COMMERCIAL OFFICES

Your place of business should and can be more than just a place to work. It should reflect your company's image and be no less comfortable, functional or attractive than your living environment. Entry-ways and lighting, interior wall placement, and location of restrooms are as important in your office building as they are in your own home. Properly planned, your facility will serve your needs for many years to come, and you will avoid future changes or costly remodeling.

Modern ceiling and interior wall systems are very easily adapted to our manufactured building components using standard methods. For instance, perimeter sheet rock walls may be installed by simply attaching metal furring strips (hat channel) to the secondary wall framing members (girts). Similarly, acoustic panel or dry-wall ceilings may be installed by simply wrapping the ceiling suspension wires around the secondary roof framing members (purlins). Additionally, port-a-wall systems may be installed as needed throughout the structure.

Additional loads from heating and air conditioning systems, dropped ceilings, electrical conduit and lighting fixtures, or large mechanical sprinkler systems can be accommodated easily at your request with minimal cost, assuring a full roof-load certification.

The building components may represent a small percentage of the total cost of your office budget. Therefore, we are careful to ensure that the main structural components we provide will be reliable, helping to protect your investment against any water seepage, leaks or storm damage that can deteriorate your office complex.

When selecting the manufacturer of your building components, careful consideration must be given to both function and price. Your dealer will encourage you to have an architect review all aspects of your building plan, including lighting requirements, window heights, storage space, carpet wear ability, entrances, landscaping, parking and signage, to ensure you of a facility that will maintain its value and be a source of pride for years to come.

On The Farm

I don't know of any farm operation that could get buy without barns for equipment storage, feed storage or any other general warehousing needs. Many older farms are now removing old wooden structures and replacing their old buildings with new steel structures. While the old antique tractor may look good in front of the old barn, many are weary of storing precious items in an old rotten structure. Steel is stronger, straighter and will last eons longer than wood. In a home, wood is fine. Houses are designed so that the wooden structural components do not have direct exposure to the elements, but on the farm it is often hard to prevent the outside from coming into the barn.

Base Condition

Every metal building has some type of base connection along the building perimeter, allowing the connection of sheeting. This "base condition" determines exactly how the panels connect to the foundation. To prevent water and pests from entering the building at the base, panels extend below the finished floor of the building. Online design and pricing systems allows users to choose from a number of different base options.

Standard Base Angle - Our system defaults to a standard base angle condition. This condition consists of a single angle member, attached to both the wall sheets and the slab. Please note that the standard base condition requires that the slab be formed with a 1½" sheet notch to allow the sheets to extend below the top of the slab.

Deluxe Trim - Deluxe base trim is another option for buildings with concrete slab foundations. Deluxe base trim combines base angle and trim into one piece, providing all the benefits of base trim and base angle. Deluxe base trim is only available in burnished slate color.

Base Girt - The base girt option is designed for buildings that sit on piers rather than a full slab. A base girt system does not rest on or attach to the foundation. The base girt attaches to clips on the columns about 6" above the foundation. The base girt provides a great connection for liner panel.

Base Channel - The Base channel is a "cee" shaped section that runs the perimeter of the building connected to the floor. It is most commonly used when a liner panel, or interior wall, is going to be installed. The "cee" section provides a pre-positioned connection point for inside panels. This approach requires a sheet notch in the slab (for an alternative, see the combination of base channel and base trim below).

Calculated Thermal Values

Basically it is the reciprocal of the calculated U-Value. By definition it is the summation of all the R-Values for each of the building's components. This method of calculation does not consider the thermal short circuit effect of structural members, fastener population or the compression of the insulation at its structural members. It should also be noted that this type of calculation often indicates heat loss values for building envelopes that are lower than those actually found in the finished structure.

Panel Options

Color or Galvalume - Our online system includes both Galvalume Plus® and SMP Colors. For a small price increase you can add a colored roof. Our standard colored panels consist of a Galvalume® sheet that has been primed and coated with Silicon Modified Polyester (SMP) paint. Both panel types of panel are very tough, and both our Galvalume Plus® warranty and our paint warranty run for 25 and 30 years respectively. The Galvalume Plus® panels cost less, but the painted panels give your steel building a more refined look.

Color and Roof Pitch - When considering color over Galvalume, be sure to take the roof pitch into account. Higher-pitched roofs are more noticeable, but with a low-pitched roof very little of the roof can be seen.