When you’re shopping for a steel building, you likely come across the terms “red iron” and “cold-rolled” or “cold-formed.” These nuances can be a bit confusing and make it complicated for you to decide what is best for you. Ultimately, to make a long story short, cold-formed steel structures are not as strong as “red iron” buildings and have size limitations.
Cold-rolled or Cold-formed steel buildings use lighter C or Z-shaped members and are manufactured from sheet metal at room temperature. Often, their lighter weight components allow for a bit easier on-site assembly without the need for heavy machinery. That said, they do have their drawbacks. They are typically only good for spans to aroudn 40 feet and heights up to 20 feet. In addition, they most often use simple roof shapes.
Without a doubt, a cold-formed steel building can work great for certain scenarios. That said, for heavier-duty projects, more flexibility in customization, and a stronger, more dependable building, “red iron” buildings like we manufacture here at Great Western are the best solution.
Red Iron steel refers to heavy-duty hot-rolled structural steel. The term comes from the fact that, often, these components are coated in a red-tinted iron-oxide primer to help prevent rust and corrosion. This is what we manufacture here at Great Western. However, our iron-oxide primer is a dark gray color because we like the way it accents the galvanized steel secondary framing (girts and purlins). Our building components are cut from high-strength hot-rolled steel with a plasma cutter and fed through a beam welder to create the major structural components. From there, our welding team installs clips and brackets for quick assembly.
Though we can see the value in cold-formed steel buildings, we often still recommend going with a red iron building even for smaller projects like backyard shops, personal garages, and other projects. Each and every one of our pre-engineered metal buildings is designed specifically to be suited to the customer’s needs, specifications, and location. This way, you can be confident you’re getting the perfect building and that it’ll withstand your local elements. Moreover, wedeliver our buildings with a lifetime structural warranty to give you the ultimate peace of mind, no matter how big or small your project is.
Looking for a place to start? Our sales team is here to help get you exactly what you need. Whether you’re building a shop, garage, a full-blown residence, or a storage or agricultural building, our steel building kits are your perfect solution. Each one is designed and engineered to meet not only your needs, but your local coding requirements so that you can get the job done right, quickly and seamlessly, the first time.
You should receive your estimated quote by email shortly. Please keep in mind that this is just an estimate and does not include snow loads, wind loads, county specific code requirements, delivery or design specific engineering calculations related to the structural soundness of the building.
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