Metal Garages

This satisfied VersaTube customer needed a steel building to protect her new RV. Come inside to read her builder story and find out how she protected her babe.

I couldn’t believe the day finally arrived – the day that my husband Joe and I were finally able to walk away from the jobs we had worked at for many years and start our retirement. A lot of people talk about spending their Golden Years in Florida, but we were one step ahead of the game having moved to Clearwater quite some time ago. Instead, we plan on doing some traveling – it’s a big country with so much we want to see.

And of course there’s our family — we have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews in just about every state or at least it sometimes seems that way. Joe and I both come from big families that have gradually spread out across the country. In just our immediate family, we have daughters in San Antonio, Seattle, and Denver and a son finishing up his medical residency in Chicago. While visits were often rushed when Joe and I both worked, now we have plenty of time to spend with our children and grandkids.

One of the things we’re most excited about is showing off “Babe,” the RV we bought to celebrate our retirement. “Babe” allows us to travel in comfort and when we get where we’re going, all we have to do is park and we have all the amenities of home.

We plan on doing our traveling during the summer and early autumn when Florida can be almost unbearable. But as soon as the temperatures begin to fall, we’ll hightail it back to Clearwater to spend our winters in a state where 60 degrees is considered cold.

One of the first things I told Joe when we first brought “Babe” home is that there was no way she was just going to be parked in our driveway all winter long. I’ve seen what Florida’s humidity can do to anything left outside for any length of time – our neighbor’s son left his car parked in their drive while spending time overseas in the military and by the time he returned, it needed to be repainted. I told Joe we waited too long to get “Babe” to let anything like that happen to her. I said surely someone must make a garage big enough for RVs.

Well as it turned out I was right, no surprise there, a company called VersaTube makes metal garage kits that can be customized so that vehicles as large as “Babe” can be parked right inside. Even better: we were able to pick a color and style that matched our house so it blends right in.

Joe started getting excited because the VersaTube salesman told us that that all their buildings were designed to be DIY-friendly, but I told Joe there was no way he was going to build that garage. That’s all we need now that we’re retired and have big plans is for his back to start acting up again. I told Joe he had better start looking for a contractor to handle the project, but I was a little concerned as we’ve had a few bad experiences with people working on our house.

Actually, it wasn’t a problem as the salesman gave us quite a few names – evidently VersaTube has a list of contractors all across the country who are qualified to put up their buildings. There were three reputable contractors on their list located just next door in Tampa.

And I have to tell you that garage went up in no time at all. We watched and took pictures and I felt kind of bad for Joe because he wanted so badly to be involved. And to be honest, bad back and all, I don’t think he would have had a problem. I don’t know much about construction, but even I could see that all the pieces seemed to fit right together.

So now “Babe” is safe and sound in her new garage until we’re ready for our next trip. But you want to know what was really amazing? The VersaTube salesman called us a couple of weeks after the contractor finished and wanted to know if the garage went up okay and whether there had been any problems. I told Joe you just don’t see that kind of customer service from companies any more – usually they just take your money and run. If there are more companies like VersaTube around, maybe things will be okay after all.