A Hangar Design Thread

[Eric Page]

I want to build a hangar, but I don't know much about the process. I'm hoping those of you who've done this can offer some advice.

I'd like to survey the field here to see what others have built. If you own a hangar, could you describe as much of the following as you care to about your hangar?

- Size of hangar: L x W x Ceiling Height
- Type of foundation and floor
- Type of construction: stick-build, pole-barn, metal pre-fab (straight wall or Quonset)
- Type & size of door: sliding/folding (2-piece or multi-panel), overhead lift (one-piece or bi-fold), fabric roll-up, hydraulic or manual operation
- Additional doors: man-doors, roll-up garage type
- Interior build-out: additional rooms for shop, office, storage, bathroom, etc.
- Windows: type/size, number, locations
- Interior finish: vapor barrier, insulation, drywall, interior walls and doors, epoxy/tiled floor
- Exterior finish: Metal cladding, T1-11 siding, clapboards, shingles, paint or factory coating
- Mechanical: electrical service and wiring, plumbing, air lines, lighting, HVAC
- Approximate total cost

- If metal pre-fab or pole-barn, who did you buy from? How was the experience with them?

- Any features you particularly like?
- Any features you wouldn't bother with again?
- Any features you wish you had purchased?
- How do you like your hangar door?

- Have you modified or added anything since initial construction?

- Any other advice on hangars?

Many thanks!

Eric

[Byron J. Covey]

Answers within quote.


I want to build a hangar, but I don't know much about the process. I'm hoping those of you who've done this can offer some advice.

I'd like to survey the field here to see what others have built. If you own a hangar, could you describe as much of the following as you care to about your hangar?

- Size of hangar: L x W x Ceiling Height

50' wide 60' deep 12' ceiling

- Type of foundation and floor

Florida, slab on grade

- Type of construction: stick-build, pole-barn, metal pre-fab (straight wall or Quonset)

Concrete block, trusses, stucco, shingles

- Type & size of door: sliding/folding (2-piece or multi-panel), overhead lift (one-piece or bi-fold), fabric roll-up, hydraulic or manual operation

40' Horton, 110 MPH (code requirement) Stack Door http://www.hortonstackdoor.com/stackdoor_description.htm Translucent doors. Allows use of all 12' of ceiling height. Some neighbors with 12' ceilings can not use the entire height for their amphibs, because they have bifold doors.

- Additional doors: man-doors, roll-up garage type

Single car rollup garage door in rear right corner. Should have bought insulated door, instead insulated it myself.

- Interior build-out: additional rooms for shop, office, storage, bathroom, etc.

Rear 18' enclosed w insulated 6" stud wall. That divided into a 32" workshop and an office area.
Workshop has a window to hangar, an exterior people door to hangar, and another garage door that is directly across from the exterior garage door. Hangar has windows along both sides as well as across the back. Exterior door into the office area. Lots of fluorescent lights in the workshop.
Office area has a bath with shower, and an office / kitchen area. No stove, but refrigerator, kitchen sink and cabinets. Exterior door that opens out the left, rear onto a 10' by 16' porch.
Storage area above office ceiling.

- Windows: type/size, number, locations

36" wide by 48" high windows, two down the right side, one in hangar, one of which in workshop, three on left side, one in hangar, two of which are in the office /kitchen looking onto porch, two together in the workshop, behind work bench. The window located above the kitchen sink is shorter.

- Interior finish: vapor barrier, insulation, drywall, interior walls and doors, epoxy/tiled floor

No VB, workshop and office interior walls insulated with 6" glass. Doing it again, and $'s permitting, I would add 1" foam in the office area, and cover it with drywall. Have a split heat / cool / dehumidify system in the office area and in the workshop, primarily for dehumidification here in the summers. Drywall on interior partition wall, all interior walls painted. Flat on interior of concrete block, and semi gloss matching on hangar side of partition wall. Gloss white on partition wall inside office and workshop. Tile floor in office / bathroom.

Important here in this climate: Entire ceiling, painted white, and lots of insulation. I don't recall the R value, but about 9" deep blown in insulation.

- Exterior finish: Metal cladding, T1-11 siding, clapboards, shingles, paint or factory coating

Stucco, shingles. Residential airpark, where hangars must match the house.

- Mechanical: electrical service and wiring, plumbing, air lines, lighting, HVAC

Split HVAC system for shop and office / bathroom. Lots of GFI-protected outlets, especially in the workshop. Hot water heater and well system pressure tank in corner of workshop. Basic fluorescent lighting in the hangar, lots of same in workshop and office. Traditional lighting in the bathroom.

- Approximate total cost

Don't ask. Contractor built the building, including the ceiling. I did all the interior work.

- If metal pre-fab or pole-barn, who did you buy from? How was the experience with them?

NA

- Any features you particularly like?

I live in a residential airpark in north central Florida, on a 5 acre wooded lot. I have a patio and a fire pit behind the hangar porch that is a gathering spot for friends and neighbors. (I need to finish this posting soon, and go put on the coffee and light the fire for our every Friday morning "coffee by the fire pit.") The hangar / firepit / office is major socializing location.

Since the area is totally private, and one gets really sweaty doing yard work here in the summer time, I installed a shower head on the back wall of the hangar. People thought that I was nuts, but I use it frequently in the summer.

- Any features you wouldn't bother with again?

No

- Any features you wish you had purchased?

Epoxy floor. Very expensive. Also a slab on the side of the hangar for fuel tank storage.

- How do you like your hangar door?

Like it very much.

- Have you modified or added anything since initial construction?

Did all the stuff beyond the basic building myself. Had just retired, so I was able to work on it 60 hours per week until it was done.

- Any other advice on hangars?

See comment above about making it a place for socializing.

Many thanks!

Eric

Do a search for workshops. There are some really nice examples, with lots of details about layout and construction.


BJC

[WLIU]

The first thing you need to do is see what the building codes are for your locale. Look at "barns". I purchased an Erect-A-Tube building, 48'x48' with a 48' bifold door. Hired the steel erectors and the concrete contractors, and then did the finish electrical and inside myself. In 2002 $$ the foundation was something like $6000, the floor was another $3000, the steel and door was ~$35K and erection was another $8K. My wife and I put down white Hard Deck epoxy. Turned out great. I did electric and sheet rock. Building inspector signed it off. You can add up the $$.

Erect-A-Tube provided drawings with an engineer's stamp on them so the building inspector had no questions when issuing the permit.

The bifold door was about 40% of the cost of the kit.

Best of luck,

Wes

[Wilfred]

as to floor ....most building codes require concrete floors

[FlyingRon]

My hangar inside dimensions are rougly 50' wide by 36' deep and 17' tall. The door (Schweiss Bifold) is 45' wide and 14' tall (12' clearspace). A row of clerestory windows over the door and around the top of the three exposed sides of the hangar provide natural light. The floor space is roughly 2000 sf. Two storage rooms and a workshop in the back bring the sf up to 3000. The local building codes keep the residential
hangars pegged at 2000 sf of actual "airplane" area.

The construction is stick framed with drywall inside and stucco and stone veneer on the outside. The floor is polished concrete with hydronic heat. There's no air conditioning, but I have a portable moving cool unit when needed. There are normal man doors on the side that allow you to the ramp and one in the back that takes you to the deck and hot tub. A stairway leads up to the house proper. There's a laundry room and bathroom just at the top of the stairs.

The whole house is fed with 400A service backed up with a 80 KVA generator. Heat is provided by geothermal heat pumps. The generator, hot water, cooking, and fireplaces are fed with a 1000 gallon propane tank. I've got two ceiling mounted combination halon and dry chemical fire extinguishers over where the airplane is parked. The hangar is big enough for my airplane and the boat on the trailer.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2806/11119618454_f4dabeb293_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7211/7138523029_20cef7c360_z.jpg

[Mike M]

I want to build a hangar, but I don't know much about the process.

Other folks will surely disagree with this, but it's based on experience in three states. I'll double down on what Wes hinted at.

DO NOT BUILD A HANGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't even say the WORD hangar.

You want an equipment shed. That's all. An equipment shed. Like folks keep their boat trailers and combines and tractors and garden machinery in. An equipment shed. They don't usually require hard surface floors and fire sprinkler systems and eyewash stations and air conditioning and multiple routes for personnel emergency egress with multicolored lighted signs and floor mounted battery backup strobe-marked walkways and minimum electrical service regulations and wastewater pollution prevention and reclamation systems and you get the idea, right?

AN EQUIPMENT SHED.

And for darn sure don't pave the "ramp" and "taxiway" and "tarmac" or you'll need a complete catch basin water runoff mitigation system. Plus pay higher taxes on the improvement.

Your mileage may vary.

[Kim]

Not sure if how hard the ground freezes where you are at, but here in MN, I seen some t-hangars built with a 'floating' concrete floor. Big mistake, in the winter the floor rises and jams the doors. The fact that the doors are the kind that are made up of several parts that slide to side does not help.

[WLIU]

That's why we pay the extra for bifold doors in snow country. Sliding doors jam in about 10 different ways once the temps drop below freezing.

And the above post about checking the correct box on the building permit application is really good advice. I built a barn. A neighbor was unable to stop talking to the building inspector about how he was going to build an AIRPLANE HANGAR. The building code for official airplane hangars assumes a commercial building and requires explosion proof light fixtures and other expensive accessories not needed by you and I. I think he was forced to spend 50% more than I did. The lesson is, as noted above, build a barn or a machinery storage building with a big door for your big machinery.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS

[FlyingRon]

Well, the building department isn't going to be fooled around here by claiming you're building a farm equipment shed if you are on an airport. That being said, North Carolina as I aluded above relaxes the requirements for 2000 sf hangars to the point where it's not much different than a garage design wise. Even the couple of neighbors who have gone the commercial route haven't had that much problem. Notably you have to have a higher fire rating.

[Frank Giger]

I find all the requirements hilarious when I look at what I'm renting out at the County airport.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one little bit - but they are just metal frames with banging sheeting bolted to them with even louder banging sliding doors at the slightest breeze. And they cautioned me against running my air compressor at the same time as other equipment as it will pop the circuit breaker for the whole row of hangars.

[FlyingRon]

I find all the requirements hilarious when I look at what I'm renting out at the County airport.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one little bit - but they are just metal frames with banging sheeting bolted to them with even louder banging sliding doors at the slightest breeze. And they cautioned me against running my air compressor at the same time as other equipment as it will pop the circuit breaker for the whole row of hangars.

I'm happy my t-hangar at CJR has a 30A breaker for each unit.

[Eric Page]

Thanks to all who've answered so far. I'll reply to a few specifically:


Do a search for workshops.Excellent idea that hadn't occurred to me. I'll do that.


The first thing you need to do is see what the building codes are for your locale. Look at "barns".You're right, I need to check building codes. This is in a rural neighborhood that has a through-the-fence agreement with a county airport. There are several sizable hangars already built that no one would mistake for barns, so I don't believe building codes will be an issue, but I'll check.


...most building codes require concrete floorsI'm definitely planning a concrete floor, as this will be a workshop for building at least one airplane.


The floor is polished concrete with hydronic heat.Beautiful place, Ron. Congrats! I would love to include hydronic heat, but I have nightmares about the cost. Do you recall what it added to your construction bill? Did you have someone design the system for you? What's the heat source? Where did you get the manifolds, pumps, etc.? Did you have PEX embedded in the slab? Is there insulation under the slab? Is the system controlled by a thermostat based on air temp, or slab temp?


Don't even say the WORD hangar. {...} And for darn sure don't pave the "ramp"...Hmm, I hadn't thought of this. As FlyingRon pointed out in a later post, I'm not too sure there's any disguising its purpose as a hangar when the building inspector comes by, but your point is a valid one. I don't need or want a bunch of cost-drivers intended for commercial buildings. As for paving, sadly, I have no choice; it's required by neighborhood covenants.


Not sure how hard the ground freezes where you are...As far as I know, floating slabs are pretty common here for this kind of building. We do get frost on the roof sometimes, but western WA isn't known for hard freezes like in MN, so heaving isn't a problem here. That said, I think most houses here are built on foundation footings/walls with a crawlspace, not slabs, so maybe I'm wrong...

Again, many thanks to all contributors; you've given me much to think about. If anyone else has anything to add, please chime in!

[sr2500]

Lots of good information so far. I recently built a 50x50 hangar in a small rural Missouri town. They are all basically pole barn or steel frame barn type buildings. I simply went to the local lumber company, and they had software to design the building and order the material from a local steel company. The cost of the building materials in 2012 was $9800. I was fortunate there was a family at church that was out of work, and two of the boys had worked for a pole barn company in the past. I saved quite a bit by contracting the work out to them. I also had an Amish barn crew option as well, but they were booked up for quite some time. Total cost of building (materials and labor) in 2012 was $29K. My door was a folding door that cost approximately $4K. The one mistake I made was to not put a significant footer under the door. In hard winters, I have had some trouble with frost heave at the door. A common mistake is to not put a vapor barrier under the floor. Make sure you do or you will have condensation issues on your floor. If I had to do it over again, I would make my own door. At our local airpark, most of the residents have welded their own frames and use the pivot raising type door with concrete counter weight. I contracted out for electrical service to the hangar at approximately $1K. I wired the inside myself, with new commercial grade LED 48 inch lights and outlets along one side of the hangar.

Reference radiant heat, I have it in my shop at home, and a house I built in the mountains of WV. I installed it in both places. My shop is 50x30 and the total cost of installation was approximately $1.5K. The PEX is tie wrapped to the wire mesh. I use a commercial grade gas fired hot water heater to provide the hot water. I work in a tee shirt all winter long. There is an excellent company in the Spokane area that will be very helpful in design etc. Google BlueRidgeCompany radiant heating and it will pop up. If you do this, you will need to insulate under the floor and the hangar as well. Even if you don't heat or insulate the hangar, you will definitely want to insulate the ceiling/roof. This will keep condensation from forming and falling on you.

Email or PM if you have any questions.

Best,
Jerry

[FlyingRon]

The hydronic heat is shared between the hangar and the rest of the house. The design was provided by the heating contractor (not sure it cost me anything). My neighbor however, did a system himself (I helped a little). You can see this company for the information (this is who he bought his stuff from) http://www.radiantcompany.com/.

It's not hard. You put a reflective barrier down (it's just thick fabric, and boy I can tell you standing on it on a hot day and then stepping off it, it is doing something!) then the rebar mesh and you just loop the tubing tied to the mesh and then your concrete guy comes in and pours the slab. You can just just about anything to heat the water and about the only other thing is a circulating pump. I could show you my seven zoned circulating system (odd I don't have a picture of that) but it's not overly complex. Thermostat turns on the pump, water goes around. If any of the seven pumps are turned on, so does the heat pump to heat the water.

[Anymouse]

Recently (like a bit more than a year ago) built a house/hangar. Two things are for sure; 1.) You can always use more space (bigger hangar) and, 2.) You can never have a big enough door.

I did the insulation thing and most of my neighbors are envious. At least the ones that decided to cut cost by not insulating are. The spray on type is what I would recommend.

As I mentioned above, the size of the door can never be too big. When I was shopping airpark homes, I was astounded by how many people restricted their market by installing tiny doors on big hangars. Just because the size works for you, it doesn't necessarily mean it will work for the guy that would otherwise had bought your hangar a few years down the line.

I'd recommend a walk through door as well.

BTW... Schweiss has a nifty database of aircraft sizes to help you figure out the door size you'll need...

https://www.bifold.com/airplane-size-chart.php
https://www.bifold.com/floatplanes.php

[FlyingRon]

I would definitely insulate even if I didn't have heat. My hangar is spray foamed (and rigid on the door) but by garage is not. I curse myself every time I work in the garage in the summer.

[Derswede]

We built two 40x60 hangers. Family job (that is why I had kids!! My fathers comment when the folks saw a couple of teenagers hanging steel). poured floor with vapor barrier, lots of rebar, and one corner (for the vertical mill) with 16" of concrete and four steel posts driven 5' into the ground. Steel framed, roof trusses with 1' x 18' high vertical I beams in place of a built up truss (more wingspan room, gave us over 2' more space). Insulated, worked well, doors were wood frames, covered in a heavy plastic both sides to give a bit of air gap for insulation. On the bottom, a roller supported the far end of the door, and let it open/close easier. With both Monocoupes and the Waco ARE inside, it did get tight, but it worked. The doors were an experiment, but after the first year, my dad said, "it works", so we left it as it was. Lasted for 5+ years after my fathers death, they disassembled the hangers a few years later, still in good shape, and they built a pair of 100x100 hangers for the new FBO. Our hangers were barns to the inspector, and that was per his comment. (site was on the airport, my dad did not complain about that, insurance was much cheaper). Check with the locals, many times there will be one inspector that the contractors prefer, as he has common sense.

When they cleared the property for the new hangers, the guy on the big Cat dozer complained about how hard it was to get that foundation broken up and moved. Never a crack in the concrete. Not bad for a family built hanger.

Derswede

[Eric Page]

Thanks very much for the additional info, especially for the door and radiant heat links. All of that will be very useful!

[bradwolansky]

Does anyone have contact info for Byron J. Covey? I note he posted as a Guest. Reason: I'm looking to build a cinder block and truss hangar (potentially using the Horton Stack Doors) and would love to get some pictures of his and further info. Anyone else have a cinder block and truss hangar? Thx. Brad.