Are You Considering Using
One Of The Many
Steel Garage Kits ?"

There are a wide variety of steel garage kits to choose from. They range between the most basic shade and shelter prefab garage structures to a truly steel structured building and everywhere in between. We will cover the two most basic of these kits available today as they relate to a residential prefab garage and explain what they consist of.

D.I.Y. Steel Garage Kits

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Your editor's grant the Five-Star rating to Absolute Storage LLC of suburban Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. for offering a superb solution for the do-it-yourselfer wanting to construct a prefab garage using a steel kit. These people are on the ball and thinking of their customers needs.

They offer a very simple, yet sophisticated pre-cut steel kit prefab garage that slips together and can be assembled in one weekend by a husband and wife team. They can claim testimonials from married couples who have done this and are still married. We believe they must be doing something right, so we investigated!

Their prefab steel garage kit consists of lightweight structural steel components fabricated in their factory in Phoenix for the size and style of prefab garage you desire. They have a unique base rail system that bolts to your foundation as a starter, and then you simply follow the assembly guide they provide from there.

Their approach is a slip-joint system where one piece of hollow structural steel slides into the next piece forming a joint of double-thickness. They show some fairly wide spans on their website, so it is safe to say they have mastered lightweight structural steel engineering.

You can put any type of exterior finish on the erected steel frame prefab garage that you desire including brick, stucco, steel panels, wood siding, etc. The interior can finish out just the same as a wood framed prefab garage.

Considering the fact that steel sells by the pound - the steel kits offered by Absolute Storage LLC are of great value due to the engineering using lightweight structural steel tubing for the main frame.

If you are seriously considering a steel kit, then you will want to investigate the product and service that Absolute Storage LLC offers at: www.absoluterv.com .

Apparently, you can have the entire structural steel package delivered to your site, or a nearby local dealer, as they feature projects all across the U.S.A. on their website.

Steel Garage Buildings

If you need a larger prefab garage with high-bay ceilings you should investigate your design concept with the nearest steel building contractor. These building kits are also prefabricated, and consist of what is termed medium-weight structural steel. They are of the post and beam structural family and are usually covered with a metal skin on the exterior.

The vertical loads are generally carried by wide-flange steel columns that have a base plate that matches a bolting pattern in the concrete foundation. After erection of the columns at whatever spacing is required and economical, a similar wide-flange steel beam is bolted atop the columns and delivers the roof load that accumulates between the columns.

The roof rafters often consist of heavy-gauge steel "C" channels that meet at a ridge line. Running perpendicular to the rafters will be steel "Z" channels acting as purlins to attach the metal roof sheathing to. The erection of this type of medium-weight steel structure involves welding some components to others. Often, for lateral bracing between the columns, you will find "X" patterned steel bar with a turnbuckle at their centers.

Crane equipment is necessary to erect these type of steel prefab garage kits which generally places them out of the do-it-yourself category, as the work involved requires special skill and can be very dangerous. Yet, for what you get, these buildings are very economical which is why you see them all across North America.

Your editor's have seen these category of steel prefab garage kits used for race car shops, custom car shops, custom farm-tractor shops, commercial woodworking shops and hobby shops. They fit all category of uses and needs beyond basic shade and shelter.

5 Federal Flags

❖ Testimonials ❖

We have been following your blog and we have found a lot of useful information in it.

Cecil Sibanda
Product Coordinator
Dorman Products, Inc.
Colmar, PA

I was pleased that I was able to easily find the proper tall storage cabinet for my garage. I needed lockable storage to keep my toddler away from sharp tools and solvents that my husband stores. Garagetips-101 solved my problem!

Renee M.

I love the detail in your garage building pages. They helped me understand how to engineer a foundation for a garage we are planning that our building department will approve. I had the inspector go to your pages and review what I was talking about. Now, I am studying the wall framing sections, as we plan to build it ourselves this fall. Thank you so much for the great information.

R.G.,
Des Moines, IA

Great stuff on wall framing. I never really understood the on-and-off spacing concepts for the wall studs until I read your explanations.

Will,
Grand Island, NE

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