CASE STUDY · EASTERN TENNESSEE

A red-iron barndominium in the East Tennessee mountains.

Ridge site. Long approach. Winter start on the pad, spring slab, and a rigid-frame skeleton up against the mountain by early summer. This is the full build sequence, in order, with the photos we took on the job.

Designed, sourced direct from the manufacturer, and erected by our in-house crew. Handed off as a weather-tight Dried-In building.

Red-iron rigid-frame skeleton complete against the East Tennessee ridge line at sunset. — Skeleton complete. The mountain is why this site exists; the frame is what makes it habitable.

PHASE 1 · SITE PREP

Winter pad. Get the ground right before anyone pours anything.

Ridge sites are earthwork problems before they are steel problems. Pad prep in cold weather, cut and fill balanced, compacted to spec. If the pad is wrong, the slab is wrong, and the frame is wrong on top of it.

Winter site pad excavated and staged on the East Tennessee ridge. — 01 · Pad cut and rough-graded through winter.

PHASE 2 · FOUNDATION

Slab. This is where the anchor bolts live.

The slab has to hold the anchor-bolt pattern the manufacturer engineered drawings called out. Pour day is the biggest single moment on the schedule. Get the anchor bolts wrong and the rigid frame does not go up.

Concrete going down on the mountain slab. — 02 · Pour day.

Concrete finishers working the fresh slab. — 03 · Finishing the slab surface.

Cured slab ready for column erection. — 04 · Slab cured, anchor bolts in place.

Slab with plumbing stub-ups protruding through the surface. — 05 · Plumbing stub-ups laid out and set in the slab by the owner's plumber before pour. Full rough-in is the owner's trade after handoff.

PHASE 3 · COLUMNS

Red iron up. Column by column, plumbed and torqued.

Every column sits on the anchor-bolt group the slab was poured for. Plumbed with a level, shimmed if needed, and torqued to the drawings. Once the columns are set, the building has a shape.

First red-iron column being set on the slab. — 06 · First column set.

Multiple red-iron columns standing and plumbed on the slab. — 07 · Columns standing.

Full column set complete around the perimeter of the slab. — 08 · Full column set complete.

Base plate and anchor bolt group at the foot of a red-iron column, being torqued. — 09 · Base plates torqued to spec.

PHASE 4 · FRAME

Rafters and purlins. The rigid frame becomes a building.

Rafters flown onto the columns and connected at the moment joints. Purlins run between rafters to carry the roof. This is the phase where the building goes from a set of columns to a recognizable structure.

First red-iron rafters being flown up onto the columns. — 10 · First rafters up.

Rigid frame fully assembled with columns, rafters, and purlins in place. — 11 · Full rigid frame in place.

Heavy machinery working alongside the erected frame on the mountain site. — 12 · Machinery finishing purlin runs.

Wide interior view inside the completed rigid frame skeleton. — 13 · Interior wide, inside the skeleton.

PHASE 5 · SKELETON COMPLETE

Structural steel done. Ready for sheeting.

With the frame complete, the building is ready for wall and roof sheeting to close it in to a weather-tight Dried-In building. The photos below are the skeleton phase — the last time the red iron is fully visible before it's clad.

Rigid-frame skeleton complete on the mountain site. — 14 · Skeleton complete.

Elevation view of the completed frame against the mountain background. — 15 · Frame against the ridge.

THE BUILD

Specs and scope.

Location: Eastern Tennessee ridge
Structure: Red-iron rigid frame
Frame: Red-iron manufacturer, engineered for the site
Scope: Design + steel + foundation + erection
Handoff: Weather-tight Dried-In building
Crew: Ozark Closers in-house

HAVE A SITE LIKE THIS?

Send us the project.

Ridge, farm, plains, lakefront. If you have land in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Tennessee, we can design and erect on it. Tell us where the site is, what you want to build, and your timeline.

Send us the project (417) 597-4470