The Many Faces of Steel Buildings

Choosing the right steel building for your residential property used to be fairly simple. There were only so many types of steel buildings on the market. Your choices were generally confined to the size and, if you were lucky, the color. How things have changed over the past 10 years or so. These days, you can purchase a metal building in many different shapes, choose a number of different siding options, pick out trims that match or contrast with your existing buildings and add features that range from skylights to energy-efficient roofs. If you’re thinking about purchasing a steel building – they make great garages, workshops, storage sheds and home offices – these are just a few of the many options you can choose.

Quonset Buildings

The best known style of steel buildings across the U.S. and Europe, Quonset buildings are the traditional hoop-framed buildings originally made popular by the military during the world wars. They’re easy to erect, easy to transport and easy to tear down, and because they require no internal support posts, they provide a maximum of usable interior space. Quonset buildings are also among the most stable types of construction in harsh environments, and can withstand high winds, heavy snow loads and even earthquakes.

Straight-Sided Steel Buildings

The biggest drawback to Quonset buildings is that sloped sides limit the usability of the floor space closest to the walls. A simple modification to the Quonset design retains the rounded roof but places it on top of straight sides that generally extend at least six feet above the ground. This design strikes the balance between stability in extreme weather conditions and interior usability.

Steel Buildings with Sloped Roofs

Straight-sided steel buildings have their advantages, but their rounded roofs still mark them as utility buildings, and can make them unwelcome in communities where appearance is important. Another popular style of metal building extends the modification further by adding a sloped roof. The angle of slope can vary greatly and may be determined by local building codes. One of the biggest advantages of these – often called A-frame steel buildings – is that they look the most like traditional house construction, making them more attractive to homeowners and more acceptable to homeowner associations and zoning departments.

Your city or county’s zoning and code requirements may dictate the types of steel buildings you can choose, but even within the basic styles, you’ll find a wide variety of metal building styles that will suit your purpose and your aesthetic sense.