Advantages of Steel Buildings

Steel buildings are becoming ever more popular options for people who need storage, workspace, space for retail and manufacturing, even office space and space for living. While most people still look to traditional wood and brick construction when building rooms, storage space and retail space, steel buildings offer many advantages to traditional construction.

Durability

Steel is one of the most durable of all construction materials. It doesn’t rot, is fire-resistant, doesn’t absorb water and won’t mildew. Termites and ants can’t be bothered trying to digest it, and if the building is properly constructed, most other pests won’t try to nest in it.

Weather Resistance

In addition, steel construction techniques allow for constructing buildings that meet or exceed building codes for stability and safety in earthquake and hurricane zones. Arch-construction steel buildings, such as Quonset buildings and modified Quonset huts, shed snow more easily than most peaked roofs, making them a good option as storage and factory buildings in the snow belt, where heavy loads of snow often cause roof collapses. Between those specs and the natural fire resistance of steel, most homeowners find that steel buildings add very little to their homeowner’s insurance, or are far cheaper to insure than traditional structures.

Cost

Steel building construction saves money in a number of different ways. From the beginning, your costs are generally lower because steel building kits are less expensive than purchasing all the lumber and hardware needed to build a wood frame or brick building. In most cities and towns, your steel building will only require a cement slab foundation as opposed to a dug foundation, which saves you the cost and labor of digging and pouring a full foundation. In some areas for some uses, you won’t even need the slab foundation, just footings for the support posts.

Environmentally Friendly

It may seem counter-intuitive, but steel buildings are more environmentally friendly than wood buildings. Steel is 100 percent recyclable, and almost all steel buildings sold today are made of 100 percent recycled steel. That means that your storage buildings and garages are diverting steel from the waste stream. They’re also recyclable on the other end, so when your building reaches the end of its useful life fifty or more years from now, you can disassemble it and recycle it again. And if you decide that you’re done with it when it still has lots of use left to it, you can simply disassemble it and put it up somewhere else. Try that with a wooden or brick building!

Steel buildings are available in dozens of styles, many colors and with an endless variety of options for customization. Contact a manufacturer of steel buildings to learn about the many advantages steel construction offers for your project.