Renewable Construction?
Metal Buildings?
What kind of advantages and disadvantages do steel structures provide?
Is there a market for metal building over seas?
What kind of things can be done to increase the security of metal building designs?
Advantages
- Steel structures are very renewable and fall into the category of renewable construction
- Large structures can ship on one truck
- Cheaper to fabricate go up fast
- Less material to cover a large square foot area
- Recyclable and can be erected on different sites
- Large open spans with no center support
- Structurally sound engineered for wind and earthquakes
- Easy customizable options windows, doors and insulation
- Energy efficient with correct insulation packages
- No wood rot minor damages resulting from floods
- Commercial options to hang equipment from rafters
- Easy to repair long life roofing panels
- Steel structure outlast wood structure with double the life time
- Steel structures can accept masonry with only small design changes
Disadvantages
- Highly insecure buildings just cut through panels and your inside
- Can be difficult to erect in windy locations and conditions
- R-panel oil canning effect usually a problem during construction
- Construction requires some expertise and heavy equipment
- Not sold outside the United States as much due to low security
We have several years experience working with metal buildings and want to hear your take on the advantages and disadvantages of metal buildings. There are always more advantages and unfortunately one of the biggest disadvantages is security issues. What we have noticed is most of the world builds with concrete. It is very hard to sell metal building designs to the rest of the world because of the security issue. What most corporations buy is the steel structure and use masonry around the steel structure. They do not use R-panel as it does not provide a secure building.