Types
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Metal storage buildings are available for many different types of applications, such as warehouses, workshops, garages, airplane hangars, agricultural storage, military buildings and athletic facilities. They are a prime choice due to their affordability, versatility and adaptability, stability, energy efficiency and customizability. They have a huge ability to conform to your needs. Floor plans and design choices are absolutely endless. There is only a small amount of foundation, just posts in the ground, but still with extreme stability. Metal storage buildings can be placed on many different sites and require much less site preparation than more traditional buildings. They can also adapt to less than ideal locations for buildings because of their adaptability. Metal storage buildings are very sturdy, and do not tend to collapse in extreme situations, such as fires or earthquakes. Metal storage buildings are also extremely adaptable to all sorts of uses as they can be insulated and fully framed and finished for a more conventional appearance, or left totally open for large floor spaces.
The Three Main Styles of Metal Storage Buildings
The three main types of metal storage buildings are I-beam, Quonsets and single slope; however, they can be combined to fit into the many different applications for which metal storage buildings are used for. There are endless varieties of size, shape, and other features and accessories to adapt the best metal storage building for you.
The I-Beam Design
I-beam metal storage buildings are straight-walled buildings, with two sloping roof pieces, with a metal beam, usually steel, of which the profile looks like a capital letter “I”, for the support. These are also known as rigid frame or gable buildings. Because of the construction, the buildings can be constructed extremely wide, allowing for huge areas for storage. These are the most commonly used metal storage buildings, in both commercial and industrial companies, with ranging applications: straight warehouses, personal or commercial workshops, full garages, sheds, manufacturing facilities, commercial office space or retail space, bars, aircraft hangars, and much more. These have much more useable storage space compared to Quonsets, or the arch-styled metal storage buildings. They are also easier to incorporate into existing construction. However, they are also much more difficult to assemble and are not very reasonable for personal uses.
Quonsets
Quonsets are metal storage buildings consisting of a single self-supporting arch, like a half-cylinder sideways on the ground, with or without walls at either end. These buildings were first used by the army in WWII as simple metal storage buildings, which could be easily transported and quickly assembled. They are currently being used in the agricultural industry for storage, as aircraft hangars, and even as athletic facilities, possibly most commonly for ice arenas. They provide less space than the I-beam metal storage buildings, but are much easier to construct, and there are no internal support beams or trusses of any kind. There are also hybrid Quonsets which use straight walls and curved roofs, but these do need supports, but eliminate the wasted space.
Single-slopes
Single-slope buildings are metal storage buildings that have different eave heights at either sidewall, causing the roof to slope from front to back. Because of the asymmetry, the roof does not require as high of a pitch as most other buildings do, which is often an unused space in other buildings. Reducing the amount of unused space reduces materials and also heating and cooling costs for the reduced building size. These metal storage buildings are most often used as mini-storage units for rent, office buildings or strip malls, and other uses with multiple sections required in a modular model.
With each style, the metal storage buildings can be either clear span or modular styled, depending on the use of the interior space. Clear-span metal storage buildings have a column-free frame, which allows for the entire space to be wide-open for uses. This is most often utilized for the storage of large pieces of machinery, such as aircrafts or agricultural equipment. Modular metal storage buildings use a support framed system of interior columns, allowing for much wider metal storage buildings, by evenly distributing the weight across the columns, if a wide-open space, such as clear-span would provide, is not necessary. This allows for more stability and decreased costs of the metal storage building, as clear span must use very heavy and sturdy materials, and thus more expensive materials, to ensure stability.
Metal storage buildings are extremely common and a widely used option for building and storage purposes. They are extremely versatile and stable, cheap and customizable for what you want. They can adapt to almost every different need.