Info on building a substation

[GShawver]

We are in the process of building a small substation that is 31’ X 45’, 2 bay doors, small 8’ storage and bathroom area, and block construction. While trying to keep the cost down, I’ve been searching for construction plans with no luck. Has anyone built this type of building or have any suggestions.

Thanks,


ebvfd.com

[jboczek]

WE're getting ready to build one, but it'll be 40 X 50, 3 bays, small office, rest room. We're doing a "pole barn" because of cost, although I think we could get an all steel building for about the same price or just a little more. We did an addition to our main station a few years ago and bid concrete blocks because that is what the original building is made of. That got scrapped because we could get wood stud walls & metal siding for 1/2 the cost, plus we could insulate it a lot better. I don't know about your area, but block construction is expensive here.

[firedawg803]

I am just going to throw this out to give you something to think about.
A few years ago, a local dept. needed a substation, but costs were outrageous, and they could not afford it. Lucky for them, a local contractor had "just recently built a building that matched their specs exactly". He decided he no longer wanted the building, and agreed to sell it cheap. The County Fire Marshal couldn't stand to pass up a deal like that, so they bought it.

[firenresq77]

Weruj, why don't you tell them about yours????

Actually, the price of steel has skyrocketed. I was just talking to a local chief about their new station and he said it was cheaper to do the clock instead of steel. We are currently looking at building a new station and the Chief is set on this steel building, but most people would tayher have a block building due to price and looks.

[cellblock]

We have 3 stations and all are steel beam framed with metal siding. We are adding onto our main station and one of our subs this year. The sub has only 2 bays, no office, plumbing or storage. We have 2 of our older trucks in there and they are backed up against the rear wall to fit and close the doors. All of our other trucks are longer so we need to kick out the back wall about 6 feet for when we rotate out our trucks. On our main station we have a 2 truck bay and a smaller single truck bay and we are extending them back to make room for 2 more trucks to be parked behind the first out trucks. It's not going to be cheap but we have to get it done. We already have one of our Tanker/Service trucks and our City owned Brush/EMS truck sitting outside in our parking lot next to the station due to lack of bays to put them in.
Good luck on your project.

[pumper41]

I'm for keeping any sub station fairly basic, engine bays plus basic amenities only. After all the sub station really should be a place simply to keep some apparatus closer to where some of your vollies live in order to enhance response time and standards of fire cover. Training and other station/department business should remain at your main station in order to maintain the cohesiveness of the station, and prevent the sub station folks getting isolated from the main station.

[GShawver]

Thanks for the input. We are going to keep it simple. All we are looking for is a storage location that will protect our equipment.

Does anyone have specifications they used on this small of a building (31X43 2 bay station with a bathroom)? We are going out for bid today and I have some written, but looking to see if I forgot anything.

By the way, block seems to be less expensive than metal right now.

Anyway, thanks for the help,
George

http://www.ebvfd.com

[Dave1983]

We built a sub station for our paramedic rescue squad. It's a manufatured home with attatched bay. It's plenty big enough for three FF's. I think the final cost was less than $100G.

Dave