Buildings
What are you building?
Start with what goes inside it and how you’ll use it. The right frame follows from that, and these guides show how.
Residential
Garages, shops and barndominiums
These are the projects people think about for years before they call. Width and whether you’ll finish the inside decide the frame.
Under sixty feet wide and left unfinished, tubular is hard to beat on price.
Insulation costs the same per square foot on any frame, so it doesn’t change the answer.
Other frames need a wood wall built inside the steel to hold drywall. Steel truss doesn’t.
The framing lands on two-foot centers and mounts flush, so drywall screws straight to it.
Agricultural
Barns, machine sheds and farm shops
What matters here is clear span, doors wide enough for the equipment you own, and a building that still works in twenty years.
Under sixty feet wide, tubular isn’t a close call. Past eighty feet, or with heavy collateral load, it’s red iron.
The widest piece of equipment sets the building. Send us the sizes, and we’ll frame around the doors.
Same rule as any shop. It stays tubular unless you’re finishing the inside with drywall.
Past eighty feet wide, red iron is the only sensible answer.
Farm exemptions change what a building needs, and they vary by state and county. Find your state’s local guides →
Commercial & industrial
Warehouses, hangars, churches and storefronts
These projects bring plan review, occupancy rules and fire separation. Hangar and equipment doors in the thirty to forty foot range are ordinary work.
With no finish requirement and under sixty feet wide, tubular is the value.
It handles gabled entries, porches, overhangs and mezzanines up to eighty feet, and it’s the most affordable of the other frames here.
A finished eave, gutters and downspouts come standard.
Long clear spans, tall eaves and wide doors point to red iron. Past eighty feet, it’s the only sensible answer.
How we pick the frame
Four questions settle most buildings.
Plenty of projects sit between categories, like a shop with an apartment or a hangar with an office. These four questions sort them out.
Tell us what goes inside and what happens there. That’s where every recommendation starts.
Tubular stops at sixty feet. Steel truss stays efficient to eighty. Past eighty, it’s red iron.
Insulation costs the same on any frame. Drywall is what changes the answer.
We check who permits the address and what engineering it needs. That can narrow the price gap between frames.
See it built
Browse projects by type
See what we’ve designed and supplied for homes, businesses and farms, and why each building ended up on its frame.
Start with a conversation
Let’s talk about your project.
Tell us what you’re planning and where you’re building. We’ll help you work out the next steps.
- Tell us what and whereSend us the size, how you’ll use the building and the address.
- We check the siteWe confirm who permits the address and which code and loads apply.
- You get a clear recommendationWe recommend the frame that fits and price it against the alternatives.
Or call
417-218-8348