There are many reasons why we love the State of Illinois — besides the fact that we’d be next door neighbors if it weren’t for Iowa and Wisconsin. One of the biggest reasons is that Illinois is home to the world’s largest catsup bottle. What, you may wonder, does catsup have to do with a company that manufactures steel and metal DIY buildings?
The world’s largest catsup bottle is located in Collinsville, Illinois. It was built in 1949, and renovated in 1995 with funds raised by the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group. Made of riveted steel, it stands 170 feet tall.
The diameter at the base of the bottle is 25 feet. It’s covered by an 8-foot wide cap. The Brooks Catsup company swears it’ll never reveal whether the bottle actually is filled with the tomato-based condiment or just 100,000 gallons of water. We’d use the same material if we built giant catsup bottles instead of pre-fabricated metal buildings.
Steel For Strength
There’s a reason this giant steel bottle of catsup is still standing tall almost 70 years after it was built by Caldwell Tanks of Louisville, Kentucky. They know what we know. Steel structures are made to last.
We take things further.
Miracle Truss® designs feature a strong clear-span web steel truss method. These trusses come in four easy bolt-together pieces. We test assemble them at the factory to make sure they’re easy for the do-it-yourselfer to put up on their property.
Once those four truss pieces are bolted together, they are easily tipped into the air. This positions the legs for bolting to the top of a concrete pier. We even pre-drill holes in the column baseplate.
Nobody lives or works inside the giant Brooks catsup tower. If they did, they’d appreciate the Miracle Truss clear span design that enables usable space all the way to the peak, even while creating an incredibly strong structure that will stand the test of time.
Wood For Flexibility
Elevated by 100-foot steel legs makes it difficult consider the Brooks catsup bottle suitable for anything other than being—well, the world’s largest catsup bottle. But, let’s remember that it’s made of steel. We’ve made our buildings far more accessible and flexible by strategic use of wood.
Running horizontally from truss to truss, our designs feature edge-mounted wood studs in the walls and in the roof. They secure to a pre-positioned steel clip. These edge mounted studs provide an automatic 24” on center stud-pocket very similar to normal stick-built construction.
This means you have the ability to finish off the interior with any type of building material you’d consider for a traditional structure. Add standard doors or windows, and even insulate for those cold Illinois winters (and hot humid summers) with normal batt-style insulation. It also means you can make changes to the building at a later date.
Affordable
You might have heard that it cost volunteers spending two years and $80,000 to restore the giant steel ketchup bottle—but don’t think the same fate is in store for your Miracle Truss® building. It was because the steel was coated with lead paint. Our steel siding selections are pre-coated with a wide variety of colors that come with a 45-year warranty.
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