Metal Barn Buying & Install Guide
Key Metal Barn Applications
Barns have many applications on a farm. Offering the benefits of sanitation and practical convenience for the farmers, barns are an essential component of the farming activities. When the choice of material for barn construction is steel, these benefits seem to multiply even further. Whether it’s protection against water damages and infestation or easy and hassle-free maintenance over the long term, metal barns outperform wood barns any day. Let’s look at some of the key ways in which you can use metal barns:
Agricultural Purpose
Need a clean, safe and dry place to store your agricultural products like crops, fruits, grains, and hay? Metal barn offers the ideal space for this purpose. The metal construction ensures that no matter what the weather looks like, it doesn’t get to your agricultural goods.
Shelter for Livestock
You can use the metal barn as a shelter for your farm animals like horses, mules, hogs, sheep, cattle, poultry, etc. The metal building would provide a hygienic and healthy environment for the animals and would also keep them away from dangers like predator attacks.
Small to Big Storage Needs
Farming equipment, from something as small as hand tools to something as large as tractors, metal barns can house them all. You can build a metal barn of the size that meets your specific needs and have a great customized storage space ready for your equipment.
Roof Style
Millennium Buildings offers three basic roof styles that you can choose from. All these styles will pass the test for structural integrity, but the style that you choose should work effectively for your barn needs and local weather conditions. Learn a little more about each of these styles below and decide what’s best for you.
Regular
Boxed Eave
Vertical
Choosing the Right Size for your needs
LENGTH
As you decide the length for your metal barn, consider the uses that you have in mind for the barn. You may want to keep animals in it. You may want to store sizable equipment in it. The length should be decided on the basis of these basic barn needs. The standard lengths available are 21’, 26’, 31’, and progressively increasing in 5′. You can customize the length of any metal barn that you like from our range. Keep in mind that with any structure its roof will be longer than its base because of a 6 inches overhang on the roof’s ends.
WIDTH
With the width, you need to be clear about the different possible uses for your metal barn and discuss these with our team so that they can give you proper width recommendation. There are 3 kinds of widths that you need to consider with barns, left, center, and right. The width for the right and left sides are usually 12′ each. The center of your barn is the most spacious area offering great space for your various storage needs. The maximum width that we can offer for center building is 30′. Our team would love to answer any questions or resolve any confusion that you may have about barn width measurement.
SIDE HEIGHT
You need to consider three side heights in metal barns. The right and left lean-to heights are same and lie below the center section’s side heights. The lean-to height refers to the distance between the ground and the meeting point of the outside wall and the roof, it does not refer to lean-to’s highest point. Even with the center building of your barn, height refers to the height of the barn’s legs, and not to the height at the building’s peak point. For metal buildings we offer heights from 6′ onward, increasing this number as per the customer requirement.
Steel Gauge Framing
If you’re buying a custom metal barn for the first time, you may get confused in choosing between the 12-gauge steel framing and the 14-gauge steel framing. Here is a little information about these two basic steel framing options to help you understand better.
If you want to buy whatever the industry standard is in steel frame thickness, then 14-gauge framing is your pick. Its diameter measures as 2 ½” x 2 ½”. It is also comparatively more economical and is commonly used in the installation of various metal buildings.
On the other hand, there is the 12-gauge steel framing. Its diameter measures as 2 ¼” x 2 ¼”. A steel framing with lower gauge tends to have higher thickness and strength. As a result, 12-gauge steel framing is going to be more superior to 14-gauge steel framing in terms of sturdiness and wind and snow load ratings. You should go with 12-gauge framing if extreme winds and snowfall are frequent where you live, or if you want to keep the height of your custom metal barn 10′ or more.
While both these framing options have good structural integrity and can even be certified. The right option for you would depend on the weather conditions that your metal barn has to endure. For your information, we do provide extended warranty with the 12-gauge framing.
Certification Considerations
You should ensure if there is a local law or regulation that mandates getting a certification for your metal barn construction by a professional engineer. The benefit of a certified building is that it indicates that its construction has been done in accordance with certain specifications and local building requirements, thus allowing the building to meet defined ratings for snow and wind bearing capacity. Some areas may have the requirement for building certification, while some may not. Local weather conditions play an important role in determining whether the certification will be needed or not. Building certification is likely to become necessary if the area is prone to intense rainfall, heavy winds, extreme snowfall, etc.
Confirm with your local planning dept. whether the need for certification exists for your metal barn construction. If the need does exist, we will build and install your metal barn according to the certification criteria. Additionally, you will need to produce a copy of the barn’s blueprints to the inspection team for a formal evaluation. Our team can guide you along in this process as well.
Some basic barn installation requirements that you should take care of anyway are leveling of the ground base and ensuring that the width and length of poured slab is enough to provide right support to the structure.
Additional Options
Certified v. non-certified buildings
When it comes to installing barns with Millennium Buildings, know that you will have plenty of options at your disposal for customizing the building. There could be certain additional things that you may need to include in your barn for it to look and feel complete. Here is a list of the extensive options using which you can enhance your barn.
Walk-in Doors – Walk-in doors make accessing the barn much easier and convenient. You can add these when you decide to enclose your metal barn for a cozier space. Having one or two of these doors installed into any of the sections of the barn is enough to guarantee quick access to all the things kept and stored inside the barn. Our walk-in doors come in a white finish, and can be ordered with or without a window.
Garage Doors – Installing a garage door in your barn can come handy if you plan to store large equipment or vehicles like tractors in the barn. Certain things that you need to be clear about at the time of garage door installation are as follows: checking if electricity will be available, considering the possibility of future installation of garage door if not in the present, and ensuring that the barn has enough height to accommodate the garage door now or later. We can install a garage door in your barn on the sides, the end, or the front. Learn about the various options available in garage doors for your location from our customer services team.
Windows – Make room for a little more daylight and fresh air in your barn with some windows. We can install windows in any section of your metal barn. Find out the different sizes of windows that we offer in your area by speaking to our customer services team.
Panels – Panels are the most ideal custom addition to consider when you want to cover up the sides of an open side barn. We can add panels to enclose any side(s) of the barn for a customized look.
Gable Ends – If you want to hide the braces and frame on the open lean-to sides, gable ends may just do the trick. In addition to this, they also offer extra framing support and strength, and as a result enhanced protection for your goods and vehicles stored inside the barn. Thus, adding gable ends to your metal barn can be helpful in two ways. Firstly, it will give a major boost to the overall look of your barn. Secondly, it will lend the barn structure additional support against rough climate. This is because the gable helps in seamlessly covering up the topmost portion of the barn. No matter what metal barn you choose from our collection, you can enhance the same with gable ends. Even though you can add these to your barn post installation too, adding them at the time of installation itself will save you the extra money that would otherwise be spent in installing the gable ends separately.
Extra Bows and Trusses – You can install additional bows and trusses in your metal barn structure for lending it greater strength. Your barn could use this extra boost in strength if it’s likely to bear the brunt of extreme climate conditions. We can add these structural supports on the inside of the roof for more stability and strength, and on the barn sides for more stability and support. Barns that have width up to 24′ can go for a bow installation, and barns that have width greater than 24′ can go for a truss installation.
J-Trim – Custom addition of J-trim to the panel edges is a good way to enhance the appearance of your barn. This is also an important feature to add to the barn from the point of view of safety. If you are keeping a section or a side of your barn open, then you need the additional touch of protection and safety that J-trim tends to provide by covering the panel edges. Not to mention, J-trim also renders a finished look to the structure.
Anchors – Selecting the right anchors for your custom metal barn is crucial and should be done taking into account the type of barn installation that you have. This is so that the anchors can best serve the building in remaining firmly grounded no matter what weather conditions it is subjected to. If you need advice on choosing the apt anchors for your metal barn, get in touch with our customer services team for a consultation.
Colors
we offer 16 colors to customize your Barn
Call our customer service representatives to see what colors are available in your area. You can customize the color of the roof, sides, and trim of your structure. Click on the colors for a closer look!
Installation and Site Prep for Workshops
Preparing the Base
The base is the ground area where the installation of your custom metal barn will take place. This base needs to be properly leveled. If the building is to be certified, then this leveling should be done to within 3 inches front to back and side to side. Not leveling out the base already for our installation team could result in hold-up in the installation work, and may even possibly incur you a restocking fee.
Concrete Pads
Other than Florida, in all other states the concrete pad should measure the same as the building frame. In Florida, though, only the width of the two would vary slightly; the concrete pad needs to have a 3/4 inch more width than the building frames width. Also, concrete pads need to have a perfect square shape. The building and zoning departments of different areas will have different regulations for the concrete pads depending on factors like climate, among other things. As a metal barn buyer, you need to understand these requirements from your own local departments.
Barn Delivery and Installation Process
Once you have decided on the barn design that you want to install, we will schedule a day and time to complete the barn installation. Before our team arrives, kindly ensure that the base for the planned barn is all cleaned up and leveled out, and thus ready for the process of installation. As per the planned schedule, we will come prepared with everything necessary for the barn installation. Our team will take care of fixing the anchors and putting together the entire structure. If there is a requirement of certification for your metal barn, do inform us at the earliest so that we can come prepared to conduct the installation accordingly and also provide you with the barn blueprints in time.
Site Prep Checklist
- The area on which the barn has to be installed needs to be clear of all dirt and debris.
- The ground has to be leveled properly, keeping in mind to level the ground to within 3 inches front to back and side to side. If the ground is not leveled and ready at the time of installation, our team can offer to prepare the ground for you at extra charges.
- You have to keep the installation site easily accessible for our team. If the distance is too much between the site and the installation truck, it will make it that much harder and more time-consuming for our team to finish the installation. This could also incur you surcharges.
Workshop FAQ’s
What types of custom changes can I make in my metal barn?
When it comes to customizing your metal barn, there are several choices available to you. You can select the size, barn style, and roof style that work best for your needs. You can choose colors of your liking. You can add custom windows and doors to the barn. Please note that availability of color options depends on the area. Our customer services team will let you know the colors that are available for where you live.
Can I go with a standard barn installation for now, and customize it later?
Yes, with Millennium Buildings you can customize your barn any time you want even after the installation is complete. For instance, if a partially enclosed metal barn is what you need at the moment you can go ahead with that. If at some point later you feel the need to enclose the barn, we’ll be here to make that happen. Just know that when you add new items to your barn post installation, you are charged for the new item’s price as well as a service fee for the additional trip that our team has to make for installing the new item.
If you already do have an idea about what you may like to add to the metal barn in future, then kindly share your thoughts with our team. This will allow them to plan the barn installation with a consideration for the additions that are likely to take place later and to recommend you the best, cost-effective ways to go about these custom enhancements.
What colors can I choose from for my custom metal barn?
Millennium Buildings works in collaboration with local manufacturers for your metal barn preparation and installation. Since each manufacturer will have different color options to offer, the availability of colors will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and thus region to region. Talk to our sales team to find out the color options offered in your region.
Should I add insulation to my metal barn?
Insulating your custom metal barn is a wise choice that will ensure greater protection for the items, machinery, vehicles, livestock, or anything else that you plan to store inside the barn. Insulation in your enclosed barn will keep sweating, condensation, and cold weather at bay. For adding insulation from heat and cold to the metal barn built by us, we can do a bubble installation. Having an R-value of 4.3, our provided insulation is on a par with the thermal resistance standard that’s applicable for construction and buildings. This insulation will keep maximum heat within the barn and prevent condensation.
What is the maximum width that you offer in barns?
The maximum width that we offer in barns is 54′, where the center width is 30′ and width of each of the sides is 12′. This structural design has been set to ensure spaciousness as well as excellent strength and robustness for the barn. The length and height of the barn can be customized by you. If you want to opt for the maximum barn width of 54′, then our team will need a bit of assistance from your side in the form of some equipment. Because our team doesn’t carry a lift to the installation site, you’ll need to arrange a suitable method for lifting the roof.
What if I want my barn to have electricity and running water?
The amenities of electricity and running water can be really useful to have inside your metal barn. Our team does not offer any electric or plumbing related services at the time of barn installation. This is something that you will need to take care of on your end. You should discuss all your plumbing related requirements, like installing a bathroom in the barn, with your utility service provider as soon as possible so that all the pipe laying work can be done before the asphalt or concrete slab is poured. For facilitating enough exterior and interior lighting in your barn, discuss with your electrician.
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