Metal Buildings

There are a variety of benefits to building with a VersaTube steel building set. Here's a guide to help you discover the perfect steel building for you.

Whether you’re interested in erecting a shelter to protect a single vehicle, or require something more complex to house animals or store equipment, steel building kits deliver the versatility and durability to provide an unmatched level of utility and structural integrity. Not only are steel building kits useful in a wide-variety of capacities, but they also make for a great DIY project for a father and his kids, or a few buddies who feel like doing something with their hands.

Let’s take a look at why a steel building may be right for your project.

What is a Steel Building?

Steel buildings are extremely common, and you probably see them more often than you think. While they gained popularity in the early 1900’s due largely to their strength, modern steel buildings are entirely different from early versions. Today, the highly customizable quality of what are also known as pre-fabricated steel buildings are used to make a wide-variety of structures, such as shops, garages, carports, homes, agricultural and livestock storage, airplane hangars, and an extensive range of other industrial and commercial buildings. While older versions had a more bare-bones, rugged appearance, modern steel building packages can be made to have an exterior that looks like wood. The wooden façade offered by the steel buildings of today can look so natural that you might walk by one every single day without realizing it.

Pre-fabricated (also known as pre-engineered) steel buildings are in high demand for a number of reasons.

First of all, over the course of the last few decades advanced technology has allowed engineering teams to create highly customized building packages that are easy-to-construct yet durable enough to stand the test of time as well as the elements. These buildings can be specially designed to withstand high levels of snow or wind, and they are sturdy enough to safely offer clearspans of hundreds of feet on end.

Another factor that has continually made steel buildings a popular choice among both amateur and professional builders alike involves the greatly reduced cost and construction time when compared to wooden buildings. Thanks to the fact that materials are pre-fabricated in the plant to fit a customized design, there is little to no waste, leading to cost reductions a high as 60%. These building packages are carefully designed for easy-of-construction, as modern truss-joint technology makes assembling a steel building easy as a snap, literally.

Truss and slip-fit joints provide another benefit. Not only are they simply to assemble, they also make it so that buildings can be altered and extended with ease should the need ever arise. Simply remove the exterior sheet metal and slip on as much length as necessary. The whole process is easy, and it allows you to adjust the size of your building without posing a risk to its structural integrity.

Thanks to the low cost, strength, customizability, ease of construction, and near-complete lack of need for maintenance, it is no wonder that steel buildings enjoy their current renown throughout the building community.

Benefits of Steel Buildings

• Low cost

Pre-fabrication provides savings of up to 60%

• Easy to build

Slip-fit joints and carefully engineered designs make construction a snap.

• Entirely customizable

Width, length, height, door and window size and placement can all be tailored to your needs.

• Unbeatable resilience

Never worry about termites or other pests, mold, fungi, swelling or shrinking, harsh weather conditions, fire, or that your building will lose its structural integrity over time.

• Virtually no maintenance required

Steel won’t warp or crack, and your building won’t need to be painted for at least 25 to 40 years.

• Environmentally green

Steel is in vast abundance and does not lead to forest reduction. It is also the most recycled material on the planet. Additionally, steel does not emit toxic fumes and doesn’t require treatment by harsh chemicals.

• High insulation value

Unlike wood, steel will not expand or contract depending on the weather, which prevents air leakage and increases insulation values.

• Easily modified

The frame and slip-fit designs allows for easy structural modification.

• Carports

Carports are one of the most common steel structures. They are easily customized to suit the builder’s needs, allowing for single, double, or triple parking spaces, garage doors, pedestrian doors, no walls, 3-sides, or full enclosure.

Classic carports are the most popular style.

There is also the suburban style, which is designed with an A-frame, eves, and roof panels to match your home.

For builders who are looking for a more heavy-duty option, there is the grand carport, which is designed to hold up against heavy rain and snow.

• Garages

Garages can be engineered to meet local snow and wind load requirements, and they can be highly customized to have pedestrian or garage doors, gables, and more. They can also be sheeted with a standard steel siding, or alternatives such as vinyl, brick, wood, or stucco.

The summit garage features vertical sheet metal panels on the roof and sides.

The frontier garage features vertical sheet metal panels on the roof and horizontal panels on the sides.

• Buildings

Like the garages and carports, buildings can be highly customized in features and appearance.

Frontier buildings feature vertical roof panels and horizontal side panels.

Summit buildings offer vertical panels on both the sides and roof.

• Barns and Loafing Sheds

Our steel barns are the strongest animal housing options available. They provide a raised center aisle to ensure an outstanding level of comfort and protection for your animals. They are also highly customizable, offering accessories such as stalls, sliding doors, Dutch doors, vent doors, ridge vents, and a variety of other features.

Loafing sheds provide a low-cost, easy-to-build three-sided shelter for animals, hay, feed, firewood, garbage cans, tools and equipment, and small vehicles.

What to Consider When Buying a Steel Building

It is important to consider a number of factors when buying a steel building in order to make the entire construction process as efficient as possible, and to ensure that you come out with finished structure that will suit all of your needs.

• Costs

Having an understanding of all the costs associated with purchasing and erecting a steel building is important when it comes to understanding the scope of your projects. It is a good idea to take the time to figure out expenditures such as permits, dirt work, concrete, insulation, and the actual kit itself.

• Time

It takes time to pre-fabricate a steel building kit, then to actually erect it. It is important to consider when you need your building to be finished, and to take into account the fabrication and construction times. Many companies can take from 8 to 12 weeks or even more to design, fabricate, then deliver a kit. At VersaTube, we generally take between 3 and 4 weeks from when an order is placed to deliver.

While the time it takes to manufacture and deliver the steel building kit is one issue that is important when it comes to considering your time-frame, you also need to have a rough estimation of how long it will take you to assemble it. Will you only have time to work on it during the weekend? Will you be able to complete it before weather factors such as rain and snow impede your progress or even make it impossible? Do the people helping you have other obligations that might eat into the time they can spend on the project?

• Experience level

Before ordering a steel building kit, ask yourself how experienced you are at working with various building projects so you can get an idea of how much help you’ll need and whether or not a project is beyond the scope of your abilities. Do you have a pretty good working knowledge of tools but not much of a background in building? Or are you a seasoned contractor who can handle what-may-come? Or maybe you don’t have the time or know-how to build it at all, and you’d be better off hiring a contractor? It is important to recognize the extent of your capabilities before getting yourself into a project that is beyond your experience.

And if you don’t have much experience, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t erect a steel building. Sometimes diving in and going for it is the best way to learn. Just consider your abilities vs. the size of your project so that you don’t end up in over your head.

• Building function

Ask yourself carefully what exactly you will need out of your building before ordering a kit. What size does it need to be, and will you ever want to expand upon it? Where, how many, and what size doors and windows do you need? Will you need insulation and heating? How pitched should the roof be in order to deal with rain and snow? Do you need a second floor or other space for storage or living?

Taking questions of functionality into account before ordering your kit can help you avoid ending up with a final product that doesn’t suit your needs. Of course, one of the many benefits of a steel building kit is that it is so easy to alter and expand upon.

Still, save yourself the trouble ahead of time.

• Aesthetics

How do you want your building to look? While the lowest-priced kits include basic sheet metal roofing and siding, you may want to have a painted roof, or a façade of brick, wood, or stucco.

Many people also find that a Wainscot accentuates the look of their steel building. A Wainscot is a paneling that extends around the base of the structure and is oftentimes painted to match the building’s trim.

Another consideration is roof pitch. A flatter pitch of 1:12 is more common with commercial style buildings, while a steeper pitch of 4:12 is more residential in nature.

• Engineering

It is important to make sure that your building will meet your local snow and wind load requirements by contacting the building code department. Depending on where you live, it is important to buy a kit that will stand up against the weather. VersaTube uses a sturdier rectangular framing as opposed to the square framing offered by most companies. We also use a smooth mandrel bending process to create our side-posts, which provides better wind and snow tolerance than the compression or crush bend used by most other companies.

• Warranty

Your steel building is an investment that you want to last, so it’s important that it comes with a structural warranty. While many companies provide no warranty at all without the purchase of an unnecessary upgrade, VersaTube provides a standard 20 year warranty on all framing along with 25 on all panels.

To sum it all up, not only does a pre-fabricated steel building kit offer an array of benefits beyond those present by wood, it also makes for a great DIY project for you and the family or a few friends. It’s like an Erector Set for grown-ups, only with more utility.

If you could use a steel building on your property, order one today, and you’ll be snapping your new structure together in no time.