Choosing a steel building for your new home doesn’t have to mean living in a cookie-cutter box-shaped structure fit for an industrial park. At Great Western, we understand that you want your home to reflect your tastes and personality. That’s why we offer an immense level of customization for everything from the overall building shape and design down to door placement, window placement, and color choice.
Our team is here to work with you and ensure your new building isn’t just a building; it’s your home. From solely residential structures to shared garage space barndominiums, Great Western can design, manufacture, and deliver a metal building kit that is exactly what you want, from homes or barndominiums to backyard workshops and studios for your hobby or profession.
At Great Western, our designers are well-versed in International Building Code (IBC) standards for climate requirements like snow load, wind resistance, and resistance to seismic activity. Furthermore, our team is happy to work with you to ensure that your building is designed in compliance with HOA styling requirements. We’ve designed buildings to support traditional roofing and siding materials, allowing your dream home to become a reality with all the affordability and durability benefits of a metal structure.
Trust Great Western to build the exceptional steel building you need for your new home.
Why Choose a Steel Building for Your Home?
For various reasons, a steel building is advantageous in durability, longevity, and affordability compared to a wooden structure. For one, steel is inherently more robust than wood, so choosing a Great Western building for your home means choosing a long-lasting structure requiring little to no maintenance. We’re so confident in the buildings we design and manufacture that every building we deliver comes with a lifetime structural warranty.
In general, steel is more cost-effective than timber as a building material. The cost savings extend beyond the structure’s initial pricing, too. Our buildings are precisely engineered for a rapid and intuitive erection process. This means less time spent on the job site and less material waste during construction. In addition, our buildings are designed with the DIY-er and first-time builder in mind. We provide our customers with an industry-leading erection manual that is detail-oriented and easy to understand. So, whether you plan to erect the building yourself or hire a contractor, the process is intuitive and rapid. In addition, we offer a 24/7 customer support hotline to field any questions that may arise throughout the design, delivery, and erection process.
Our metal buildings use clear-span framing, which means there are no interior support columns to inhibit space inside the building. So, the possibilities for interior build-out are nearly limitless. In addition, our team can design your building with two or four-foot spacing between the girts and purlins and add hat channels on 16-inch centers for an even more intuitive interior construction process.
We’ve designed buildings with vaulted ceilings, glass roll-up doors to porches, skylights, cupolas, and more. Let our team know what you want, and we’ll work together to create a perfect building design that meets your needs and budget.
How Much Does a Metal Building Cost?
Typically, pricing for one of our buildings starts around $15 to $20 per square foot. However, the base cost can increase depending on climate requirements. Buildings that require additional strength for snow, wind, and seismic activity inherently require more material use in the design. In addition, more complex design features like multi-level roofs and extensive overhangs can increase the overall cost. The price of your building comes down to your location and project specifics.
To start the estimate process, you can use our 3D Building Designer to visualize your project. It allows you to choose size, door and window placements, colors, and much more. Once satisfied with your preliminary design, simply submit it for a free quote. If you’re unsure of where to start with the design, contact us directly. Our team is happy to help get the ball rolling on your design and provide you with an accurate estimate of the cost of your dream home.
Why Choose Great Western?
At Great Western, each building project we complete is built on the back of our core values in designing high-quality American-made buildings that we can stand behind for life. Moreover, we strive to ensure that our customers get the exact building that they want. Our team works with you to create a building that meets the needs of your specific use case, location, and budget. Designed with the DIY-er and first-time builder in mind, Great Western Buildings are affordable and simple to erect. If you run into an issue or have a question, we have a 24/7 construction support hotline to take care of you.
Every Great Western Building comes with a lifetime structural warranty. You can take solace in knowing that our designers leave no stone unturned when it comes to your local codes and climate requirements, no matter what size building you’re in the market for. Our team’s expansive knowledge of our structures and experience in designing buildings for all regions and climates funnel into your building to make it exactly that: YOUR building.
Frequently Asked Questions
I am planning on erecting my building myself, will this void any warranties?
Not at all! Great Western’s metal house and shop kits are designed with DIYers and first-time builders in mind. Our precision-engineered buildings and industry-leading erection manual make it an intuitive process for anyone with basic construction experience. So long as the building is erected correctly, no structural modifications are made to the design, and no building materials are subjected to any damage from misuse, abuse, or improper storage, your warranties are applicable. We provide complete warranty documents with each of our buildings at the time of delivery, and, of course, customers may contact us via our 24/7 support hotline for any clarification or assistance.
We don’t want or can’t have steel siding on our building, what options are available?
We’ve designed buildings for a wide variety of sides and roofing materials to comply with HOA requirements or simply to fulfill customer requests. Our team can engineer your building for wood lap, log, or vinyl siding. In addition, we’ve designed buildings for use with masonry, stucco, and even T1-11. In most cases, HOA restrictions do not restrict roofing materials, but we can engineer buildings to use tile roofs and more. However, it’s worth noting that, in many cases, a simple wainscot or vertical color break is all that is necessary to meet HOA requirements. Simply let our team know what you want or need, and we’ll do our best to accommodate.
We need a construction loan for our steel building home, where do we start?
In most cases, lenders providing a loan for this kind of project need a cost breakdown of the project. This includes a material list and building plans that can be appraised. For this purpose, Great Western will provide you with engineered building drawings. You can use these drawings to obtain estimates for your concrete and dirt work, overall costs for doors and windows, interior architecture, contractor pricing, and more. From there, you’ll be able to provide the overall project cost to your lender for financing approval.
We need to keep the project costs down, what does Great Western recommend?
A simpler structure will always result in cost savings. Complex design features like hipped dormers, multi-level roofs, and extensive overhangs can increase your prices. Of course, the team at Great Western is happy to include these features if they are what you’d like. Simplicity is the key if you’re looking for the most cost-effective solution. Similarly, a great practice to keep overall project costs down is to present your Great Western building design to your architect (if you are using one) before the interior design begins. This way, you’re working within the confines of your already-designed building to prevent costly design additions to your steel building. Ultimately, this practice can save thousands by eliminating extra building materials.
How can we install drywall or another type of finish on the interior of our steel building?
Installing a stud wall of light steel or timber studs does not require any modification to your Great Western building’s design. Simply installing the walls between the building’s girts and purlins within the wall or roof system allows sufficient interior buildout without additional materials from your standard design. Our designers can also outfit your building with girts spaced at either two or four feet with hat channels placed on 16-inch centers for a more straightforward interior finishing experience. This requires us to adjust the roof and wall design to support the extra material, but it’s a simple process that our designers have no problem accommodating. Do keep in mind, though, that this addition will raise the cost of your building.
DESIGN YOUR CUSTOM BUILDING
Great Western’s custom design tool allows you to design, customize, and price the best metal building for your needs. You can also share and print your designs or save them and modify them later.