Key Metal Barn Applications

Barns have many applications on a farm. Offering the benefits of sanitation and practical convenience for the farmers, barns are an essential component of the farming activities. When the choice of material for barn construction is steel, these benefits seem to multiply even further. Whether it’s protection against water damages and infestation or easy and hassle-free maintenance over the long term, metal barns outperform wood barns any day. Let’s look at some of the key ways in which you can use metal barns:

Agricultural Purpose

Need a clean, safe and dry place to store your agricultural products like crops, fruits, grains, and hay? Metal barn offers the ideal space for this purpose. The metal construction ensures that no matter what the weather looks like, it doesn’t get to your agricultural goods.

Shelter for Livestock

You can use the metal barn as a shelter for your farm animals like horses, mules, hogs, sheep, cattle, poultry, etc. The metal building would provide a hygienic and healthy environment for the animals and would also keep them away from dangers like predator attacks.

Small to Big Storage Needs

Farming equipment, from something as small as hand tools to something as large as tractors, metal barns can house them all. You can build a metal barn of the size that meets your specific needs and have a great customized storage space ready for your equipment.

Steel Gauge Framing

If you’re buying a custom metal barn for the first time, you may get confused in choosing between the 12-gauge steel framing and the 14-gauge steel framing. Here is a little information about these two basic steel framing options to help you understand better.

If you want to buy whatever the industry standard is in steel frame thickness, then 14-gauge framing is your pick. Its diameter measures as 2 ½” x 2 ½”. It is also comparatively more economical and is commonly used in the installation of various metal buildings.

On the other hand, there is the 12-gauge steel framing. Its diameter measures as 2 ¼” x 2 ¼”. A steel framing with lower gauge tends to have higher thickness and strength. As a result, 12-gauge steel framing is going to be more superior to 14-gauge steel framing in terms of sturdiness and wind and snow load ratings. You should go with 12-gauge framing if extreme winds and snowfall are frequent where you live, or if you want to keep the height of your custom metal barn 10′ or more.

While both these framing options have good structural integrity and can even be certified. The right option for you would depend on the weather conditions that your metal barn has to endure. For your information, we do provide extended warranty with the 12-gauge framing.

Certification Considerations

You should ensure if there is a local law or regulation that mandates getting a certification for your metal barn construction by a professional engineer. The benefit of a certified building is that it indicates that its construction has been done in accordance with certain specifications and local building requirements, thus allowing the building to meet defined ratings for snow and wind bearing capacity. Some areas may have the requirement for building certification, while some may not. Local weather conditions play an important role in determining whether the certification will be needed or not. Building certification is likely to become necessary if the area is prone to intense rainfall, heavy winds, extreme snowfall, etc.

Confirm with your local planning dept. whether the need for certification exists for your metal barn construction. If the need does exist, we will build and install your metal barn according to the certification criteria. Additionally, you will need to produce a copy of the barn’s blueprints to the inspection team for a formal evaluation. Our team can guide you along in this process as well.

Some basic barn installation requirements that you should take care of anyway are leveling of the ground base and ensuring that the width and length of poured slab is enough to provide right support to the structure.