Pole Barns Verses Red Iron Steel
Reader PAUL in GEORGETOWN writes:
“What advantages or disadvantages are there between your pole barns versus the red iron steel barns? The end use is living space and shop.”
Here are some thoughts comparing our fully engineered post frame buildings to red iron (PEMBs – Pre-engineered Metal Buildings):
A PEMB requires wood framing a home inside of a building shell. Huge steel frames must be hidden, wrapped and thermally broken. Wood is an effective insulator and with bookshelf wall girts and raised heel roof trusses can easily be super insulated.
PEMBs tend to work within defined standard dimensions. For pennies per square foot of investment difference, our post frame buildings can be fully customized in width, length, height, complex shapes and roof slopes to exactly meet your wants and needs.
PEMBs require foundation bolts to be precision placed and bolt holes correct, otherwise expect field structural steel cutting, welding or drilling. Post frame is extremely forgiving with no cutting torches or welding required.
PEMBs require you to hire a third-party engineer to design a foundation plan. Our post frame buildings include engineered foundation plans. PEMBs require significantly more concrete for foundations and may require costly reinforcement requirements in slabs on grade.
Our post frame buildings allow for easy application of alternative roofing materials (shingles and even tile!) as well as a plethora of siding options. If you have seen it on any other structural system, we can do it in post frame.
Our building shells can be erected without having to wait upon a slab-on-grade to be poured. They can easily be built on full, partial, or walkout basement, or have crawl spaces incorporated. These can include precast or poured concrete, ICFs, even permanent wood foundations.
Post frame lends itself well to DIY assembly, unlike PEMBs, no heavy lifting equipment is required.
While insects do not eat steel, steel in contact or close to grade can and will rust. All of our pressure preservative treated wood is a minimum UC-4B rated and Code approved for structural in ground use. Not convinced? We can provide your building with ICC-ESR Code approved wet set brackets for mounting columns above ground.
Any fully engineered structural building system will support climactic conditions as indicated on engineer sealed plans. There is no legitimate claim for excess capacity beyond what has been engineer certified. Our post frame buildings can be engineered to withstand design wind speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour and snow loads over 400 pounds per square foot. We can provide designs up to three stories and 40 foot sidewall heights without a need for fire suppression systems (except where such are mandated by law).
PEMBs do shine if you require a clearspan width in excess of 102 feet.
Your Hansen Pole Building is designed for an average physically capable person, who can and will read and follow instructions, to successfully construct your own beautiful building shell (and most of our clients do DIY – saving tens of thousands of dollars). We’ve had clients ranging from septuagenarians to fathers bonding with their teenage daughters erect their own buildings, so chances are – you can as well! Your new building investment includes full multi-page 24” x 36” structural blueprints detailing location and attachment of every piece (as well as suitable for obtaining Building Permits), our industry’s best, fully illustrated, step-by-step installation manual, and unlimited technical support from people who have actually built post frame buildings. Even better – it includes our industry leading Limited Lifetime Structural warranty!
