Cheap hangar construction options

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EchoKilo

Pre-takeoff checklist
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EchoKilo
Looking for tips and advice on low-cost DIY hangar building. By low-cost I'm talking in the hundreds of dollars (maybe a couple thou at the highest). I want to construct a cheap hangar to store a plane on my property. I've been trying to do research on DIY fabric buildings.

My dad owns a sawmill so it may be possible to get lumber from him for cheap or free.

Please share any advice you may have about low-cost hangar construction here. I'm very interested to hear what knowledge is out there on this topic.

Thank you.
 
EchoKilo said:
Looking for tips and advice on low-cost DIY hangar building. By low-cost I'm talking in the hundreds of dollars (maybe a couple thou at the highest). I want to construct a cheap hangar to store a plane on my property. I've been trying to do research on DIY fabric buildings.

My dad owns a sawmill so it may be possible to get lumber from him for cheap or free.

Please share any advice you may have about low-cost hangar construction here. I'm very interested to hear what knowledge is out there on this topic.

Thank you.
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A question that comes to mind is where will this hangar be located?

Private strip that you own, then do anything you want that meets local building codes.

But if at an airport own by others, then whomever owns/runs the airport will have something to say about design and materials.
 
Port-a-port mobile portable aircraft hangars

http://www.portaportparts.com/

Falconerdscij-orig.jpg
 
Hmm, a very inexpensive structure that is to protect an expensive and somewhat delicate piece of equipment. This does not sound like a good plan.
 
AggieMike88 said:
A question that comes to mind is where will this hangar be located?

Private strip that you own, then do anything you want that meets local building codes.

But if at an airport own by others, then whomever owns/runs the airport will have something to say about design and materials.
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At home strip.
 
I'm thinking about building a pole barn to store it in. Supposed to be simple to build, cheap, and sturdy. Lots of info on youtube on how to build.

Was also think about buying a decent sized carport used, cutting it and making it bigger by adding materials. Not sure if that would work well though.
 
watch wind lift and snow loads.

on a calm sunny day, a tarp on a broomstick will look OK, but in a 50 mph wind with a foot of wet snow on the roof, it looks differently.
 
ps, not to discourage you. I do think you could build something cheap but well done. I think you'll find you need a beam though, so I think your all in costs will be low thousands if you do it yourself, but get some help to ensure you're doing it well with the right features to give it lift, load and flexion strength.
 
Many ways to do it but the expensive part will be the beam wide enough to get the plane out. If I were going to build a small T-hangar I would use an engineered wood I-beam. Menards has them for about $1.50/foot. 28' wide is only $41.72. Then you can get the other lumber from your dad. I still don't think you'll be in the hundreds, but low thousands
Nordic_Ijoist.jpg
 
Back to an earlier question...where is this located, what's the weather like, what are the winds like? You need to build for not-quite-worst case unless worst case happens all the time.
 
I built a 10X20 shed for our horses. Used 5 telephone poles that I was able to get for free and a 20’ 2X10 to span across the front. Obviously you’d need something bigger but I’ve got about $1000 just in that after buying metal and paying someone to help me set the poles. Gonna be hard to keep it in the hundreds of dollars I believe.
 
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murphey said:
Back to an earlier question...where is this located, what's the weather like, what are the winds like? You need to build for not-quite-worst case unless worst case happens all the time.
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Middle Tennessee. Pretty average weather/climate.
 
The least expensive thing will be to leave the floor dirt, set posts in the ground, put a horizontal beam over the posts and buy some trusses, plywood the trusses and put a roof on it. Hangars are pretty big, its still going to be expensive. You can leave the floor, sides and hangar door off. Put those on later maybe.

The only truly inexpensive thing is to tie down and cover the airplane with a good custom cover.
 
timwinters said:
Plane? Opening width required?
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Well, the 150's wingspan is 33', so it would need to be about 35'-40' I'm guessing.

coloradobluesky said:
The least expensive thing will be to leave the floor dirt, set posts in the ground, put a horizontal beam over the posts and buy some trusses, plywood the trusses and put a roof on it. Hangars are pretty big, its still going to be expensive. You can leave the floor, sides and hangar door off. Put those on later maybe.
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If I'm creative about how I acquire my materials, I think I can do it for next to nothing. Like I said, dad's a logger and sawmiller. I think I can get materials from him.
 
Here's a pic of the area I'm going to build it. Mowed out a patch 35' x 30' just to see the size of it. Shouldn't he hard at all. Just going to leave the ground like it is (at least to start with).

Here's also some pics of our property and the grass strip.
 

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We had a couple of those"'wind proof" fabric and frame hangars nearby; they were damaged pretty well in a wind less than the published max for the structures. The manufacturer blew the owners off, so that was that for those designs locally.
 
Sundancer said:
We had a couple of those"'wind proof" fabric and frame hangars nearby; they were damaged pretty well in a wind less than the published max for the structures. The manufacturer blew the owners off, so that was that for those designs locally.
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It's settled. I'm building a pole barn.
 
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