5 Signs a Metal Building is Perfect for Your Needs

Metal buildings are the best solutions on the market for contractors, first-time builders, and do-it-yourselfers on the market. These durable, virtually maintenance-free solutions come with some amazing benefits. Why is a metal building perfect for your particular needs?

1. You’re sick and tired of repairing your old wooden barn

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but I’m sure you know that ‘you get what you pay for when it comes to the construction industry. Wood buildings may have a cheaper initial price, but they just don’t last as long as metal buildings. Pre-engineered metal buildings are engineered to last decades and are extremely flexible. What’s the point of the prospect of saving money upfront, when you’ll just have to spend it on repairs or replacement panels down the road? You might even spend more money over a cheaper product’s lifetime when you could have made the decision to go with quality in the first place. Save your money! If you’re willing to go the ‘cheap’ route, be prepared to deal with the long-term consequences of that decision.

Steel is a durable building material and doesn’t encourage the spread of fire. The same can’t be said for wood, which catches fire at only 572 degrees Fahrenheit or roughly about one-fifth the threshold of steel. What’s more, a pre-engineered steel building acts as a conductor in a lightning storm because it’s grounded with a foundation. A lighting strike can be up to five times hotter than the sun. If you couple the high heat resistance of steel with the grounded foundation, you’re only likely to see minimal damage, if any.

How many times have you found mold or wood rot in your barn? Mold needs moisture, organic material, suitable temperatures, and oxygen to grow. Wood is an organic material and can provide mold with the proper nutrition to prosper. This hurts the integrity of your wood structure and rot could cause your building to collapse if the problem grows out of control. Not to mention breathing in mold spores isn’t exactly healthy for you! Mold can’t feed on steel because steel is an inorganic material and therefore you’re eliminating one factor in the mold equation. Moisture can cause steel to rust if its not properly taken care of, but with galvanized steel, along with minimal maintenance and sufficient ventilation, you’ll be in the clear.

2. You need space

You can get more space just by building a new structure, but you want and need open, uninterrupted space. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor with a growing congregation or a small business owner in need of storage space, you’ll need to be able to use every inch of the whole square footage in your building. Most people don’t realize that different building constructions severely limit the amount of usable space. A clear span design is an option with pre-engineered metal buildings. Clear-span buildings don’t incorporate intrusive poles, columns or even intricate truss systems into your building like a wood building does. A clear-span building supports the roof by using rigid frames and walls to transfer the weight of the load into the foundation. As you may have noticed, it can be difficult to move and store things around internal columns. You can literally use every inch of a clear-span building. The entire square footage and roof space is available to use in its entirety.

3. You don’t want to wait on an extremely lengthy construction project

Pre-engineered buildings are pre-punched, pre-welded, and bolted together on site. All of this careful design beforehand allows you to generally erect a pre-engineered steel building in half the time it would take you to finish erecting a building with traditional construction materials. Wood buildings usually arrive at the job site as raw lumber, and require on-site labor to cut the boards to the correct measurement. This on-site labor translates to a longer construction time and increases the potential for costly delays.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a first time builder or an experienced builder, anyone can erect a pre-engineered metal building. A typical 40×60 workshop only takes a few days or weeks to erect. Many owners of pre-engineered steel buildings erect their own buildings because it’s easy, and it also cuts the expense of a professional builder. Still, if you need someone to erect the building for you, you can always find an experienced erector in your area.

4. You’re on a budget

You want to save money on any construction project. Once you receive your drawings, you’ll be able to mark them up and fully customize your own building. You won’t always need an architect to design your steel building project. Sometimes, all you’ll require is the humble talents of a civil engineer at a steel building supplier. The more lines an architect draws on paper, the more expensive your project can become. Skip the expense of an architect by obtaining metal building drawings from your steel building supplier. That’s a big expense you just eliminated! Preliminary building drawings are usually included in the price of your engineering and drawing payment when you lock in your steel order.

What does it mean to lock in your order? Locking in your order at the right time is extremely important. With a small engineering payment, you essentially get to conquer supply and demand. This engineering payment accomplishes a few tasks. It also gets your metal building project started, and you get to start marking up those drawings we mentioned.

5. You need a versatile building

A metal building can be anything you desire. Do you need a garage or a workshop? How about a horse barn? Do you need a church, an industrial building, or an airplane hangar? Metal buildings are the perfect solution for a home or a home office. The space is so versatile! Your metal building can be anything you want it to be. Can you count on your wood building to do any of this for you? The government requires airplane hangers to be made out of steel, and many experts recommend steel barns for equestrian centers because it’s safer for horses. Large machinery storage or applications where large spans are required aren’t always economical with traditional forms of construction.

Be sure to peruse the Armstrong Steel Network for more helpful resources for first-time builders!

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