General Guidelines

When you decide to buy a Building - Confirm the accuracy of your building codes. It is imperative that your building conforms to the state, local and federal design requirements.

The items described on your contract are what you are buying. Please be sure to carefully review all contract documents before you sign off. If a contract does not describe an item in specific terms, you should not expect the item to be the best product available. And just as important - is what a contract does not say. Specifically if your contract does not indicate that you are getting framed openings and garage doors - then you are NOT going to get framed openings and garage doors.

Do not sign a contract or agree to purchase a building before you have confirmed that your building will satisfy the requirements of your local building official and YOURSELF. Do not allow a salesman to pressure you into a "panic buy." A "panic buy" is when a customer is pressured into making a purchase to "lock-in" a "so-called" special price. Brokers are notorious for telling customers they could lose an opportunity to get the "deal of a lifetime" if they don't commit to the order right away. Beware of people who urge you to sign a contract before you have made your mind up on exactly what you want.

Understand that making changes after the sale will cost you money. Once the design is completed it will cost money to make changes. If an order is in fabrication - and requires modifications due to customer demands - the entire process has to be stopped, pulled off-line and inventoried. Once the inventory of completed items is confirmed, it's back to the drawing board. You will be responsible for extra time required to re-design the project and all other associated expenses.

Install your building components as specified by the drawings. Seldom do manufacturers use the same design practices and therefore your erection drawings and installation documents are the correct description of the building. Please read and follow the drawing descriptions carefully. An erection manual offers important general guidelines and the proper procedures for erecting a steel building safely. You, your erector and all jobsite crew need to understand and utilize OSHA and all other safety guidelines.

Frame Features

Connection Clips - Specially fabricated clips are designed to securely connect structural components. Many companies supply only blank plates that must be cut, drilled and/or welded to components before assembly can begin. In some cases it may require many hours of work to connect required clips. Metal Building Depot details and supplies each clip and placement to every building manufactured. We factory weld all clips onto rigid frames and guarantee the correct placement of all component connections. Don't waste your time and money attaching clips that should have been factory located.

Structural Bracing - Most buildings under 60' have sufficient diaphragm action or "panel shear" that provides all the bracing needed to stabilize the building. In some cases of high winds, seismic or snow loads may cause more stress than panel shear can handle, so additional reinforcement may be required. In these extreme cases we will employ the use of X bracing to reinforce the frame. In situations where X bracing cannot be used a wind column is an excellent addition to strengthen a vertical rigid frame column. A portal frame is sometimes used in extreme load circumstances. Portal frames are fairly expensive and only necessary in rare circumstances.

Steel Building Manufacturers

Finding a bona fide steel building manufacturer is sometimes difficult. Everywhere you look there seems to be someone selling a "factory clearance" or "cancelled order" buildings. Well 99% of it is a farce. There are too many brokers and re-sellers out there to count. What they want is your deposit. You can fight with them about the actual details later. They just want the deposit. Take advantage of all the resources available to you. Try locating the manufacturer to match your expectations. This may be slightly more time consuming, but well worth it when your new steel building is delivered exactly to your specifications.

Getting multiple bids for any kind of service is key. Ask several steel building manufacturers to quote your building and explain precisely by line item what your price includes. You can turn to the Internet to seek out steel building manufacturers, but be warned. You will encounter many wolves in sheep's clothing. Contact the Better Business Bureau, or other affiliations to ensure a company has a good track record. Form a list of qualified steel building manufacturers, do your research and you can gauge which manufacturers you prefer to deal with. Once your bids are returned to you, the selection process should be easy to complete. You can choose to follow up with the most qualified companies to purchase your metal building or to ask additional questions.

Before you Buy

Do you know the company you're doing business with? Is the supplier a member of the Better Business Bureau? Do they have a record of dealing honestly? Can they refer you to satisfied customers? Is the physical address to the company available? Can you visit them at their offices? Are they a real company with a history of quality manufacturing? Are they Active Members of the AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) Do they post any affiliation with any steel building association? Do you know what you are paying for? Does the steel building contract give line-item prices? Will you receive comprehensive set of erection plans? Are you getting written 30-year paint and 25-year Galvalume Plus® warranties? Does the contract specify 26 gauge panels? Does their roof panels include a "purlin bearing" leg? Does the roof system have an Underwriters Laboratories Class 90 rating? Are you being supplied with premium fasteners with a lifetime red-rust warranty? Will your steel building have a sculptured trim package? Are all the clips welded to primary structural components? Are the framed openings factory located? Does the supplier have the ability to engineer a custom design? Will you receive an 80+ page fully illustrated erection manual? Does the supplier have an in-house customer service department? Does the supplier actually manufacture what they sell? Do they process and produce all their drawings in-house? Do they ask you to sign a contract and pay a deposit before you know the total cost?

Our Commitment to Quality

Our vision is to remain the industry leader through innovative, and professionally based services and to provide trusted and practical steel building solutions at competitive prices. Years of research and development, engineering input, computer programming and superior web design have allowed us to provide to you, the most innovative, unparalleled on-line design and pricing system in the world. Organizations large and small look to us for innovative solutions - we provide you with effective solutions to manage costs and promote customer satisfaction with every building. Within the industry, we stand alone in our innovation of design and engineering procedures and our ongoing commitment to customer service. The result? Affordability and an unprecedented ability to meet your specific needs.

Independence and Integrity: How We Conduct Our Business - What we do is important, but equally important is how we do it. From the beginning, we have taken the view that keeping up with our customer's demands requires objectivity, fairness, open processes, an attitude of respect, and adherence to best design and engineering practices. And, in part because we have always been independently owned, these core values remain at the center of our business ethic. In short, we believe integrity and excellence go hand in hand and our autonomy gives us the necessary freedom to put that belief into practice every day.

Knowledge and Innovation: Why We Excel: Year after year, we pursue a rigorous agenda of pertinent, unbiased research, probing the complexities of steel design. As an independent structural fabricator, we have no hidden agenda, no conflicts of interest, and no outside "dealer network" to protect. We objectively analyze patterns of our competitor's sales tactics, and routinely adjust pricing based on current market values. We seek to understand the causes of rising costs. And, most importantly, we use what we learn as the springboard for innovation. Staying in the "technological" front enables us to develop practical, workable strategies that will assure our continued success.

Pricing Excellence: What True Customer Service Means to Us - We think our customers should derive a real benefit from our online "real time" pricing program. That's why we define great service as giving customers what they most need and want. Knowledge empowers we help customers better manage their own needs, make wiser choices and lower their costs. We understand the importance of convenience too, so we made this automated service available to you at your leisure, day in and day out. We make quoting a steel building easy through our on-line pricing system. Make no mistake about it; our system is light-years beyond anything on the market today. Building on customer input, we created a broad range of user-friendly Internet tools that deliver the unprecedented ability to self-manage the design, pricing and purchasing of a new steel building. These tools include online member areas, building-specific accessory information, lease and finance information, our proprietary password protected quote storage, and a customized secure purchase area with multiple deposit payment options including credit card, personal check, and finance options.

Quality Products: Why We Put Structural Integrity First - The reason is simple: Your safety is our highest priority. Nothing illustrates our fundamental commitment to structural integrity and quality building design more clearly than our own proprietary design system. For example, we never consider any design until it has been demonstrated on the strength of clear and convincing scientific evidence to be safe and structurally sound. While cost is an important consideration, we consider the price of a building only after its structural merit has been established. You can be sure that we build our structures around the most advanced engineering practices.

Special Order Buildings: How We Deliver Results - Quality planning planning that begins anew with each customer makes all the difference. Our design specialists know that each customer presents unique circumstances and challenges. So we customize each plan, taking into account all the variables considering the implications from every angle. We also help take the guesswork out of decision-making. Using customer-specific data, our building design team can model results based on past experience and current available options so customer decisions are always well informed. The result is a collaborative solution fine-tuned to address both the customer's need to manage costs and design considerations.