Choosing the Best Steel BuildingsBuildings

Whether you’re looking into steel buildings for use as garages or storage sheds, barns or agricultural grain storage or even as small factory or industrial structures, choosing the best steel building for your use follows the same steps and processes. Whatever the reason you’re exploring your choices of steel building types, these tips can help you choose the best steel buildings for your use.

First, Find a Great Supplier

From start to finish, the supplier you choose to work with will have a great influence on how well your building turns out. Once you determine the basic size and style of the structure you want to build, start searching for companies that offer them for sale. Put together a list of several that make sales in your area, and research them online to find out their reputation. Check the Better Business Bureau and do a Google search for their name to see if there are any complaints about them on discussion forums.

Get in Contact with the Supplier and Ask Questions

Once you’ve whittled your list down to the suppliers that have the best reputations, look for contact information on their websites. Write and ask advice about your situation, or pick up the telephone and call. You might ask for recommendations on the best steel buildings for your intended use, or request information on how to go about getting the building codes for your city or town. Not only will you get the answers to your questions, you’ll have a chance to evaluate how helpful and responsive the company is to questions.

Check Your City’s Building Codes

Every city and town had building codes to which you must comply. Before making any decisions on the type of metal building to order, contact the city’s code office and ask about any relevant building codes and laws that might affect your choice. A reputable supplier of steel buildings will want a copy of the relevant codes before designing your structure so that they can ensure that their design meets all the necessary engineering and building standards and codes.

Take Expert Advice on Design Standards for Your Climate and Area

While steel buildings are mostly weather tight and strong enough to withstand most natural weather disasters, some designs work better in particular climates than others. Your steel building supplier can offer you expert advice on which styles of steel buildings are best for your area, as well as which accessories and trim types will make your building more adaptable and suited to your climate.

The variety of steel buildings available means that you can find the perfect structure for any need you have. Getting expert advice from a knowledgeable and reputable supplier of steel buildings can ensure that you make the best choice for your needs.

Steel Buildings for Hobbies and Play

Some hobbyists require more space than their basements or an extra bedroom can supply. Standalone steel buildings provide the perfect place for those people who can’t work in the house or garage for whatever reason. Whether you need a space for woodworking or an open area to work on your pottery or painting, steel buildings may provide the ideal solution for your needs.

Woodworkers, for example, may not have enough room for serious woodworking equipment inside the house, and may find that they need to confine their woodworking activities to hours when the noise won’t disturb other household members. The same may be true of a musician, who needs a quiet place away from the rest of the family to practice with a band, or the car or motorcycle enthusiast who can’t rebuild an engine in a room off the kitchen. Here are some of the benefits and advantages to choosing standalone steel buildings to create your own hobby space.

Isolate the Noise

Hobbies like woodworking and auto restoration are noisy and, to some extent, smelly. Even if you work in your basement, you may still find that the other family members complain about the noise of your saws, drills and other power tools. Moving your workshop out of the house and into a standalone steel building isolates the noise, allowing you to enjoy your hobby while the rest of the family enjoys the peace.

Shut Out the Noise

Sometimes, the problem is just the opposite. If you’re a musician, a soundproof music studio is closer to a necessity than a luxury. The same holds true for many hobbyists with other pursuits – writers, poets and artists, for example, who work best when they are undisturbed and uninterrupted by household noise. Steel buildings are easy to soundproof and insulate, making them an ideal choice for as a workroom or practice space for creative types.

Provide Special Conditions in a Steel Building

Any artist knows the value of the right light. Often, that spare bedroom faces the wrong way to provide the optimal light for painting. Steel buildings are completely customizable, allowing you to put windows wherever you want to let in the natural light. You can even add skylights to supply the most natural light of all. There are many other conditions you can control when you’re building a hobby room from scratch – temperature and moisture control to protect valuable investments, for example, or to keep your wine collection at the perfect temperature.

Steel buildings provide you the opportunity to create the perfect environment for your hobby. If you’re considering ways to fit your workshop or studio into your home, contact a manufacturer of steel buildings to find out how you can customize a steel building for your hobby.

Tips for Making Steel Buildings More UsefulBuildings

Steel buildings, especially pre-engineered and pre-fabricated steel buildings, are among the most common solutions chosen for garages, storage sheds, office buildings and other residential, agricultural and industrial uses. If you’re in the designing stages of your metal building project, these tips can help you make your new structure more efficient, useful and valuable.

Location, Location, Location

Locate storage sheds and garages as close to the main house or building as possible without detracting from the overall appearance of the property. If your intent is to provide convenient storage for your home or business, it makes sense to locate your new structure close enough to be convenient. If you place it too far away, you’ll just be adding inconvenient storage that’s like to go unused in favor of stashing things in the garage.

Choose a Bigger Steel Building Than You Think You Need

Figure up the amount of storage space or floor space you think you’ll need in your steel building, then add 20%, advise experts in construction and contracting. The fact is that most people underestimate the amount of pure stuff they need to fit into a new space, and overestimate the amount of space it provides. Adding an extra 20% to your estimates guarantees you’ll have the space you need and allows more room for expansion if you need it.

Choose Steel Buildings That Can Be Expanded

And speaking of expansion, if you’re building for an industrial or agricultural use, choose a steel building style that can be easily expanded. Many of the most popular styles, such as Quonset buildings and similar arch construction styles, can easily be enlarged by adding another unit to the end of your original construction. When you’re ready to expand, you can simply remove the back wall, add the amount of space that you need and recap the back wall.

Consider Easy Access to the Interior

Roll-up full-width doors or double width-doors give your structure added flexibility. For best access, install both a pedestrian access door and a vehicle access door to your steel building. That way, you provide easy access for people while maintaining the ability to easily maneuver equipment in and out of the space. It’s the ideal solution for a garden storage shed, where you can simply drive tractors, snow blowers and other lawn equipment into the shelter.

In addition to structural decisions you can make when choosing among the many styles of steel buildings available, you can also make style decisions that will help your new structure fit more comfortable into its surroundings. Consider, for example, adding flower boxes to the windows of a garden shed or landscaping around the sides of steel garages to blend them into the existing landscaping. In the end, your new structures will be attractive as well as utilitarian.

Steel Buildings as Guest Houses to Enhance Your Property

If you enjoy extending your hospitality to friends and family but find that space in your home is in short supply, why not build a small guest house on your property? While the thought of a guest house might seem impossibly pricey and out of reach, the low price of steel buildings brings it easily within reach of most homeowners. Whether you want to add a guest house so that your daughter can come spend the summers without plunking down in the middle of your living room or so that you can rent it out for a little extra income, there are many advantages to choosing customizable steel buildings for your guest house project.

Permitting May Be Simpler

No matter where you live, you’ll need permits from the town or city in order to put up your building. Because smaller steel buildings don’t require dug foundations and basements, the permitting process may be easier with prefabricated steel buildings than with other types of construction.

Steel Buildings Go Up Faster

Once your property has been prepared for construction, the process of putting up a steel building is straightforward and moves quickly. If you’re handy and have friends, you can put up a small DIY steel building yourself over a weekend. If you choose to contract the project out – which is advisable for a complex project with wiring and plumbing – the contractors may finish the job in one or two complete days once the concrete foundation is poured. From there, you can go on and complete the interior with a few days work. From start to finish, steel buildings take far less time to construct than wood buildings.

You Have More Flexibility

Because steel buildings require no interior posts or supports, you’ll have the entire interior floor space to design the floor plan. That gives you enormous flexibility to create a layout that fits the structure and its intended use. From a simple open bedroom with an attached bath to a complete studio apartment, complete with kitchen and a loft, a steel building offers the flexibility to move walls around, put windows where you want them and add interior structures where they make the most sense.

A guest house will be a bit more expensive than a typical steel storage shed but far less expensive than a full scale addition to your home. Attractive, flexible and affordable, steel buildings offer the ideal way to improve your property with a free-standing guest house for guests or tenants.

Versatile Steel Buildings

Whether you need is storage building, a garage, or a home office setting, chances are there’s a steel building that’s just right for your purpose.  Steel buildings are among the most versatile constructions available on the market today.  You can choose from many different styles, a wide variety of colors and an almost unlimited number of sizes to get exactly the building that you want.

For years, steel buildings were considered too industrial for most residential uses.  These days with advanced fabrication techniques and new counter steel coatings, the typical steel building is almost indistinguishable from other buildings around it.  You can build a garden shed that matches your main house or build a steel hangar for your airplane that is not out of place with its surroundings.

If you’re considering in addition to your house, choosing a steel building instead of adding on a room could be a very economical choice.  Most steel buildings don’t require foundation, which saves the cost of hiring a contractor to dig one. In many cases, you also won’t need to hire a contractor to build your addition, since most steel buildings are easy enough to assemble that you can do it yourself with the help of some reasonably skilled friends.

Whether you’re adding an office for your home business, storage for your home, expanding your garage space or building a carport for your boat or RV, the selection of steel buildings are versatile enough to handle all your needs. You can choose from one of several different designs and customize it to suit your use. The parts of your metal building can be designed complete with conduits for electrical wiring, holes for plumbing pipes and openings for doors and windows.

If you’re considering adding storage to your property, a well-built steel building is more attractive than a fiberglass kit bought at the home improvement store and less expensive than a wooden storage shed with all the trimmings. You can choose colors and trim so that it fits your property and looks attractive in your yard, and choose climate control options so that your belongings are keep at the right temperature and humidity to discourage mildew. Add ventilation, lights and interior trim and your storage shed can easily double as a home office or entertainment room – even a man cave.

For more ideas about ways to use steel buildings on your property, talk to a company that manufactures, designs and supplies steel building kits for residential, agricultural and industrial uses.

Steel Buildings for Your Garden

Are you an avid gardener trying to make do with an inadequate garden shed, or worse, trucking all your equipment and supplies into your garage or basement every day? You don’t have to put up with all the extra stress and physical labor. Many gardeners have replaced their inadequate and substandard storage with steel buildings that are attractive, versatile and durable. For gardeners who want to free up space in their garages and basements or need a good place to store their gardening equipment and supplies, modern steel buildings can be the perfect solution.

Steel Buildings Are Economical

Steel storage sheds are much more economical than similar buildings made of wood for many reasons. Generally, smaller steel buildings don’t need a pre-dug foundation. Most can be erected on a concrete slab, or built directly on the ground. That saves you the cost of a contractor to dig a foundation for your building. Steel building kits may seem more expensive than wood building kits at first glance, but the metal building kits come with everything you need to erect your shed, with the exception of a few power tools. Wood building kits usually require you to supply your own lumber, which can triple the cost you see on the website.

Steel Garden Sheds Are Low Maintenance

The savings continue after your building is erected. Since most steel construction is made with powder-coated steel – usually in a wide range of colors – your maintenance costs and time are practically nil. Powder-coated steel doesn’t need repainting. The colors will stay fresh without fading for up to 20 years. It resists corrosion and doesn’t rot like wood does, so you won’t have to replace pieces or make costly repairs as the years go on. Your maintenance chores will probably be confined to hosing down the exterior once or twice a year to remove surface dirt and debris.

Steel Barns Are Versatile

Steel storage sheds, often based on Quonset buildings, have no interior support posts, giving you the entire floor to design however you want it. There’s plenty of room for maneuvering gardening and lawn equipment so you can get them out of your garage. If you choose a modified Quonset design, you’ll have straight walls that are perfect for shelves and storage bins to store garden supplies, pool supplies and all your outdoor supplies and small tools.

If you’re looking for the perfect solution to your garden storage needs, take a look online at the wide variety of steel buildings available. From greenhouse to equipment garages, you’re sure to find one that suits your needs perfectly.

Five Accessories to Consider for Steel Buildings

Arch construction steel buildings are popping up everywhere and being used for everything from home additions to cattle barns. One of the key benefits of Quonset buildings and other arch construction steel buildings is their versatility. Whether you’re constructing a garden shed or a tea shop, the basic shell goes up the exact same. It’s the accessories and additions you add that differentiate your metal building and make it more useful. If you’re building a steel building for any purpose on your property, give some serious consideration to these top accessories to make your building even more versatile.

Ventilation System

Steel buildings are naturally weather and airtight, which makes them easy to heat and confers a number of other advantages. It also means that if you’re planning to use your structure for anything other than basic storage, a ventilation system is not only a plus, it’s really a must. Ventilation helps maintain a temperate climate in your building, keeping it from overheating in the summer and making it easier to heat in the winter. There are many choices for ventilation, from roof turbines to wall vents, so you can choose what looks and works best for your needs.

Skylights

If you choose a steel building design with a pitched roof, you may have the option to include skylights in your design. Skylights allow you to make use of natural light, which can reduce your lighting needs and help reduce mustiness inside the building. Because the building pieces are pre-engineered to fit precisely, you’ll never get any leaking or drafts around your skylight. Skylights are an especially attractive touch for steel buildings used as art studios, craft workshops and home offices.

Overhead Doors

Steel buildings offer many different door choices, including regular people-size doors, double doors and overhead garage doors. Fitting an overhead garage door into one end wall provides many benefits and makes your building more versatile even if you have no plans to use your steel building as a garage. For garden sheds and storage sheds, an overhead door means easy drive-in access for your lawn mower and snow blower, as well as making it easier to pack and unpack your belongings.

Windows

Additional windows can add to the base cost of steel buildings, but the value added far outweighs the additional expenditure. Windows make the building more attractive from the inside and the outside, allow light into the building and make the interior seem less industrial and claustrophobic.

Trim

The exterior trim for steel buildings usually includes eaves and a gutter system. Since arch construction steel buildings shed rain and snow, gutter systems aren’t usually a necessity. They can, however, help direct runoff and prevent problems caused by runoff. If you’re using your metal building as a garden shed, add a rain barrel to your gutter system and trim to reap the benefits of harvesting water.

Steel buildings are utilitarian, but they’re also versatile. Choose the accessories and additions that turn your building into exactly the structure you need.

Four Businesses You Can Run Out of Steel Buildings

Starting your own business comes with a lot of expenses, not the least of which is the monthly rental you’ll end up paying on the place where you hang your shingle. One way to cut down on that cost it to work out of your home, but space and safety considerations may make that impractical. If you’re starting a new business that doesn’t fit into your living room and isn’t a good fit for the typical office building, steel buildings can offer you options that you won’t find any other way. Not sure that your business would work well in a steel building? Here are four examples of actual businesses that people have successfully started and run in pre-engineered steel buildings.

Wood Workshop

The basement or garage may work fine for a hobby woodworker, but if you’re serious about building furniture, signs or any other wooden product to sell, you really need a separate workshop setup. The open floor plan of Quonset buildings makes them an ideal choice for a workshop business. There’s plenty of room for woodworking equipment and wood storage, while still providing open space for unfinished projects. If you want to sell out of your shop, it’s an easy matter to put up a flexible wall to provide a reception and display area.

Produce Store

If your farm business has outgrown the wooden roadside stand, a steel building is the logical next step up. Steel buildings come in many sizes, and can often be expanded by simply adding another kit to the back as you need more room. You can wire it for light and refrigeration, and choose a design with a garage door or barn doors at the back to provide easy access for bringing in more produce for sale.

Chicken Coops

Selling eggs is a time-honored way of making extra money in rural communities. Modified steel buildings make excellent chicken coops, as proven by an urban group called Urban Hens, at the University of Colorado in Denver. The group has modified basic Quonset buildings by removing the bottom half of the walls to provide circulation and air, and outfitted the inside with shelves for nesting hens. Best of all, the steel buildings transformed into chicken coops are attractive and unobtrusive.

Indoor Beach Volleyball Court

Steel buildings have often been used to house sports arenas, especially ice skating rinks and roller rinks. Because steel buildings don’t need floors or basement foundations, they’re the ideal choice to use for indoor sports venues, such as an indoor volleyball court. The arched dome roof gives plenty of overhead room for serves and volleys, and the sandy beach can be dug and filled directly on the ground beneath the dome.