The questions people actually ask.

Tubular runs about $11 to $18 a square foot installed, plus $10 to $12 for concrete. Cold-formed and steel truss run roughly $17 to $25 for the building, and red iron $14 to $23 depending on span, plus $8 to $12 for installation. A barndominium shell is different again: $28 to $30 in steel truss or $30 to $32 in cold-formed for the building, plus $14 to $16 to put it up, before concrete.

We put the whole breakdown on one page, including what moves the number up or down.

Around $10 to $12 a square foot for a standard slab. That’s four inches thick, 12 by 18 footings, vapor barrier, rebar in the footings, and wire mesh through the pad.

We find local concrete crews wherever we sell and carry their pricing, so you get a real number while we’re still designing the building instead of after you’ve started calling around.

Usually because they’re quoting different buildings. Three companies price three different structural systems against the same description, and the numbers can’t be compared. The cheapest one is often the one missing something, like engineering, trim, openings, or the install itself.

Ask each quote which system it’s built around and what’s included. If a quote doesn’t say, that’s your answer.

It depends entirely on where you’re building, and the differences are bigger than people expect. In Missouri, where we’re headquartered, there’s no statewide building code, so every city and county decides for itself.

Springfield requires a permit for accessory structures over 100 square feet. Bolivar requires one at any size. Unincorporated Polk and Webster counties have adopted no codes at all and don’t permit. That’s three answers within an hour’s drive.

Tell us your address and we’ll tell you what applies. We’ve written out local detail for many towns on our service area pages. If yours isn’t there, just ask.

You should have it. No permit requirement isn’t the same as no engineering requirement. The building still has to stand up to the wind and snow where you are, and if you ever sell, insure, or finance the property, someone’s going to ask what it was engineered to.

We run the ASCE 7 hazard tool against your actual address either way.

You pull the permit, since it’s your property and your application. What we do is tell you what your jurisdiction requires before you settle on a design, and give you the engineered drawings and documentation the application needs.

Here’s the part people miss: lead time doesn’t start when you order. It starts when your site is ready, your permit is in hand where you need one, and your slab is complete.

From there, production and delivery depend on the system and the season. Your building advisor will give you a real estimate rather than a number designed to make you feel good.

On tubular, installation comes with the building, and the factory handles it. On cold-formed, steel truss, and red iron, erection is quoted separately, and some people do hire their own crew or do it themselves.

Be honest with yourself about the equipment. Buildings over thirty feet wide or twelve feet tall usually need a lift, and a frame that isn’t plumb is a problem you live with for decades.

It needs to be, within tolerance, before the crew arrives. A slope that looks minor across forty feet isn’t minor to a frame that has to sit plumb.

If a crew shows up to a pad that’s out of tolerance, they may decline to install or charge a return trip. That’s the most common avoidable cost in this business, and it’s covered in detail on our site preparation page.

Short version: tubular is galvanized square tube, efficient and durable, and it’s the right answer for most shops, barns, and garages up to about sixty feet wide. Cold-formed brings a finished eave with overhangs, gutters, and soffits, and it suits buildings that will be permitted, occupied, and seen from the road. Its bypass girts mean you frame a wood wall inside wherever you want a finished interior. Steel truss is the go-to for barndominiums and finished living space, with framing on two-foot centers and a flat inside face, so drywall goes straight to the frame. Red iron handles long clear spans, tall eaves, wide door openings, and anything hung from the structure.

All four arrive engineered for the conditions at your address. You don’t have to pick. Tell us what you’re building and we’ll tell you which one fits. The systems page has the longer version.

Yes, and plenty of people do. But be clear about what you’re buying. A shell is the smaller half of a barndominium project. Interior framing, insulation, windows, doors, plumbing, electrical, and finish work all come after, and they add up to more than the shell did.

Anyone quoting you a finished living space from a per-square-foot building number is guessing.

Depends on the building and what’s on your order, and your quote will say plainly. Overhead doors and residential-quality windows and entry doors are usually sourced separately on a project that’ll be finished as living space.

We’d rather tell you that before you order than after.

Tubular trusses are made up to a hundred feet wide, but past about sixty feet, especially with things hanging from the structure, we’d rather put you in steel truss or red iron and be confident about it. Steel truss carries out to about eighty feet.

Red iron goes as wide as you need. The Tumbles gymnastics building in Bolivar is 85 by 135 feet in red iron, eighty-five feet clear with nothing in the middle.

All 50 states. Our tubular manufacturing partners cover the country, our cold-formed, steel truss, and red iron buildings ship to every state, and installation crews travel to your site. We line up local concrete crews wherever you’re building, too.

Our offices are in Bolivar and St. Louis, Missouri, but distance from an office doesn’t change what we can do for your project.

No. Most people call with a size in mind and a rough idea of what the building’s for, and that’s plenty. We’ll ask what goes inside, how you’ll get things in and out, and what the site’s like.

Nobody expects you to know what a boxed eave is.

We design and supply the building, and we coordinate the concrete. We don’t pour it ourselves, and cold-formed, steel truss, and red iron buildings are installed by vetted, licensed and insured contractors that we coordinate for you.

What we do is make sure the people pouring your slab and the people building your frame are working from the same drawings.

No. Everything you tell us stays with your project, from the first call through delivery. Before you sign, our order desk goes back through the dimensions, openings, and colors with you. That’s the last chance to catch something, and it’s worth taking.

On tubular you’ll also hear from the factory to coordinate the install.