subject: Reasons Why Steel Buildings Make Sense in Canada [print this page] In Canada, pre-engineered metal buildings were often large shell structures that literally housed livestock or farm equipment and had few comforts. With minimal innovations, such buildings proved appropriate for warehouses that mainly had to protect merchandise and personnel from the elements.
The most challenging of those elements are weeks of freezing temperatures and heavy snow loads. Enter designs that accommodated substantial insulation - both on the walls and roof - and these steel shell buildings could be kept downright comfortable.
Thus pre-eng metal buildings advanced to where they could protect workers, not just cows. The next natural evolution for pre engineered metal buildings in Canada was . . . think Canada now . . . indoor hockey rinks!
Where do pre-eng metal buildings really excel? Think of a barn - a really, really wide barn. It's tall, but only one story. If you make it really wide with no central support columns you've got a cavernous enclosed space. That describes hockey arenas, indoor equestrian arenas, indoor fields for soccer and fieldhouse and sports complexes of a wide variety. The tapered beam designs and long clear span joists designs used in pre-eng metal buildings are ideal for spanning a wide expanse of space without supporting central columns, so long as there is not a significant load above the beams (like additional floors of a building.)
The economics of pre-engineered metal buildings are compelling. Nearly all components are manufactured away from the actual construction site, so they can be made in factories that employ specialized production lines and economy of scale to keep costs low.
Next, the components - structural steel, standing seam roof and wall panels are shipped to the job site where they can be assembled like a big erector set. This bolt together (weld together) mating parts approach makes the building construction period very brief.
Also, a pre-eng metal building can be erected in nearly any weather - even the dead of a Canadian winter - so you dont lose precious time (and interest charges) waiting for the build season. With this many advantages over conventional 'build up at the site' construction, it's easy to see why pre-engineered metal buildings are so economical.
The environmental impact of pre-engineered steel buildings is also a distinct advantage. Steel is the most recycled commodity there is. In fact, the feedstock for steel mini-mills is scrap steel. This means the parts which make up most of the pre-engineered metal building structure are largely recycled steel - up to 88% from some suppliers.
That means that at the end of the buildings useful life, it can be scrapped and recycled again, rather than end up in a landfill somewhere in Canada.
Today, many property developers and expanding businesses in Canada understand the advantages of pre engineered steel buildings, and consider their use in a wide variety of applications where multi-story is not one of the criteria.
