Service area · Tennessee
Metal buildings in Tennessee.
We supply shops, barns, barndominiums, commercial buildings and more across Tennessee. Our work reaches from Memphis to the Tri-Cities, and anywhere else you’re building. The state’s residential code covers houses, not detached garages or outbuildings, so the rules for a metal shop come from your city or county.
State residential code
2018 IRC
State building code
2021 IBC
Detached garages & shops
Set locally
Farm buildings
Exempt from state minimums
Larger cities and counties enforce their own codes. Elsewhere, the State Fire Marshal’s minimums apply unless the local government has voted to opt out.
What matters for metal buildings in Tennessee?
Tennessee splits building rules between the state and local governments, and the split depends on what you’re building.
Who writes the code
Cities and counties that enforce a current code of their own handle permits themselves. Where they don’t, the State Fire Marshal’s minimum standards apply.
Shops and garages
The state’s residential program covers new houses. Detached garages and outbuildings fall to whatever your city or county requires, which can be a full permit or nothing at all.
Opted-out counties
A county can opt out of statewide residential codes with a two-thirds vote. In those counties, there may be no building inspection at all.
Farm buildings
Non-residential farm buildings are exempt from the state’s minimum building standards. Local zoning and floodplain rules can still apply.
A lighter permit doesn’t mean a lighter building. Even where no one inspects a shop, it still has to carry the wind, snow and seismic loads at its address. West Tennessee sits near the New Madrid fault, where seismic loads can shape a design in a way they rarely do elsewhere in our area. We engineer every building to its address either way.
Which frame fits
The building decides the frame, and the same rules hold in Tennessee as anywhere else we work.
Shops & farm buildings
Tubular is hard to beat up to sixty feet wide, as long as you aren’t drywalling it. Insulating it doesn’t change the answer.
Barndominiums
Steel truss lands on two-foot centers, so drywall screws straight to the frame. There’s no wood wall to build inside the steel.
Seen from the road
Cold-formed brings a closed eave, fascia, gutters and downspouts as standard.
Wide & tall
Past eighty feet wide, red iron is the only sensible answer.
Local guides for Tennessee
We deliver and install anywhere in Tennessee. These guides cover the permit rules around the state’s larger towns, and we check the rules for every other address the same way.
Memphis & the Mid-South
Jackson & northwest Tennessee
Nashville & Middle Tennessee
Knoxville & East Tennessee
Chattanooga & southeast Tennessee
Building somewhere that isn’t listed? Tell us the address and we’ll confirm who permits it and what applies. See Arkansas, Missouri or our whole service area.
Start with a conversation
Let’s talk about your Tennessee 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