Gutters & Downspouts

These are generally not required on steel buildings. However, use of these components often enhances the appearance of a building, control drip, splash and drainage.

Gutters and downspouts are an optional accessory that serves as trim. Gutters dramatically improve the appearance of buildings, and we recommend them for most building applications. Downspouts control the water falling from the roof, preventing the water from splashing up on the sides of the building.

On every Metal Building Depot building, die-formed ridge caps are used to cover the peak opening in the center ridge of the building. Some sellers provide a ridge roll cover that must be sealed with closures. Installing ridge roll trim is not an easy task. Over time the exposed foam closures deteriorate and there can be potential leak problems. Our die-formed ridge caps match the panel profile perfectly and are formed to fit the pitch of the roof. Die-formed ridge caps create an almost seamless transition across the roof.

Visible Condensation

To effectively control visible condensation, it is necessary to reduce the cold surface areas where condensation may occur. It is also important to minimize the air moisture content within a building through the use of properly designed ventilating systems.

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.

Constructing a Large Steel Building

Have you considered all of your steel building options? There are many types of standard buildings to choose from, but they are not the only option. Buildings can be finished with a multitude of options and accessories. Your land and location will control some of the parameters of the kind of structure you need. Aside from these factors you can make the choices based on your preferences. Windows, skylights and panel styles can be individually selected to comprise a personal metal building kit.

Pre-engineered metal building plans are just the starting point from which you can select options and accessories. Configuring your building may sound like a small deal, but it determines the type building you will purchase. Not every large steel building is intended to be a large shop. When you work with the manufacturer you can customize a structure with a polished look and feel. Regard your steel metal building as a low cost alternative to traditional construction.

Heat Transfer

Effectively controlling temperature in a steel building requires insulation to be present along exterior walls and roof. When a temperature differential is present in an enclosed steel building, heat will work from warmer areas to colder areas until the temperature in the building has stabilized. At the point of thermal stabilization, the cooler (and heavier) air will be present at lower elevations and warmer air will be present at the roofline. The function of insulation is to help stabilize air temperature at more desirable levels. When it is hot outside, preventing heat from transferring into the building is the goal, and of course in the winter we want heat to remain inside.

Heat transfer occurs in three ways:

Conduction : Occurs in a solid or liquid when heat from one object is transferred by touch to another object. An example of this occurs when a pot on a stove will heat up by conductive heat transfer from an electric coil.

Convection : Occurs with the physical movement of air. There are two types of convectional heat movement. The first is natural, where hot air rises displacing the cold air and moving it down. The second type is forced or mechanical convection. This occurs when an object, like a fan, physically moves or "forces" the air to move.

Radiation : Occurs when an object is warmer or hotter than the air around it. For example, the sun, which is hotter than everything around it, radiates heat waves that travel through the air and is either absorbed by or reflected by the surface it comes in contact with.