The Origins of the Quonset Hut

During World War I, the U.S. military got a good working look at a style of building known as Nissen huts, which were used by British as barracks. Their unique structure consisted of a ribbed skeleton covered with a thin, flexible metal skin. When fully constructed, they look like a cylinder cut in half and laying on the ground. They were lightweight, easy to transport, easy to put up and easy to break down.
When the U.S. Navy needed a building that was easy to ship and easy to put up without any skilled labor, they turned to the design of the Nissen buildings. The original Quonset buildings were made of steel with a galvanized coating. Later, the military started painting them olive drab or camouflage to make them more difficult for the enemy to see from the air. It wasn’t just the exterior and the strength of the arch design that the Navy liked, though. The construction method used left the interior completely unobstructed because there is no need for support posts, which allowed for virtually unlimited floor plans. Over the course of the war – and others that followed – these versatile steel buildings served as barracks, mess tents, command centers and just about every other purpose possible.
When the war ended, the military was left with hundreds upon hundreds of surplus Quonset buildings, many of which were sold for scrap – but at least as many were purchased by civilians for other uses, such as agricultural uses. The same wide-open interiors that made these steel buildings attractive to the Navy also made them ideal for use as barns, heavy equipment storage, grain storage, airplane hangars and so many other purposes.
Of course, the old-fashioned Quonset buildings weren’t the most attractive structures ever erected, so while farmers and industrial owners adopted them widely, steel buildings were not very popular with the general public – until recently. Today, steel buildings are as attractive as they are function. Many of the styles chosen for use as garages and residential storage sheds are based on the old Quonset buildings, but with modifications, such as pitched roofs and straight walls, that make them more aesthetically appealing.
If you’re in the market for a new garage, storage building or just about any other type of structure, consider the features and benefits offered by steel buildings for your project.

Options for Steel Buildings as Garages

Many older homes were built without attached garages. Steel buildings are an excellent option for those homeowners who want to add a garage to their property to protect their vehicles. If you’ve decided that you want to add a garage or carport to your home, you have many options from which to choose if you decide that a metal building makes sense for your needs. Here are just a few of the decisions you’ll have to make.
Freestanding Garages vs. Lean-tos
The most common choices for garages is a free-standing steel building, but it’s not the only choice. Some homeowners who prefer an attached garage so that they can exit their car and go into their house without getting wet in the rain might prefer a lean-to style of steel building. With a lean-to, the house provides one of the building walls. They’re an especially popular option when the homeowner decides on an open carport rather than a full-scale garage.
One-Car, Two-Car, Three-Car More
Steel buildings can be built in a wide range of sizes so you can build your garage to park as many cars as you want. Generally, you can build a metal building in widths from 10 feet to 100 feet wide, and the length is only limited by the amount of land you have on which to build. A 100-foot steel building would give you the space to install 5 separate standard-size garage doors – if you put the doors on the front or back of the building. That’s not your only option, though. You can also opt to install the doors on the side of the building, which gives you even more choices for garage configurations.
Classic Styling Available
Steel buildings don’t have to be ugly. When it comes to residential garages, most people want a metal building that fits the style of their home. Luckily, steel buildings can fit just about any style of architecture you want them to match. Most steel buildings sold as garages have straight sides and pitched roofs, but are built using arch-frame construction similar to Quonset buildings. That combines the style and space available in typical buildings with the economy and strength of Quonset buildings.
To make it even better, steel buildings now come in many colors, including the most popular house colors in different parts of the country. When you choose a metal building for your car storage needs, you’re making a choice that is economical, durable, safe and attractive. Who could ask for more than that in a garage?

DIY Steel Buildings for Home Workshops and More

Why are steel buildings the perfect choice for so many uses? There are so many ways to use a metal building that they’re almost impossible to count. Steel buildings make great workshops, garages, home offices, storage buildings – in-law apartments and, for those who really want to benefit from the safety, economy and comfort of a steel building – homes.
Why Choose Steel Buildings?
Steel buildings are ideal for many residential building applications. They’re easy to customize, engineered to meet all the safety codes in your area and provide years of low-maintenance use. Best of all, they’ll save you thousands of dollars on construction costs, whether you choose DIY assembly with a metal building kit or choose a local contractor to erect your building.
How Can You Use a Steel Building?
You can use steel buildings in any way you’d use any other type of construction – but a whole lot more economically and easily. Build a home workshop for your woodworking or pottery hobby, set up a music studio in your backyard or add a storage building to your property to hold all of your lawn and garden equipment. Turn a metal building into a mother-in-law apartment or set up a small steel building as a professional office without compromising the privacy of your home.
Best Features of Steel Buildings
Steel is strong and lightweight. It’s stronger than wood, but a steel building weighs less than a comparably sized wooden building. Every steel building can be (and must be, actually) custom-engineered to meet or exceed all of your local building codes. A metal building won’t warp or sag. The paint won’t chip or crack, so it looks new longer. High quality steel buildings feature a powder-coated paint job that resists corrosion and won’t fade in the sun. Steel garages, barns and storage buildings look new and fresh far longer than a painted wood structure.
Because metal buildings are engineered to your local building codes, you can expect them to stand up to the worst weather and environmental events your region will throw at it. Your new building will deal with heavy snow loads, high winds and even earthquakes without structural damage – and you’ll never have to worry about termites and other pests that love to munch on wood and cellulose.
In short, no matter what kind of building you need on your property, steel buildings are nearly always the best solution. Check out the options available for metal buildings in your area.
Some Fast Facts About Quonset Steel Buildings
Today’s steel buildings are descended from the well-known Quonset buildings developed for use by the U.S. military during World War II. The arched building design offers a combination of strength and efficiency that is nearly impossible to beat. Quonset buildings – named after Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where they were originally manufactured, these steel buildings have a long history of reliable service.

Why Farmers Choose Steel Buildings as Barns

It’s not a new phenomenon, but it’s definitely growing. More and more farmers are choosing steel buildings when they build barns, equipment storage, grain storage and livestock housing. They have some excellent reasons for choosing metal buildings over more traditional forms of construction. Steel buildings come in many shapes and sizes, and they can be further customized to suit even the most finicky of applications. In fact, steel buildings are among the most customizable types of construction on the market today. Here are just a few of the benefits that farmers get when they choose steel buildings as barns and other functional structures on the farm.
Durability
Prefabricated steel buildings are durable. The combination of the strength of steel and computerizing engineering ensures that every metal building will stand up to the types of extreme weather often seen in the central farmlands. They’ll withstand heavy winds, hold up under heavy snow loads and refuse to buckle to earthquakes.
Fast Construction
Back in the day, farmers gathered all of their neighbors to erect barns in a day. Today, steel buildings make that a fairly practical expectation. The components of metal buildings are fabricated and assembled offsite at the factory and delivered ready to assemble. Depending on the complexity of the building plans, it’s quite possible to assemble a new steel building on site in just a day or two.
Affordability
Steel is a very affordable building material – far more affordable than wood and concrete, especially when you consider the fact that you probably won’t need to build a full foundation. Most simple steel buildings only require a poured concrete foundation or pier footings if you prefer an earthen floor.
Low Maintenance
The vermin and insects that infest wooden buildings aren’t terribly interested in steel. Farmers don’t have to worry about termites and carpenter ants, or about dry rot. In addition, steel is not combustible, and most steel building components are coated with anti-corrosive solutions to reduce the likelihood of rust and corrosion.
Flexibility
Steel buildings are among the most flexible types of construction available. Most of them, especially Quonset buildings and other types of arch construction, need no interior posts at all, so there’s plenty of interior wiggle room for heavy farm equipment, animal stalls or even a riding arena.
Farmers who are looking to replace old wooden barns, grain silos and other farm buildings would do well to consider the many advantages and benefits of steel buildings for agricultural uses. From cost to durability, metal buildings can’t be beat.

Making the Right Decision About Steel Buildings

Once you’ve made the first and most important decision – to opt for a steel building, you’ll have a lot of other decisions to make. Steel buildings are very versatile and flexible. That’s a good thing, of course, but it does mean that you’ll have to decide among the many options for steel building design and utility – not to mention the choice of steel building supplier. Here are a few of the factors to consider when you’re getting ready to buy a metal building.
Locale and Laws
Before you set your heart on a steel building, check with your local building codes office. Some municipalities prohibit certain types of buildings, particularly steel buildings. If you belong to a homeowner’s association, check with the bylaws there, too. Some communities have an unreasonable bias against steel buildings. If you’ve already got your heart set on the metal building of your dreams, you may be able to get a waiver to permit your project, but you can’t do that if you don’t know that you need one.
Supplier or Manufacturer
Choosing the right steel building supplier will make all the difference in the world in your buying experience. There are two basic choices for buying steel buildings: direct from the manufacturer or through a metal buildings broker. There are advantages to either choice: working directly with a manufacturer can save you money and may offer you options you won’t have with a broker. Brokers, on the other hand, represent many steel building manufacturers and can shop around to help you find the best deal. More importantly, brokers are generally more familiar with customers who are outside the industry and may make your life easier by using layman’s language and offering more explanation that you’d get from most manufacturers.
Style
Steel buildings come in many styles, ranging from the iconic Quonset buildings with their hoop supports and dome shape to buildings with straight sides and gambrel roofs that are indistinguishable from traditional construction. The best choice for your needs will depend on a variety of factors, and appearance is only one of them. Quonset buildings, for example, tend to offer the most floor space and highest clearance at the center point. Buildings with straight walls, on the other hand, give you more usable space along the walls, and tend to fit into neighborhoods and communities visually.
Steel buildings are nearly always the right decision for your storage and space needs. Once you’ve decided that a steel building is right for you, be prepared to make lots of other decisions to ensure you get precisely the building you want and need.

Five Ways to Customize Residential Steel Buildings

Erecting a steel building in a residential neighborhood can present a challenge. It’s not enough to have a sturdy, useful metal building – when you’re building garages or storage buildings in a nice, homey neighborhood, you want steel buildings that look good, too. Luckily, today’s metal building manufacturers offer lots of options for customizing your new steel building so that it fits in with the surroundings – or stands out in a very nice way. Here are five ways you have to customize a steel building so that it isn’t an eyesore in your neighborhood.
Style
Steel buildings come in many different styles, from the traditional Quonset buildings with their distinctive hoop profile to straight-sided models with pitched roofs that look just like any other building in your area. Each style has its own benefits and drawbacks, but if appearance is one of your major criteria, you’ll probably want to choose a steel building with a pitched roof.
Color
Once upon a time, your color choices for steel buildings were fairly limited. For the most part, you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was unpainted galvanized steel or white. These days, most steel building manufacturers offer a range of about a dozen colors as standard choices, including most of the most popular exterior house colors. Most people will be able to match their home color without resorting to custom paint jobs, but if your house is an unusual color, many metal building manufacturers will custom-blend paint for your garage or storage building. Be prepared to pay a pricey fee for that customization, though. Developing the pigments for powder-coating can be expensive.
Trim
Most steel buildings come with a trim kit that includes the roof seam, wall trim and gutters. You can choose them to match or contrast with your building, giving you a few options for customizing your metal building.
Accessories
In addition to the trim, you’ll also want to add “accessories” to your building. In the metal building trade, accessories include things that laymen consider to be part of the structure – doors, windows, vents and louvers, for example. You can choose standard windows and doors, or get fancy with picture windows, skylights, walk doors, half doors and more.
Cladding
You can sheath your steel building in just about any material you want. Some companies that manufacture steel buildings can design your structure with the cladding, or you can have a local company cover the walls with brick, stone, wood, stucco or just about anything else.
Steel buildings can fit right into any neighborhood or community. Talk to a manufacturer or broker to find out about your choices for design and style.

Steel Buildings in Extreme Weather Conditions

The spring and early summer are the seasons when we’re most likely to see extreme storms in most of the United States. We’ve already seen clusters of tornados throughout the Midwest, and over the next few months, we’ll see a series of tropical storms and hurricanes, and maybe even a derecho or two. People with steel  buildings on their property can feel relatively safe in knowing that their structures are among the most likely to withstand the storms. Why are steel buildings a good choice for areas that see extreme weather conditions?
Custom Engineering
Quality steel  buildings are custom-engineered to meet or exceed the building codes and standards in the area where they will be erected. They are designed to withstand high winds, heavy snow and rain loads and even earthquakes. They rely on the combination of the high tensile strength of steel and design that distributes different types of load over a larger area of the building’s structure.
Designed for Your Region
You don’t generally need to worry about hurricanes in Oklahoma, blizzards in Florida or tornadoes in Maine. If you’re putting up a metal building in Maine, however, you’d best be prepared for heavy loads of snow and extremes of temperature, and if you’re building in Florida, you’ll want a building that won’t corrode in the steamy heat and can stand up to hurricane-force winds. When you work with a reliable supplier of steel  buildings, you’ll be assured of getting a metal structure that will withstand the worst that your region has to offer.
Specialty Steel Buildings
In addition to buildings that meet local building codes and standards, there are also specialty steel  buildings that are designed for the most extreme weather conditions of all. After the recent spate of tornados in the Midwest over the past few years, for example, many towns have invested in steel tornado shelters located close to schools or town centers. These custom-engineered steel  buildings are built with extremely high wind tolerances and are meant to allow local residents to ride out the storm safely. In flood-prone areas, some governments are looking to amphibious steel  buildings, which are designed to rise on rising flood waters and float in place, then settle back onto their foundations when the flood waters recede.
If you live in an area where extreme weather is a constant risk, steel buildings may be the best solution for garages, barns, storage buildings and shelters. A high-quality steel building can literally save your life if it’s built to resist the most extreme weather conditions in your region.

Steel Buildings Are the Ideal Solution for Hydroponic Agriculture

Steel buildings are popular in most agricultural circles, but nowhere are they quite as in demand as they are in hydroponic growing. Hydroponic farming refers to growing plants in a growing medium other than soil. It allows farmers to grow crops even in areas where the soil quality is poor, and uses less space than traditional farming. It does, however, require some sort of structure or building to shelter and set up your hydroponic system. Steel buildings are the perfect solution for hydroponic farmers.
Benefits of Steel Buildings in Hydroponic Farming
All the typical benefits of steel buildings apply to hydroponic farming. Metal buildings are affordable, easy to erect and go up far faster than traditional structures. Because steel buildings are pre-fabricated in a factory and then shipped to you ready to put up, your construction costs are greatly reduced. You can choose to hire a third party contractor to do the erection, or, if you have some construction experience, put it up with your own crew. In addition to lower construction costs, there are a number of other benefits to choosing a steel building or several steel buildings to house your hydroponic crops.
Easily Expandable
Start small and add on to your steel building as your farm grows. If you choose Quonset buildings or another arch-frame style, you can generally build on to your structure very easily. It’s just a matter of removing the end wall, adding steel building wall sections and re-attaching the end wall. That allows you to start your farm small and expand as your capacity grows. While most steel buildings are limited to between 50 feet and 200 feet in width, their length is typically only limited by the amount of land you have on which to build.
Eco-Friendly
Steel buildings are the greener choice. Most consumer-grade metal buildings are made with recycled American steel, making them much more eco-friendly than wooden or concrete buildings, which use non-renewable resources. In addition, metal buildings can be recycled when you’re done with them – or be dismantled and reassembled on another site in the future.
Low Maintenance
You don’t want to spend half of your time maintaining the structure that’s sheltering your crops. With steel buildings, that’s not a worry. Steel requires far less maintenance than many other construction materials. You won’t have to worry about termites and other insects, and your painted finish is nearly always guaranteed to last for 10 to 20 years.
Steel buildings are customizable, affordable and easy to maintain. Because they don’t require interior supports and beams, you’ll have the entire interior floor space in which to grow your crops, and you won’t be spending all your time doing maintenance on the building. What’s not to love?