Design Specifications for Steel Buildings

Steel building kits are a simple way for homeowners to put up steel buildings of their own that can be used as garages, barns, storehouses and dens. And even though there are only a few basic styles of metal buildings, there are lots of ways to make modifications and changes to the steel building in order to make it your own.  Here are a few ways that you can customize a metal building and make it uniquely yours.

Change the Color

The most obvious modification that can be made to your steel building is a color change. Although it's possible to buy galvanized steel buildings without color coating, many manufacturers offer a variety of basic color options for free. These basic colors are typically restricted to black, white, gray and blue, or sometimes a manufacturer offers a palate of the most common home colors in the surrounding area. That's not something to be taken lightly, though – you should be sure that your contract spells out your choices of colors and that a new color is not considered an add-on. Also, many steel building manufactures give a wide variety of color options that you can choose from at a higher price, and a few quality steel building dealers will create a custom color just for you.

Add Some Trim

Steel building trim kits provide edging for the areas where the corners of the walls meet, as well as roof trim and gutter options. Usually, the trim on your steel building can be made to have the same color as the building itself. 

Customize the Doors

If you want your steel building to stand out and look unique, choosing customized doors is a great way to do that.  Luckily, there are all sorts of doors to choose from for steel buildings.  For instance, you may choose a garage door that opens up or a barn door that slides to the side on a suspension system.  In addition to the larger doors, most people also include a walk-in door so people won’t need to open a giant door every time they want to go into the building. These doors typically include an extra charge so be sure to mention your need of one when requesting your bid

Bring in Some Light with Windows

Just like doors, windows will give your steel building some character.  They will make your steel building seem lighter and airier because of the infusion of natural light.  You’ll need to tell the architects that number of widows you want, along with the locations of them, including skylights, so they’ll be considered in the design process.

Although in some people’s minds steel buildings have a worn out reputation of being cookie-cutter, the options that today’s manufacturers offer can make any steel building a one of a kind.

How Steel Buildings Are Made

Steel buildings are becoming more and more commonly used as storage buildings, garages, barns, small sales offices and more. Knowing how steel buildings are built will make it easier to recognize the options that you have when you choose to have a metal building erected.

Placing an order is the initial step in the process of creating a steel building. The manufacturer won’t begin constructing a building before that because metal building is designed specifically for the customer. The building codes and requirements of each customer’s area determine the details of the building. Your dealer will take the order for you and will pass on any special instructions to the manufacturer for your steel building.

Every component of a steel building is made right at the factory. There are no cookie-cutter parts that are ready and waiting to be packed and shipped.  Instead, each part is custom made just for the steel building on order.  This guarantees an exact fit for all of the steel building parts.

When the manufacturer receives an order, a representative in the order entry department will be assigned to it.  Their job is to make sure that all design codes and engineering specifications are met.  They’ll also input the necessary information into project scheduling software so that the process can begin.  This will ensure that the creation of the steel building is completed in the most effective and efficient way possible.  All of this works to ensure that you won’t pay too much or have to wait too long for the completion of the building.

After that, an engineer who is certified and knowledgeable in design code for the state where the building will be erected in will go over building drawings and check again to ensure the accuracy of the building design.  They’ll also make sure that it is up to code standards for steel buildings in that state. When that's finished, the company will create a set of permit drawings. You’ll need those to get the permits to have your steel building built.

After all that, the  process of making the parts for your metal building will start with the input of all the specifications into the computer that controls the machines.  Every part of the steel building will be made on a different assembly line in the manufacturing factory, with the parts traveling along a well-oiled assembly line process that starts with the base metal and ends when each part is worked into the whole.  In the process, every part is made to an exact specification down to the most minute detail.

Once the parts of the steel building are all made, the staging department, who is there to make sure your order is exactly what you requested, will check and account for all of the parts, and pack it all up to finally be shipped to the building site. After one last check, your steel building will finally be on its way to you.

Choosing Steel Buildings as Animal Shelters

Steel buildings make great churches and garages. They’re popping up all over the map as retail stores, factory building and workshops. But can they make a comfortable home for your favorite animals? Ask just about any farmer that question and he’ll look at you like you’re crazy. After all, steel buildings are the most common option for organizations that build kennels, barns, stables and riding arenas. Here are a few of the reasons that people who love animals love steel buildings.

Pick A Size, Any Size

Whether you need a kennel for four dogs or a barn to house a dozen horses, you can find a steel building that will be ideal for your use. Steel buildings are available in widths from 20 feet to 100 feet and lengths as long as you want. Just let your metal building supplier know how big you need your building to be and poof! You’ll have what you need.

You Want to Put What Where?

Forget about interior posts and beans. Most steel buildings don’t need them and won’t have them. That means that you can design the floor plan you want for your barn, shelter, stable or kennel. Build stalls along the walls, design the walls to hold racks of cages or add a food storage area at the back – you’ve got a completely unobstructed interior to design around. This makes them even more popular for use as riding arenas and similar uses, where there’s not only plenty of unobstructed room for practice – there’s also not a bad seat in the house for those times when you have an audience.

More Money for Important Things

Steel is the most affordable building material available, and steel buildings are among the most affordable types of construction you can erect. In most cases, you can put up metal barns or animal shelters for about half what it would cost you to build a wood or masonry structure. If you’re trying to devote your money to taking care of animals, those savings can add up to a lot.

Grow Your Buildings s You Grow

The most common styles of metal building are easily expandable lengthwise. Since they don’t require dug foundations, making your building longer can be as easy as pulling off the end cap, adding another unit and putting the end cap back on to close things up again. It’s one of the least expensive ways to add more space to a building you’ll ever see.

Finally, you can customize the inside of your steel building with all the accessories and finishing you need to make it a cozy, comfortable place for your animals. For more information about using steel buildings as barns and animal shelters, talk to a supplier or manufacturer of quality steel buildings.

Ventilating Steel Buildings

One of the considerations you’ll have to take into account when putting up steel buildings is ventilations. Today’s modern construction technology allows manufacturers to create steel building components that go together into metal buildings that are practically airtight. That’s great for your thermostat and your energy bill, but it also means that steel buildings can fall prey to condensation, which invites mold and mildew to form in the insulation between the outer and inner walls. Luckily, proper design can help you avoid the worst problems that come with condensation. All you have to do is make sure that you provide proper ventilation. A supplier of steel buildings can help you make the right ventilation choices for your metal building.

How Much Ventilation Is Enough?
A number of factors will affect how much ventilation your building will actually need. Those factors include the size of your steel building, its location and the way it will be used. If your steel building will only be used for storage, for example, and it will be rare for anything alive – people or animals – to spend much time inside it, you’ll need much less ventilation than if you’ll be using it to shelter livestock or if people will be working in it. That’s because people and animals breathe and increase the moisture inside a building, and because you’ll have to make sure that the air quality inside you building is healthy for them to breathe.

Engineers who design steel buildings need to know how you’ll be using your metal building so they can design it to support the ventilation shafts, louvers, fans and other devices that will help reduce the moisture content in your steel building.

Ventilation Types for Steel Buildings
Most steel buildings are ventilated using a combination of ridge vents, circular vents and louvers, with or without fans. In most cases, a single ten-foot ridge vent is sufficient to ventilate a 2,400 square foot building, as long as you’re not using your metal buildings as barns or offices. In that case, you’ll probably need to provide louvers or vents near the floor to provide cross ventilation in your building.

For the kinds of steel buildings that generally are built for home use – storage buildings and small workshops – you’ll usually get enough ventilation from a few louvers placed to maximize the chances for cross-ventilation. An experienced steel buildings supplier or manufacturer can help you decide on the best options for ventilating your metal building.

Commercial Uses for Steel Buildings

Pre-engineered steel buildings are commonly used for industrial applications – factory buildings, warehouses and such – but they’re getting more and more popular for other uses. In the last ten years or so, advances in technology have made it easier than ever for just about anyone to buy a steel building These days, you’ll see metal buildings just about everywhere being used for just about anything. From garages and barns to sports arenas, these are just some of the nearly unlimited uses for steel buildings today.

Garages and Carports

Steel garages are the ideal choice for homeowners who need to replace an inadequate garage or who want to add a carport to their property. Metal buildings are so popular as garages, in fact, that many manufacturers offer standard sizes designed as one-, two- and three-car garages.

Retail Stores

Shopping malls and retail stores seem to go up in practically no time at all, thanks to the ease of construction of steel buildings. Metal buildings not only go up quickly, they also offer the advantage of practically unobstructed interior space, allowing for very versatile floor plans.

Churches

Churches often face serious budgetary concerns when they need a new building. Steel buildings are an economical alternative to traditional construction, allowing many churches to replace aging buildings with new, spacious homes for their congregations. The design choices when building with steel are wide open, allowing congregations to build churches that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Recreational Buildings

The unobstructed interiors possible with steel buildings makes them immensely popular with developers of recreational properties. They’re commonly used as sports arenas, riding arenas, gymnasiums, community centers, tennis clubs and dance clubs.

School Expansions

Many school departments turn to steel when they need to house students temporarily for some reason. Modular steel buildings are an ideal choice for this use because they can be assembled on site for as long as they’re needed, then disassembled and placed elsewhere when needs change.

Barns and Animal Shelters

Farmers and ranchers were among the first to adopt steel buildings to replace their failing barns and storage buildings. An entire generation of farmers grew up using Army surplus Quonset buildings on their family farms. Today, they’re not confined to the Quonset design. Steel buildings today come with a whole world of design and function choices, and they need so little maintenance and upkeep that they’re the obvious choice for busy farms and ranches.

Steel buildings are more than factory buildings and garages today. If you’re considering a new building project, take a look at the many benefits that custom-designed, pre-fabricated steel buildings offer.

Why Steel Buildings Are the Best Choice for You

Whether you need a storage building where you can keep your patio furniture during the winter or a backyard office so you can work from home, pre-fabricated and pre-engineered steel buildings offer a lot of benefits you won’t get in other types of construction. Most popular for use as garages, barns and factory buildings, steel buildings have taken on a new life as computerized design programs make them easier than ever to design and fabricate. These are just some of the reasons that a metal building is probably the best choice for your construction project.

They’re Kind to Your Budget

Steel is the most economical building material currently in use. In addition to saving on cost of materials for your structure, you’ll also save on construction costs. Small steel buildings generally only need a poured slab foundation, and the smallest ones, such as those used for garden storage or as a carport, may need no more than pier foundations. Finally, because they’re shipped ready to assemble, they go together much more quickly than a wood or masonry building, so you save even more, especially if you have a few handy friends and can do the actual construction yourself. Do note that most experts recommend you have a professional pour the foundation. If you get the foundation right, the rest of the building is easy.

They’re Kind to the Environment

When you build a wood-frame building, you’re using natural resources that might as well be non-renewable – trees take a long time to grow, after all. Most steel buildings available today are made with 100% recycled steel. When you put up a metal building, you’re not only saving a lot of trees, you’re keeping all that steel out of the landfills. Even better, if you eventually decide to get rid of your metal building, you can disassemble it and sell it, or recycle the steel again. And since your steel building will be delivered all in one shipment, it uses less energy and leaves less of a carbon footprint than any other kind of construction.

They’re Kind to Your Needs

Steel buildings are incredibly versatile. The standard construction styles use no interior support posts or beams, giving you a wide-open space to use however you want. You’ll have more room for storage and won’t have to maneuver around posts that always seem to get in the way, no matter where they are.

You’ll find lots of information about the other benefits of steel buildings online or at the site of a steel buildings supplier or manufacturer. The more you research, the more you’ll find that steel buildings really are the best solution for your storage and space needs.

The Case for Green Steel Buildings

If you’re working hard to minimize your impact on the environment, putting up a new building can be challenging. The typical building uses a lot of natural resources – particularly non-renewable resources like wood. They also use a lot of energy in the construction process, and have a lasting impact on the environment when they go into the landfill at the end of their useful lives. Steel buildings, on the other hand, offer a number of important green benefits.

Ecological Construction and Materials

Metal buildings use resources, too, of course, but most steel  buildings erected today – particularly those used on the residential market – are made with recycled steel. That means they take no new natural resources from the earth. Instead, they divert waste from the landfills by reusing the materials.

In addition, today’s steel building uses far less material than a traditional building without sacrificing safety or quality. They require less energy to erect and stand for many more years before they need to be replaced. Because steel is less susceptible to rot and breakdown, metal buildings need fewer repairs and less maintenance. Those factors combine to make steel buildings easier on both your budget and the environment.

Energy Efficiency in Steel Buildings

Today’s steel buildings are designed for energy efficiency. They are engineered to resist the summer heat and retain the sun’s warmth in winter. Depending on the options you choose to finish metal garages, barns, storage buildings and other structures, they can be up to 80% more efficient than traditional buildings.

You can make them even more energy efficient by choosing energy-saving roof panels – or even solar panels – and insulation with high ratings. Add skylights to increase natural light and reduce the energy used for lighting, and you’re well on the way to a building that’s greener than nearly any other type of modern construction.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

As noted above, when your steel building no longer serves your purpose, it doesn’t have to go to the local landfill. You can simply disassemble it – or pay someone to do it for you – and someone else can put it up in their backyard or on their lot. If you can’t find a buyer, you can still be kinder to the earth by selling your building for scrap. If you do that, a company will come and haul your building away to a recycling center – and you save on the cost of demolition.

When you’re considering a new garage or storage building on your property, consider the many green benefits of steel buildings. Be kind to the earth – and reap the benefits of lower energy costs and more comfortable environment.

The Five Best Advantages of Steel Buildings

There are a lot of things to love about steel buildings. Whether you’re looking at steel buildings for barns, garages, storage buildings, commercial buildings, a home workshop or additional living space – mother-in-law apartment, anyone? – steel buildings offer benefits you don’t get with other types of construction. No matter what your needs are, a steel building can be customized to fit them. Here are our five favorite things about metal buildings.

Steel Buildings Are Durable

Modern metal buildings are made of 100 percent recycled heavy gauge steel. They’re custom-engineered to meet all applicable building and safety standards. When they’re correctly installed, steel buildings will withstand most weather and environmental incidents, including hurricane force winds and earthquakes. The steel building you put up today will still be standing in 50 years or even longer.

Steel Buildings Don’t Leak

Specially engineered roof and side panels make today’s steel buildings virtually leak proof. In fact, the best metal buildings are essentially weather-tight. And if you choose an energy-efficient roof for your new metal building, you’ll save money on your energy costs every single month.

You Get Lots of Usable Space

Most steel building designs need no interior posts or beams, which gives you lots of unobstructed interior space. That allows for practically unlimited options when you’re designing your floor plan, not to mention much more storage space if you’re building backyard storage. And when it comes to garages, the lack of interior posts means you don’t have to worry about dinging your door on a metal post when you open it.

You Save Money

From manufacture through use, you’ll save money every step of the way when you choose steel buildings. Metal buildings are made with one of the least expensive building materials in use today – heavy gauge steel. They’re delivered to your building site ready to assemble, so your contractors don’t have to spend time building framing walls – they can get right to work putting up your building. And in most cases, you’ll only need a cement slab foundation, which is considerably cheaper than a full basement. And once your building is up, you’ll save money on maintenance – steel buildings are as close to maintenance-free as it gets.

You Get Into Your Building Faster

Steel buildings go up much faster than equivalent size traditional buildings. That means you spend less money on construction time and get to start using your new metal building much sooner.

Whatever your needs are for more space, consider the many advantages of steel buildings in making your choice.