What are the Advantages of Prefab Steel Building Structures?

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With prefab buildings which use steel that’s been pre-engineered to deliver the many advantages that buyers expect, there aren’t many surprises. With an older building, you don’t know what you’re going to get when you look deeper into every nook and cranny. It could have dry rot or a mildew or mold build-up that threatens the health of workers. There are simply more unknowable aspects with bricks and mortar or wooden building structures to be concerned about.

Let’s look at some of the advantages of prefab steel buildings to see how they stack up.

Durability & Reliability

The multi-decade life of a quality steel structure compares well to other type of buildings. Whether needing to hold up to earthquakes, occasional tremors, or strong winds, steel is designed from the ground up to handle freak weather conditions well. These steel structures are produced with care and craftmanship. Take the prefab buildings at Armstrong Steel as an example. Armstrong don’t use an assembly line and have each building designed by a team of designers to ensure the final product is going to last. Whilst steel is already extremely durable, having it developed with craftmanship helps to ensure it will be a worthwhile investment.

Unlike with wooden buildings, steel doesn’t suffer from termite or other damage. It also won’t rot over time from dampness, see timbers splinter in half and is highly resistant to catching fire too. To protect against the risk of rust, steel parts often have a protective coating applied like Galvalume which covers the metal but still allows for colored paint over the top without losing its protective qualities.

Strength & Adaptability

Steel structures provide a panel side wall design that can be painted up into different colors or made to resemble brickwork from a distance too. The roof panels perform the same job as roof tiles made from other materials, but they won’t fall off during high wind speeds and the roof stays on to ensure valuables inside the building are undamaged. Steel is strong, yet it’s still lighter than other building materials such as stone.

The interior of a structure is customizable to the needs of the company occupying the building with offices, open areas and workshops just some of the options available when designing the interior floor plan.

Eco-Friendly

You might not realize this, but steel is a recyclable material. Many times, the steel used in new buildings was used in other structures before, has been recycled and recreated to be suitable for use with a modern new build. So, there’s no risk that a temporary steel structure will become an eye-sore in the future or scrap metal lying in a landfill because that’s simply not the case at all.

Unlike other substances, steel doesn’t emit fumes that can be toxic during its use, so there’s no risk to construction workers. Should a fire breakout in the building, a steel structure doesn’t create fumes which prevent easy breathing during an evacuation. Therefore, steel buildings are both green and safer to occupy in many cases than ones constructed using other materials.

Cheaper During Use

Due to the better insulation and closer fittings between doors and door frames, and windows and window frames, less heating and cooling is lost. Because of this, the cost of operating an HVAC system is substantially lower with a steel structure. Heat also doesn’t pool near the roof, so heating and cooling is more evenly spread and regulated better too.

Prefab steel structures are not suitable for every purpose. There are still some buildings that are better as a bricks and mortar construction, however, these types of buildings are becoming fewer by the day. Steel fabrication technologies continue to improve making other types of building materials less relevant as time marches on.