Man Uses Quonset Roof to Restore Abandoned Building

SteelMaster customer Domenic S. recalled his memories from his time in the military when he was asked to construct a building for the city of Norwalk in Connecticut.

“I was introduced to the steel huts in the military, in the Army. [The Army does] a lot with them for storage of equipment, aircraft. [Quonset huts] start out as temporary buildings and then they stay up for 60 years. You’ll see those buildings still in existence in New Guinea or Alaska for example. The far parts of the world, suddenly you’ll see this thing in the jungle and it’s still there.”

Being an executive officer for a combat support hospital, Domenic was stationed in Central America, and he noticed Quonset buildings being utilized for storage.

When he was approached to build a storage building, a Quonset hut was top of mind.

“So I remembered, hey let’s see if I can combine this with the existing walls that were there, and I think it came out really well.”

And that’s exactly what he did.

The building was owned by the city of Norwalk and then sold to the state of Connecticut, which ultimately auctioned the building off. The rest is history.

When it fell into Domenic’s hands, he was presented with a unique challenge. The area has restricted industrial zoning, so he was not able to make the footprint of the building any larger without needing a variance, which most likely would have been denied.

Domenic decided to go with a Quonset hut so he could utilize the existing walls.

“It’s cost-effective because you don’t need any super structure to hold up the roof. Everyone loves the way it looks. It’s kind of a futuristic combination,” Domenic said.

SteelMaster senior project manager Greg Broderick helped connect Domenic to a construction company out of Texas to assemble the building.

The installation took about ten days, and now Domenic and his crew are working on the electrical and plumbing.

Domenic had a very positive experience with SteelMaster and said, “SteelMaster had a good reputation and just sounded like they knew what they were doing. Greg was great, he had a lot of patience.”

Domenic is hoping to have this project complete in one month. We are looking forward to seeing the final result!