[fireant911]

We would like to add a garage. Ideally, it would be a two-car garage, have a loft, and a workspace/shop. Roughly, the size would be at least 24' W X 30' L. I have just started to look and I am shocked at the anticipated expense of a traditional wood garage ~ $36K (and that is for just a basic, no frills space). On the other side of the equation, metal buildings can be put up on site (including poured concrete flooring) for WELL less than 1/3 of that.

Understanding that our summer's are hot, some sort of insulation will be required to make the space tolerable in the hot months but that will apply to either type of garage.

Can someone with first-hand knowledge/experience shed some light on metal garages? I am not talking about the flimsy, small units available at Lowes and Home Depot but 'honest-to-goodness' real metal garages. Several of our neighbors have large metal buildings for storing their farming equipment during off season but these are a lot larger than what I am looking for (I plan to talk to them also but I wanted to first solicite information from those that may already have the shop-sized garage rather than the industrial-sized units).

Additionally, any first-hand wisdom and "do's and don'ts" will be greatly appreciated in regards to the functionality of metal garages.