Advantages of Agricultural Steel Buildings

Agricultural steel buildings have come a long way from the ubiquitous Quonset buildings that once dotted the landscape of the Midwest. Those steel buildings, modeled after the Quonset huts that were used by the military for garages, barracks and storage in the 1930s and 1940s, were economical and long-lasting. In fact, many of those buildings – often bought from military surplus after World War II, are still standing and in everyday use on farms throughout the agricultural belts. Modern agricultural steel buildings often take their design principles from the arch construction used in Quonset buildings but they have many distinctly modern advantages.

Pre-fab Construction Makes Steel Buildings Easy

Most metal buildings today are pre-engineered and the pieces manufactured before they are shipped. There’s no need to weld and cut steel to size nor to drill holes in steel. Construction is a matter of bolting the pieces together through pre-drilled holes and standing them on the foundation or bolting them in place. Much like the old-fashioned barn-raisings, anyone putting up a steel barn today can gather a bunch of friends or employees and put it up over the weekend.

Powder Coating Increases Longevity

Today’s steel buildings are usually made of powder-coated steel. The powder coating makes the metal resistant to corrosion, including rust.  Powder coating also comes in many different colors, which means your steel buildings are much more attractive than agricultural steel buildings used to be.  In addition to being corrosion resistant, these buildings are also fire resistant, weather resistant and resist infestations of insects and other pests.

Attractive As Well As Durable

In addition to many color options for today’s agricultural metal buildings, you also have many different style and architectural choices. You can choose from silo styles for grain storage, Quonset buildings, which are ideal for equipment storage and garages or from a variety of attractive arch-construction styles with straight walls, which can serve any purpose from housing animals to becoming a roadside stand.

Flexible and Portable

One of the major advantages that steel buildings have over similar wood constructions is the fact that metal buildings are portable. Unlike wood buildings, when you’re done with a steel building, you can simply disassemble it and rebuild it elsewhere. Since these buildings have a life expectancy of upwards of 40 years, you can easily sell the building to another farmer, who can then reassemble it on his own property. Compare that to the cost of demolishing a stick-built barn or concrete building and it’s easy to see how big an advantage this is.

For more information about how steel buildings are especially suited for agricultural uses, contact a manufacturer or dealer who specializes in metal prefab buildings.