How it is built
Tubular framing is built from galvanized square steel tube. What scales the system is not the material but the configuration of the legs and rafters, and that is where most of the engineering decision is made.
Single leg is the simplest frame, suited to modest widths and ordinary loads. Double leg adds a second member to carry more. Ladder and webbed configurations build the column and rafter as an open truss from the same tube stock, with internal bracing between the chords.
That progression is the reason tubular reaches further than most people expect. A webbed frame carries wider spans, taller eave heights, and heavier snow and wind loads without switching to a different material or a different building system. The right configuration comes out of the span, the eave height, and the load conditions at your address.
Project · Pagosa Springs, CO
This lodge is fifty feet wide by a hundred and twenty long, framed in ladder leg tubular, in Pagosa Springs, Colorado — an elevation where snow load governs the design.
The roofline is a boxed eave, which gives the building a finished edge and directs water away from the sidewall. The package arrives engineered as a system rather than assembled from parts sourced separately.
Four leg configurations
Each carries more span, eave height and load than the one before it, using the same galvanized tube stock.
01
Single leg
The simplest frame, for modest widths and ordinary loads.
02
Double leg
A second member in each leg to carry more.
03
Ladder leg
Column and rafter built as an open truss.
04
Webbed leg
The widest spans, tallest eaves and heaviest loads.
What it is built for
Shops and garages
Working shops, detached garages, and hobby space. Overhead doors, walk doors, windows, and insulation all specified as part of the package.
Agricultural
Equipment storage, hay, livestock shelter, and farm shops. Where agricultural exemptions apply, engineering requirements are lighter and the package gets simpler.
Covers and storage
RV and boat covers, equipment bays, lean-tos, and open or partially enclosed storage where the priority is protection and span rather than finish.
Tubular is the right answer more often than any other system we supply. It is not the entry-level option. It is the system that fits the largest share of real projects.
How far tubular actually goes
Further than most of the industry treats it, and we have spent years proving that. Occupied, permitted, commercial buildings are well within what tubular does. One of the projects we’re proudest of, the Iron Knights gym in Buffalo, is tubular.
Trusses are available in widths up to a hundred feet, and the engineering carries the loads it is asked to carry. But span alone is not the whole question, and this is where we will give you an opinion rather than a spec sheet.
A tubular truss is designed to flex slightly. That is normal and it is part of how the system works. Past about sixty feet of width, and particularly once things start hanging from the structure — fans, lighting, sprinkler mains, rooftop HVAC — that movement stops being a detail and starts being something you have to design around. At that point we would rather put you in red iron and be confident about it.
So the honest answer is that tubular can be engineered wider than sixty feet, and we generally do not recommend it there when collateral loads are involved. Those are two different statements and you should have both.
Where tubular fits, the economics are hard to argue with. Compared installed to installed, it’s usually the lowest-cost way to put up a shop or farm building at this size.
Design tool
Build it on screen first.
There’s a 3D tool where you can set the dimensions, place the doors and windows, pick colors, and turn the building around to see what it’ll actually look like on your property.
It’s a planning tool, not a shopping cart. Save a design and it comes to us. An advisor picks it up, checks it against what your site and jurisdiction require, and comes back 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