Before your steel building goes to the manufacturing process, your building concept must first be discussed with the supplier’s authorized representative. This is the most crucial part because the output from this discussion determines the specifications of your steel building. You need to answer some very basic questions about how you plan to use your building and what you want it to look like.

After this discussion, your steel building’s specifications will be sent to the technical department. Their job is to make sure that your steel building is engineered to be structurally sound by incorporating certain standards that sometimes require minor changes to your original design.

Designing your steel building involves defining its final use and requirements. These are the basic concepts that you need to understand:

Ø Width and Length – By defining the purpose of your steel building, you also determine its width and length. Do you want a small building to use as a workshop or a large one to be used as storage for your farm produce? The size of your property is also a major factor in this decision.

Ø Height – The height of your steel building is determined by the height of the outside wall and not the clearance inside the building. In steel buildings, there is such a term as “eave” height that is used to determine how tall the building will be. Again, the height of your building is dependent on its purpose. If you want to store a large boat, then the height of the boat is a major factor in determining the building’s height. Also, the height of your door is another factor to consider. There is a general rule of thumb, which states that the building’s height should be 2 feet higher than the door.

Ø Roof Slope – This is another term for roof pitch and it determines how steep the angle of the roof is. This measures the ratio between the rise over the run. To give you an example, a 1:12 roof slope means that the roof would rise 1 inch for every 12 inches of width. This means that for 24 ft. wide building with a 1:12 roof pitch, the peak of the building at the center would be 1 foot higher than the eave.

Ø Framed Openings – Determine the exact location and measurements of your door. Large doors require some kind of framing that needs to be incorporated in the design. Framed doors are typically 2 ft. shorter than the building’s height to allow for door mechanisms to work properly. Another factor that affects framed openings is the placement of cable bracing that will keep you from placing doors in some parts of the steel building.