Where it fits
Cold-formed covers roughly the same spans tubular does. What you get is a tighter, better-finished building at that size, and the price follows that.
The sweet spot is thirty to fifty feet wide, for a building that’ll be conditioned, that people will see from the road, or that has to go through plan review. Below forty feet with no finish requirement, tubular does the same job for less. Past fifty it stops being cost-efficient and red iron takes over.
It’s also the lighter way to get a substantial building. Against red iron in the same size range it saves real money on the foundation, with no caged piers, and it goes up with a telehandler instead of a crane.
What you’re paying more for
Three things, and they’re worth understanding before you decide it’s the right building.
01
The eave is actually finished
Rake edge on the gables, drip edge at the eaves, a real fascia made from C-channel, and gutters and downspouts in the standard package. Not upgrades.
That matters for more than appearance. A boxed eave trim leaves gaps that bleed light and air, and on a building you’re heating that’s a running cost as much as a cosmetic complaint. A properly closed eave fixes it.
02
Double C galvanized framing
Two cold-rolled C sections bolted back to back, which gives you a column that looks and behaves like an I-beam. Galvanized, so the corrosion protection is in the steel instead of painted on it.
If tubular framing doesn’t look like enough building to you, this will. That’s a legitimate reason to choose it.
03
Changes get re-engineered while we talk
Everything we supply arrives engineered. What’s different here is that the design tool and the engineering tool are the same piece of software. Risk category, verified wind and snow loads for your address, collateral and live loads go in, and it sizes the structural members from those numbers as we work.
Widen a bay, raise the eave, move a door, and the frame re-sizes and re-prices on the spot instead of going back into a queue. On a building headed for plan review, or one you’re still making up your mind about, that’s the difference between a week and an afternoon.
Where it stops making sense
Three places, and it’s worth knowing them now.
Past about fifty feet wide. The columns are 14 gauge, 14 inch double C, and as the span or the load climbs, the bay spacing has to tighten to carry it. By fifty feet you’re often down to ten or twelve foot bays, which means more columns, more rafters, and more labor. The building price stops tracking the square footage. Red iron carries wide spans on far fewer frames and takes over from there.
Heavy collateral loads. Bridge cranes, large mechanical units, sprinkler systems hung from the structure. Those push the design toward red iron regardless of width.
A simple building you aren’t finishing. If nothing about the project needs a closed eave, gutters, or the fascia detail, this is more building than the job calls for. Tubular does that work well and does it for meaningfully less.
One thing worth knowing if you’re drywalling the inside. Cold-formed girts are bypass mounted at three to five foot centers, same as tubular and red iron. A finished interior still needs a wood wall built against the steel to carry insulation and sheetrock. Steel truss is the only system we carry that avoids that, and for a barndominium it’s usually the better answer.
Design tool
Want to see it before you call?
There’s a 3D design tool where you can set the dimensions, place the doors and windows, and pick colors. It’s a planning tool, and it’s useful if you think better looking at something than reading about it.
Save a design and it comes to us. An advisor picks it up from there, checks it against what your site and jurisdiction actually require, works out which frame fits it, and gets back to you with a real number.
You don’t have to use it. Plenty of people would rather describe the building over the phone and let us work it out, and that’s often faster.
Compare
The other frames we supply
Or see all four side by side.
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