subject: Metal Building Kits Sustainability From The Start [print this page] Metal buildings and metal building kits have offered their owners many benefits over the last fifty years or so. Steel and metal buildings came into domestic use after World War II and the growth of their popularity for flexible, affordable structures has been steady and continuous.
Back then sustainability was a foreign word to most people. Yet these buildings were (and still are) one of the most sustainable types of structures that one could build. It almost makes you think that these structures were ahead of their time.
The extremely economical use of resources in these buildings makes them environmentally friendly as well as cost efficient. Todays engineered building systems make use of a technique that economizes each structure.
By controlling the amount of steel in any building, be it a warehouse, manufacturing plant airplane hangar, barn or church, the costs are kept to a minimum. This is because most metal building kits are priced by the amount (or weight) of steel in the structure. The more steel the more cost.
Because about 90 percent of the metal building manufacturers sell their products through a network of contractors, the local needs and concerns are addressed. These contractors are extremely familiar with the metal building product that they sell and are extremely efficient in the erection process another cost saving for the consumer.
When deciding on a metal building for a specific use, the contractor, salesman and/or in-plant engineer identifies all issues that may affect the design. These might include atmospheric conditions (snow and wind loads, hurricane or seismic loads) crane loads, mezzanine loads, roof-top equipment loads basically anything that the building would have to support.
The building is then designed for those loads and ONLY those loads. There is no excessive steel in the building, keeping the cost of the metal building kit down as well as minimizing the affect on the resources pool.
Should one of these buildings become redundant and require demolition, the structures are virtually all recyclable.
Over the years of course technology has taken huge steps forward. When metal buildings first hit the marketplace they were virtually all Quonset style buildings or metal boxes.
Today however these building kits can be dressed-up considerably. A Robertson Metal Building Systems contractor has built an amusement park building that resembles the Titanic complete with its own iceberg.
You may drive down the street or highway and not even notice that the buildings you are looking at are in fact metal building kits. With so many cladding options today metal building kits are indiscernible from any other building method.
Todays technology has provided metal building manufacturers the ability to provide extremely energy-efficient buildings. In fact, many manufacturers have green or LEED experts on staff or available to assist in achieving these highly sought after sustainable accolades.
Great looks, flexible designs, cost effective and sustainable is it any wonder that prefab metal building kits will continue to gain in popularity as the building system of choice?
