Prefab Buildings

What Are Prefabricated Buildings?

The term “Prefabricated buildings” refers to one of the biggest categories of off-site manufactured buildings. To better understand prefabricated buildings, we must understand the term prefabrication.

Prefabrication refers to a building, or piece of furniture, that is manufactured in sections to enable quick and easy assembly on site. The sections are manufactured in a factory setting or factory-like setting. The pre-built elements are then delivered to the construction site and assembled together.

If you’ve done any preliminary research about steel building construction, you have likely seen the term “prefab” thrown around. In short, “prefab” is just an abbreviation for “prefabrication”. When a steel building is designated “prefab”, it means that the structural components of the frame have been pre-engineered, designed, cut, drilled & painted before they ship and deliver for on-site assembly.

Available Prefabricated Steel Building Sizes

Metal building kits come in all shapes and sizes. The lighter gauge tube-frame kits may come in pre-designated sizes but the more commercial grade materials such as cold form & I-Beam structures are designed & engineered to your specific needs & most importantly, local building codes & conditions.

There are, however, design efficiencies that should be considered for each material. That may mean optimized bay widths, lengths or floor heights. For larger buildings, that’s usually 20-25’ bay width increments for maximum system efficiency.

BUILDING UNDER 3K SF. Common small metal building sizes include: 30×40, 30×50,40×40, 40×50, 40×60, 50×100. If you’re looking for a metal building kit under 3,000 SF, check out our 3D Building Designer for real-time pricing with a self-checkout option.

The Advantages Of Prefabricated Steel Buildings

The advantages of building with prefab steel are numerous:

Time And Cost-Effective

A prefab structure is created at the manufacturer to precise specifications. Each structure is designed for easy assembly, which cuts back on raw material waste. Site work, such as preparation and foundation placement, can be completed concurrently as the building is being manufactured. Once complete, the structure is shipped with all required hardware to the job site where it is put together. While this still requires skilled labor, the time to complete installation is significantly shorter than if all fabrication took place in the field. Shorter construction times translate into lower labor costs and earlier return on investments.

Reliability And Durability

Prefabricated steel buildings, such as garages and barns, are designed at the manufacturer with the help of automated machinery and procedures such as 3-D modeling. These quality control measures ensure that the materials used have the highest strength-to-weight ratio possible, are up to national steel building codes, and meet all of the construction requirements of your job. The result of the prefab process is a steel that’s more predictable and less susceptible to site-to-site inconsistencies.

Customizability

Whatever you want out of your structure, it can be created from steel at the manufacturer. Warehouses, retail spaces, storage units, and even homes are all ideal for steel since it can be designed to match the surrounding environment or to stand out as a wonder of architecture. Today’s steel building manufacturers can create panels with the textures, colors, and shapes of other materials that retain the strength steel is known for. If, in time, you need more out of your building, a steel frame can be easily added to and expanded upon by adding or removing interior walls, shifting frame openings, and even adding stories.

Sustainability

With its renowned ability to be re-used again and again, steel is the greenest building material out there. In fact, it is 100% recyclable. Steel does not give off toxic fumes during the construction process or in the event of a fire. Beyond this, prefab buildings are easily insulated and can be fixed with eco-friendly windows and doors.

Additional Benefits To Prefabricated Steel Buildings Include:

• Pre-designed, pre-engineered & pre-fabricated materials, reduce time and errors on the jobsite

• Bolted connections allow for faster assembly on the jobsite

• The lighter materials, steel vs wood & tilt-up allow for less foundations

• Prefabricated steel buildings are 30-50% faster to construct than concrete buildings.

• Steel buildings are recyclable, steel is a green material

• Prefabricated steel buildings allow for cost savings in foundation work and labor

How Much Do Prefabricated Steel Buildings Cost?

After discussing the wide range of applications, you can imagine, this is a difficult question to answer. Read through this post to learn more about steel-building-pricing-101.

Steel Building Components

As you’re working through your commercial building design, you’ll have to coordinate different aspects of the structure with your design team. Whether it’s your architect, engineer, or building manufacturer, it will be helpful to talk-the-talk when mapping out your building’s design requirements.

To the newcomer, steel buildings can appear complicated. In reality, they’re really quite straightforward once you’ve become familiar with them – and if you do have any queries then we’re on hand to help you out. To help you get started – here’s some basic information around terminology. We’ve kept it simple so dive in and become a steel buildings expert!

roll former manufacturers

roof sheet making machine

light gauge metal framing machines