07 Oct Why Should I Choose Steel to Meet My Building Needs?
Why should you choose a building made of steel? There are so many reasons! Let’s look at all of the advantages steel has to offer, one by one:
Strength
Steel has the highest strength/weight ratio of any common building material. A steel structure can be much lighter that a concrete structure, even when they are both designed to bear the same load. Steel also has high tensile strength, meaning that it is particularly resistant to tension—being elongated or pulled apart.
Plus, the components of a steel structure are assembled using screws and bolts, which make the connections much stronger than those in wooden buildings which are normally held together with nails.
Durability
Unlike wood, steel won’t crack, rot, split, or warp or expand and contract because of fluctuations in temperature or humidity. Steel is just as resilient in the Artic as it is in the tropics. Steel beams are inorganic, meaning that they won’t decay over time or require replacement because they are found to host mold, fungi, or termites, as is the case with lumber.
Safety
Steel is a noncombustible material. It won’t feed a fire. Steel is also capable of withstanding traumatic natural events such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Since steel can bend without breaking, it is preferable to masonry or concrete in seismically-active zones. And steel buildings have been shown to withstand hurricane-force winds reaching up to 170 miles per hour!
Quality and Consistency
Since steel is forged in a mill according to exacting standards, it is less likely to be plagued by inconsistencies than an organic material such as wood. Plus, the components of prefabricated steel structures, like those made by Matador, are designed and crafted under controlled conditions before they are brought to the building site. This means that the steel building blocks of these structures are engineered with precision and undergo stringent quality control inspections before they even leave the facility where they are made.
Versatility and Adaptability
Steel buildings can be designed to meet a vast array of size and shape requirements. This includes small sheds for home use, large industrial facilities, and everything in between! And because the pieces of a steel building fit together like the parts of an erector set, you can easily modify your steel structure to accommodate an add-on in case you want to expand your building either vertically or horizontally. Prefabricated steel also puts you at an advantage if you must repurpose your building or update it so that it will conform to stricter codes or regulations.
Quick and Orderly Assembly
If you order a steel building kit from Matador, you can prepare your site and pour your structure’s foundation while we engineer the parts. Your ability to do the on-site prep work while we craft your kit can help cut down on your overall construction time dramatically. When your building’s components arrive at your site, you will be ready to start erecting the structure right away. You just follow the design and the directions—there’s no guesswork with prefabricated steel buildings. There’s no need to weld any of the parts; there’s no need to shore up any of the structural beams; and there’s no need to create formwork for any of the components. Plus, steel structures can be erected any time of the year, in nearly any type of weather.
More Usable Space
Since steel has such a high strength/weight ratio, columns supporting steel structures are often smaller than those supporting concrete structures and can be placed father apart. This means that steel structures give you the benefit of more open interior floor space, making them the best choice for buildings such as riding arenas and airplane hangars.
Cost-Effectiveness
Steel is the most cost-effective building material, and you will continue to see benefits long after your initial construction phase is over.
Since your steel building kit is prefabricated to fit together precisely on-site, construction moves more swiftly than it does with other materials. You will see savings in the decreased man-hours you’ll need to expend on erecting your structure. And there’s less down time—the sooner your structure goes up, the sooner your business can move in and start using it. Thanks to steel’s high strength/weight ratio, you will likely have lower foundation costs as well. In addition, a steel construction project site produces less scrap and waste material that will need to be hauled away than a site where lumber is being sawed and sanded.
Plus, there are long-term benefits as well. Your overall maintenance costs will be lower with steel than with other materials. You won’t have to repaint your steel building’s wall panels every few years as is the case with walls made of wood. Since steel is safer than other construction materials, you may be able to save on insurance costs both during the construction phase and during occupancy.
Environmentally-Conscious
Steel is a green building material. Since steel buildings are prefabricated with precision in a closed facility, their building sites produce less waste. Even better than that is the fact that steel is the most recycled material on earth. And steel won’t lose any of its integrity no matter how many times it gets recycled. Contrast this with concrete which can be recycled but has limits on how it can be used in its second life.
Aesthetically Pleasing
You want your building to serve its purpose of course, but it should also look good. One of the many benefits of having a steel building is your ability to personalize it. At Matador, our design engineers will work with you to make sure that you get not only the building you need, but the building you want! Just because it’s functional, doesn’t mean that it can’t also be pleasing to the eye. We can help you with roof design and accessories such as eye-catching vents and trim. And our roof and wall panels come in a vast array of colors. You can mix and match them however you like so that they fit your site, your surroundings, and your vision.
Why should you choose steel? In short, because with steel, the possibilities are virtually limitless!