Cost
What a steel building actually costs.
Most companies will not put a number on a page. Here are the ranges we actually see, what is inside them, and what moves them up or down.
These are planning numbers, not quotes. Your building gets priced on its own dimensions, loads, and location.
Budget calculator
What will your building cost?
A few questions and you’ll have the same range we’d give you on the phone. Add installation and concrete for the whole picture.
1Which system
2What it’s for
3How big
4Concrete optional
Slab thickness
Footing depth
Pick a system, a use, and your dimensions.
Planning estimate only. Your building gets priced on its own loads, openings, and location.
A building is three numbers, not one
The kit. The installation. The concrete. Most quotes show you one of those and leave you to discover the others.
Everything below is per square foot of building dimension, so you can work from the size you already have in mind. Your concrete pad will run a little past the building footprint, which means the concrete figures are slightly conservative. That is on purpose.
Tubular Steel
$11–$18 per square foot, kit and installation together.
$10–$12 per square foot for concrete.
Roughly $21–$30 all in, and most projects land near $25.
Tubular is quoted as one number because the kit and the install come from the same place. What moves it inside that range: leg and truss configuration, clear span, eave height, upgrades like 12 gauge framing or 26 gauge panels, the number of doors and windows, and snow load bracing where the site calls for it.
Steel Truss
$17–$20 per square foot for the kit on a standard building.
$20–$25 per square foot for a barndominium shell.
$7–$10 per square foot for installation, more on a barndominium.
$10–$12 per square foot for concrete.
Against a tubular barndominium shell at $30 to $35, that’s a real difference — and you’re getting framing on two-foot centers, which means no second wall to build when you finish it.
One thing to watch when you compare quotes. Secondary framing comes two ways. The cold-formed option arrives complete. The wood option ships with welded clips and a cut list, and you buy the lumber locally — so that kit price isn’t comparable to an all-in number from another system unless the lumber is added back in. We’ll price it into your estimate so you’re comparing the same thing.
What moves the kit: span, eave height, roofline complexity, whether you’re using the flush-mount post system, and the number and size of openings. Past eighty feet it stops being cost-efficient and red iron takes over.
Cold-Formed Steel
$15–$25 per square foot for the kit.
$7–$10 per square foot for installation.
$10–$12 per square foot for concrete.
Commonly around $35 all in.
Cold-formed is quoted with the kit and the erection labor as separate numbers, so you can see what the building costs and what it costs to put up. Concrete requirements are similar to tubular for most residential and light commercial work.
What moves the kit: span, eave height, roofline, the number and size of openings, and the engineering a permitted building requires.
Red Iron
$15–$25 per square foot for the kit.
$7–$10 per square foot for installation.
Concrete varies, and often considerably.
The frame prices similarly to cold-formed. The foundation does not. Red iron concentrates load at the column bases, so the foundation is engineered for the specific structure rather than poured to a standard spec. Depending on the building and the soil, that can mean deeper footings, piers, or a slab design that costs well beyond the figures above.
We don’t coordinate red iron foundation engineering. We can point you toward a firm that does this work, but we don’t make the call, manage the process, or carry pricing for it the way we do on standard slabs. That one belongs to you and your engineer, and you should budget for it as its own line.
Eave height moves the number
Every two feet above twelve adds roughly five percent to the frame. That’s worth knowing before you decide you want the extra headroom — and it’s built into the calculator at the top of this page.
Height is the input people underestimate most. Going from a 12′ eave to 16′ on a 40×60 adds about ten percent to the building, which on a tubular shop is a few thousand dollars. Sometimes it’s worth every penny — a lift, a camper, a hoist. Sometimes it’s headroom nobody ever uses.
What the concrete number includes
The $10–$12 figure is for a standard slab: four inches thick, 12 by 18 inch footings, vapor barrier, rebar in the footings, and welded wire mesh through the pad. That is what most shops, garages, barns, and barndominium shells are built on.
Thicker slabs, deeper footings, difficult access, poor soil, and significant grading all move it. So does distance — a crew driving two hours prices differently than one across town, which is why we work to find local crews wherever we sell.
Barndominium shells are a different number
A tubular barndominium shell, detailed the way it should be, runs $30–$35 per square foot for the shell alone. That figure does not include concrete. Add the slab and you are near $40–$47 before anything else happens. Cold-formed and red iron run higher still.
That is not the same building as a shop with the same dimensions. A shell that will be finished and lived in needs ladder legs so the wood framing sits in line with the steel, house wrap behind the panels, better openings, and detailing that a storage building never asks for. Every one of those is a decision worth making, and together they move the number.
The shell is also only the beginning. A finished barndominium still needs interior framing, insulation, windows and doors you source yourself, and all the plumbing, electrical, and finish work of a house. People routinely budget for the shell and are caught off guard by everything after it.
We would rather you hear that number now than partway through. If someone quotes you a barndominium shell at shop prices, they are quoting you a shop.
What none of these numbers include
Site work beyond the slab: grading, excavation, fill, drainage, retaining walls, and utility runs. Permits and inspection fees. Site-specific engineered drawings where a jurisdiction requires them. Interior framing, plumbing, electrical, and finish work on a building that will be occupied.
Residential-quality windows and entry doors are usually sourced separately on a project that will be finished as living space. Your quote will say exactly what is included, and we will tell you what is not before you order rather than after.
On a barndominium in particular, the shell is the smaller half of the project. Anyone quoting you a finished living space from a per-square-foot building number is guessing.
Get the real number for your building.
Dimensions, use, and location are enough to start. We will price the building and the concrete together so you are looking at the whole project rather than a piece of it.
Or call 417-218-8348