have been spectacular. We have been keeping the inside of the house toasty with our Binford 500 – Super Turbo – Tornado- Jet Fuel Heater. You can actually carry on a conversation and listen to NPR when it has shut off.
About all of the plumbing rough in is done. All that is left is to pressure up the Pex pipe and check for leaks. First impression is that the Pex along with the compression fittings are really a slick deal for hot and cold water. -Will let you know other wise when, and if we find lots of leaks. -Will cut hole in the roof in fair weather to install our four large solar hot water arrays. We fired up most of the electrical that we have done just prior to drywall. This weekend we hung all the drywall in Katies bedroom, hung the ceiling in Dans bedroom, and sound insulated all the second floor parting walls. The kids are really psyched to finally be working on “their space”.
Last Friday I caught up with Peggy at the Buffallo Bill Historical Center during her painting class with M.C. Poulson. Enjoy the photo of Peggy in front of the Thomas Moran she is painting. I was humbled that she is studying with such a renowned artist, and proud of her work.
In other news, I was informed on Friday that a $35,000 Energy Education grant I submitted for Cody High School came through! We will be doing bio-diesel, solar, wind, and energy audit education with the funds. Kids will get to play with a seed press, and diesel engines as they make fuel directly from camelina, sunflower seed etc. Will also purchase some thermal imaging equipment for energy audits here in the Cody community.
A great week to all.
Cheers! Chip and the gang.

It has been almost seven years since Trade Tool Innovations has sent out it’s first concrete screed. The first screed went to Atlanta Georgia. The TTI Screedright Pro has been shipped all over the United States, Canada and the world.
The TTI Screedright Pro is a one man power concrete screed that utilizes a wooden 2″ X 4″ or a 2″ X 6″ as a screed bar. The small Subaru Robin four stroke engine vibrates the machine. The vibration helps settle the concrete as it is being poured out of a concrete truck.
In this video, Tom reviews a few helpful tips for those using the TTI Screedright Pro.
It is not necessary to use a full throttle when operating the concrete machine. The screed works best when 1/4 to 1/2 throttle is applied. The screed board should be kept perpendicular with the forms. This is best achieved by keeping the screed handle bar level. One common error is to dip the handle bar too low or raise it too high while operating the machine. Another common mistake is to try and go too fast while pulling the machine along the forms. Try and keep a slower, even pace as you operate the concrete tool over your flat work. If there is excess concrete left behind after you go over the concrete slab, this may be the problem. Try sanding down a little bit.
If you own one of our concrete screeds, feel free to post a comment, suggestion or your tip on this page. We’d love to hear how it is going with you! If you have a general question, feel free to post as well.

This morning Tom and I ventured out to see a large metal frame that had blown over during the weekend. The metal building was being constructed on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie Wyoming. It was to house tennis courts when completely finished. It looks as if the contractor has some cleaning up to do before beginning the building process again.
The first thing we noticed was the large steel frame toppled onto an adjacent building. The adjacent building is similar to the frame and size of the destroyed metal structure. The structure was about 150 feet by 200 feet. It looked as if the entire steel frame had been pushed over like a set of domino’s.

It looked as if the contractor had the main beams up along with the girts and roof perlins. It seemed to have been all tied together at one point. Their may have not been any cross bracing up yet. There also was no tin on the metal structure eitherTin wall on a metal building serve as a big diaphragm that prevent sheer. Metal buildings are designed so the frame has connecting points where the pieces are bolted together. The tin is screwed up against the frame and serves as a deterrent to torquing and twisting of the metal building frame. It is possible that the wind came up and the steel structure began to move slightly. If there were not enough cross bracing in the structure as it was being set up, then if a couple of critical points were effected and the steel webs began to fold a little bit, it may cause the entire structure to topple down. Cross bracing may be the answer to a mess well avoided. Tom describes how he built his shop by first erecting a bay with plenty of steel cable cross bracing. The walls and roof are equipped to handle the load of the unstable beams and perlins. Cross bracing is essential to the building process and also makes for a much more secure structure in the end.

It is that time of year again when our attention turns to the outdoors and the curb appeal of our homes. One easy way to give your front porch a quick face lift is to add or replace an outdoor stair rail.
A few things to keep in mind, along with design, have to do with observing city and county codes.
Residential properties generally have to have at least one handrail along a flight of stairs. The height of the handrail should be mounted somewhere between 34″ and 38″ above all of the stair nosing.
The grip-able area of the handrail should measure between 1 1/4″ and 2 1/4″.
If the handrail is to be hung along an existing wall, like the example in the photos, a 1 1/2″ clearance between any projection in the wall and the handrail should be observed. Sometimes this gets a bit tricky if the wall has an uneven surface like stone.

Tom built this handrail to fit a new home. The handrail needed to bolt to a stone faced wall at the top and also bolt to a stone faced concrete planter at the bottom of the stairs. Tom used a lag screw that fit into the metal railing bracket and sunk it through the stone and wall behind. The bottom bracket was fastened using a concrete anchor through the stone into the concrete planter underneath. Tom used 1 1/2″ .109 wall E.W. round tubing bent using a Shop Outfitters Universal Fabricator.

We received an email from Tim in Southwest Oklahoma. He had seen the video we made of our adventures while constructing our metal building shop/house. His main questions centered around our experience with insulation. He wanted to know what type of insulation we used for the home and if we had experienced any problems with home sweating during the winter months. He also asked if Tom had any advice on how to prevent sweating. Thanks for the questions Tim and we will do our best to try and answer them. By the way, best of luck with your building project, Tim, and send us some updates and pictures for our website!

Tim is looking at building an all metal red I-Beam truss system with sheet metal exterior walls. The metal shop/house that Tom built is along those same lines as well. Tom used a basic rip stop vinyl faced fiberglass insulation. Insulation can be purchased without the rip stop feature, but if the temperature gets extremely cold and the insulation gets bumped the insulation could crack. Rip stop insulation is more durable. Tom’s entire building is outfitted with 3 1/4″ bat, R11 insulation and was purchased along with the entire building kit. The bats were 5 foot wide. The inside of the home was framed in the existing building once the building was erected and dried in. The wood stud walls of the house were insulated as well with R13 fiberglass bats, giving the home portion of the building an extra layer of insulation. This created dead air space between the bat insulation that was used to insulate the entire building and the insulation that was packed into the stud walls of the house. This helps elevate any type of large temperature variation between the outside and inside of the house. The air temperature in the dead air space tends to equalize in that zone.
To help answer Tim’s question as to how to prevent sweating in the walls, the shop/house is a great case study.
Tom notices that in the shop, where there isn’t a secondary wall system and the wall and roof structure consists of the tin, bat insulation, purlins and gurts, moisture can form on the building frame when the outside and inside temperatures vary greatly. The cold temperature from outside will interact with the point on the building where the insulation is compressed at the purlins because the tin is screwed in there. The insulation quality is low and the cold air transfers from the tin through the thin area of insulation onto the purlins. If there is any moisture in the shop, say from shop equipment or vehicles that have been pulled in to work on, the purlin temperature interacts with the moisture in the air and does cause a little sweating.
There isn’t much problem with the house part of the building sweating. Really only in typical areas like bathrooms and the kitchen while showering or boiling spaghetti noodles. This may be due to the double insulation factor.
The other thing to note is that Tom’s house/shop is located in an very dry location. Wyoming experiences low humidity year round. The important factor for any building project with regards to preventing sweating is still going to be a well ventilated building.