Pikestuff Pre-Fab building Question

[Kisatchie]

Were Pikestuff style real buildings ( http://www.rixproducts.com/pikestuff_listing.htm ) around/common in 1971?

I really like them, but I only have vague memories of that style building existing in 1971.


Hmm... I only have vague
memories of Kiz feeding
me this week...

[mrnhn]

Yes The company I worked for in 1969 was a pikestuff type building
Wendell

[Zox]

This link on Wikipedia seems useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Building_Manufacturers_Association

It says that standing-seam roof systems came into widespread used during the 1970s, so 1971-era buildings might have shingles or roll-roofing instead of the Pikestuff metal roofs.

(It also says that "modern coating systems...allow[ing] metal buildings to incorporate a variety of colors" were introduced in that same era, but I suspect people painted steel buildings before that time--the panels might just have been more susceptible to peeling.)

[cfritschle]

There were a lot of all metal farm shops and other buildings similar to the Pikestuff buildings in southern Idaho in the late 1960s.

Carter

[Bsklarski]

The Central Vermont used a pre fab building like that in Brattleboro Vt, in the early 1970s as an engine house. It was taken down and moved to St Albans where it remains at a car shop.

[nkalanaga]

Metal roofs were common in the inland Northwest long before the 70s.  If nothing else, corrugated aluminum was readily available by the 50s, and other metal roofing options could also be found.  They were favored in drier areas because they'd last almost forever, and in forested areas for fire resistance, although they may not have been common in more rust-prone regions until modern coatings were developed.

[cv_acr]

(It also says that "modern coating systems...allow[ing] metal buildings to incorporate a variety of colors" were introduced in that same era, but I suspect people painted steel buildings before that time--the panels might just have been more susceptible to peeling.)

After all, they'd been painting steel automobiles and railway cars various colours for years...

Down the street from my parents' place is a metal city works building that for my entire memory* has been a robin's egg blue shade, and they spray-painted it bright green this summer.

(*Granted, I was born in the early 1980s, so it doesn't go back as far as what you're asking about, but the general point was more about painting rather than special metal coatings.)

[mmyers]

I remember "Butler Buildings" going up on the property behind my dad's business back in the late 60's. One was destroyed by fire in 73. The year is remembered because my new "Cuda" was parked on a nearby lot at the time. Fire department made us leave but not in the direction of my car. Something about the fumes from the Chlorine stored by the pool supply company that was on fire.

Martin Myers

[nkalanaga]

From the Butler website:

"Rigid Frame Research

In 1939 Wilbur Larkin was chief engineer in the Butler Farm Equipment Division, and his brother Kenneth Larkin was a civil engineer with Burns & McDonnell, a consulting and engineering firm in Kansas City. They doubted the assumption that a rigid frame design could not be pre-engineered. The rigid frame concept was not new, but its application to pre-engineered buildings had not been considered feasible because of the complicated stress calculations required.

But working together, the Larkins began to shape an industry with a quality pre-engineered building design that provided more usable interior space, looked better, used less steel, and could be fabricated and erected faster and with fewer people. By 1940 Butler Manufacturing Company had a complete line of rigid frame buildings ready for the market."

http://www.butlermfg.com/about_us

So prefab metal buildings have been around a long time.  Pikestuff's exact style doesn't go back to 1940, but it probably wouldn't raise too many eyebrows in 1971.

[central.vermont]

Yes The company I worked for in 1969 was a pikestuff type building
Wendell

Welcome to the Railwire Wendell.!!!
It's about time you posted here. How about some updated photo's of your layout. 

Jon