A 24 m span rural commercial shed frame, fabricated and erected to a tight program.
The challenge: A rural business needed a 24 m span commercial shed erected on a prepared slab, with a tight program ahead of the grain season. The slab was already poured and slightly out of tolerance, and the site had limited access for a crane in one corner. The frame also had to tie into an existing awning on one side.
Our approach: We ran a fabrication check against the slab levels before cutting steel, and identified three base plates that would need shim packing rather than cutting the column. We split the long rafters into two transportable sections and pre-welded the cleats in the workshop so site time was only bolting and splice welding. On site, we used a mobile crane in the accessible corner and a telehandler for the rest, and we worked around the existing awning by templating the connection on site rather than pre-drilling blind.
The outcome: The frame was erected, plumbed and braced in two days. The shim-packed base plates sat within tolerance, the awning tie-in matched, and the cladding crew were able to start on schedule ahead of grain season. The owner later told us the frame went up “straighter than the last shed we built”.
Hot-rolled mild steel columns and rafters in universal beam and column sections, base plates and cleats plate-cut in our workshop, shop-drilled bolt holes, galvanising nominated by the engineer for the exposed ties. Scope included fabrication, delivery, mobile-crane erection and site splice welding, with the client supplying cladding and concrete.