Steel Buildings: A Buyer's Guide
Steel buildings offer a versatile and economical solution to a whole range of storage and workspace related problems. The key to both the versatility and the cost-effectiveness is steel – a relatively cheap construction material which has excellent tensile strength, ductility and rigidity, making for structural steel components that offer designers and architects almost unlimited choice and freedom. Steel buildings are therefore available in a variety of shapes and sizes from small workshops to huge industrial facilities. The speed of erection of pre-fabricated steel buildings also makes for construction projects which come in on-time and under budget.
Whatever your building needs there’s a pre-fabricated steel building solution. A massive choice of suppliers throughout the country means you can enjoy the fast and simple installation of a steel building no matter where you are. This Buyers’ Guide will furnish you with all the information you need to choose a suitable steel building type and compare different steel building suppliers.
This Buyers' Guide was written in partnership with Springfield Steel buildings
Springfield Steel Buildings pride themselves on the quality of their buildings be it a small project or a large industrial estate.
Steel Building Basics
Steel building suppliers can design a building to your specifications, help you obtain planning permission, manufacture the building materials, prepare the groundwork, manage the construction and arrange for any necessary inspections. Alternatively, you can just purchase the steel building to erect yourself.
Design
Most suppliers have certified architects who can design a building that meets your exact requirements. You can also purchase a building made to a pre-existing plan. Steel buildings come in three main types:
- Arch Style – A steel building made up of connected arches with an almost semi-circular cross section. The arch style building provides a clearspan interior with no internal supports and trusses. Incredibly strong and weather resistant, arch style buildings are very popular for agricultural and industrial uses. Generally only the end walls can accommodate doors and windows and ceiling height drops off rapidly towards the sides.
- Portal Frame – Or straight-walled. Instead of arches the frame is made up of vertical supports connected by beams or rafters supporting a peaked roof. The portal frame can be clearspan or, for larger buildings with heavier roofs, may have a line of internal supports running down, or either side of, the central span. Because there are four flat walls, doors and windows can be installed almost anywhere. Mezzanine floors can be added in a variety of materials to create buildings of several storeys. A typical design for warehouses, out of town retail units, barns, industrial units etc.
- Single slope – Or lean-to. A short wall connected to a tall wall by a pitched roof. The ceiling inside obviously drops towards the back. Useful when you need a large opening at one end of the building only or when you’re expanding an existing structure.
These designs are standard but a skilled architect using computer assisted design can produce cylindrical, triangular, trapezoidal, in fact almost infinitely many custom designs for buildings to suit any purpose. Such is the versatility of structural steel. Small steel buildings will normally rest on a concrete base. The walls of larger steel buildings will have masonry work at the bottom few metres to provide extra stability or, for buildings with no concrete base, concrete piers or column supports may be employed instead.
Steel Building Fixtures and Fittings
All the accessories you’d normally expect from a building, and more, can be designed into your building and provided by the steel building supplier. For example:
- Roof – skylights, vents, anti-condensation coatings to protect dry goods, suspended ceilings.
- Doors – Roller shutter doors, barn doors, sliding doors, overhead doors, personnel doors and hanger style doors of various sizes.
- Cladding – Steel, aluminium, brick, timber or even glass cladding is available in a variety of colours and finishes to suit your building to its environment or create a striking effect.
- Architectural features – Partition walls, mezzanine floors, suspended ceilings, open bays, garaports, porticoes, stoa, facades, hipped roofs etc.
Planning
Steel building suppliers can normally guide you step by step through the planning process. Site surveys, plans and planning applications can be tailored to your particular local planning authority.
Fabrication
Once your designs are finalised the component pieces are manufactured at a factory, usually from cold rolled sections of structural steel. The pre-fabrication of the individual pieces makes the construction an easy and fast process. If you’re purchasing the building to install yourself then it will be delivered with detailed construction plans which adhere to construction regulations.
Groundwork and Installation
If required, most steel building suppliers will provide trained teams of certified construction professionals to prepare the site and erect the building to exacting standards. As the building is pre-fabricated the build time is normally half what it would be with traditional building techniques.
Comparing Steel Building Suppliers
Choosing a company to build and install your steel building is a matter of more than just finding the right price. There are a number of other factors to consider which include:
- Location – If your building’s coming from far away you might be paying lots for delivery, have less control over delivery times and the supplier might be less familiar with your local planning requirements.
- Quality – Most suppliers show pictures of previous work on their websites. If not, ask to see a portfolio. You can judge the quality of the buildings by these images and testimonials/references from previous clients.
- Certification – Do the suppliers guarantee to meet industry standards and modern building regulations? Are all their construction staff fully certified and do they have adequate safety assessments and procedures in place?
- Guarantees – Are the buildings guaranteed for durability, weather resistance etc?
Choosing a steel building over a building made from traditional materials not only saves you money but also cuts significant time from the design, planning and build stages of the project, freeing you up to concentrate on whatever it is you’ll be doing in the building. We recommend getting quotes from several suppliers to ensure you’re getting the best possible service at the best possible price.
This Buyers' Guide was written in partnership with Springfield Steel buildings
Springfield offer buildings from 5m to 25m spans. We use our wide range of design knowledge, materials and portal frame technology to create the maximum floor space for your investment. We pride ourselves on the quality of our buildings be it a small project to a large industrial estate.
Springfield Steel Buildings offer a value engineered solution specifically for your location. Our framework is a fully bolted system made from high tensile galvanized steel (BSEN 10147 FE E390G).
