Pre-Engineered Doesn’t Mean Someone Already Designed Your Building
The name throws people off.
When prospective customers hear “pre-engineered,” they sometimes picture a building that’s already been designed. There might be several sizes to choose from, a few different layouts, and some options for doors, colors, or finishes.
Essentially, a building package you can customize to a point.
That’s not how pre-engineered metal buildings work.
With a pre-engineered metal building (PEMB), the engineering starts with your particular project.
Where will it be built? What will you use it for? What does the structure need to support? What environmental conditions will it face?
Those answers help determine how the building is designed.
The engineering comes before construction, not before anyone knows what you need.
Your PEMB Starts With Questions, Not a Catalog
One of the first things we need to understand isn’t simply how large you want the building to be.
It’s what you plan to do with it.
A 50-by-100 building can serve a lot of different purposes. But knowing the dimensions doesn’t tell an engineer how many people will occupy it, what equipment it needs to support, what kinds of vehicles may enter it, or what forces it will encounter at the site.
That’s why the engineering process considers much more than length, width, and height.
Depending on the project, that can include:
- Wind speed
- Snow and rain loads
- Seismic requirements
- Soil conditions
- Live and collateral loads
- Exposure
- Heating and insulation
- Intended use and occupancy
- Doors, windows, and other openings
- Roof-mounted and suspended equipment
Those details help turn an idea for a building into a structure engineered for its actual job.
Two Identical Buildings May Not Actually Be the Same Building
Let’s say two owners want buildings with the same dimensions, layout, and appearance.
Put those buildings in different locations, and the engineering may need to change.
Wind conditions may be different. Soil may be different. Snow and rain loads can change. Seismic requirements can change. Applicable codes can change.
Here in Oklahoma, that’s especially important.
Severe wind is an obvious consideration, but seismic activity can be easy to overlook. From 2014 through 2017, Oklahoma actually experienced a higher rate of magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes than California.
The point isn’t that one particular environmental condition determines the design of every Oklahoma building.
It’s that the conditions surrounding a building matter.
We’ve encountered that distinction firsthand. On one past project, an existing building was going to be dismantled and moved to another location. Physically relocating the structure was possible. Simply rebuilding it at the new site for a different use wasn’t.
The requirements had changed.
A building that worked in one place couldn’t automatically become the right building somewhere else.
What Happens Inside Matters Just as Much
The site is only one side of the equation.
How you plan to use the building can change the engineering, too.
Consider something as straightforward as the floor. If semis or RVs will routinely enter the building, the concrete and reinforcement may need to accommodate those loads.
Look up, and the same principle applies.
Will HVAC units sit on the roof? Will the structure support fire suppression, lighting, ceilings, garage doors, or other equipment? Those loads don’t simply appear after construction. They need to be considered as part of the building.
Occupancy matters as well.
A horse barn designed for a few people and animals is a very different use from a church that may bring hundreds of people into the same amount of space every week.
Even if the building looks perfectly sturdy, changing its use can introduce an entirely different set of requirements.
That’s why one of the most important questions we can ask early in the process is also one of the simplest:
What are you going to do with this building?
Custom Metal Buildings Are Customized Below the Surface
When people picture custom metal buildings, they often think about the features they can see.
Size. Roofline. Doors. Exterior finishes. Interior space.
A PEMB can certainly accommodate those kinds of choices. But some of its most important customization isn’t immediately visible.
Take exterior materials.
Sheet metal and a large glass wall don’t respond to structural movement in the same way. If a design incorporates a significant amount of glass, the structure needs to account for it. If masonry is added to the exterior, its additional weight needs to be considered.
Openings also affect how forces act on the building. Equipment placed on the roof adds load. Components suspended from the structure add more.
Even the anchor bolts securing the building to its foundation are part of the larger engineering picture.
That’s why calling a PEMB a custom metal building isn’t simply a reference to appearance.
The structure itself is customized.
More Than One Set of Eyes Goes Into the Design
A properly designed commercial building also isn’t the product of one person making a few calculations.
Structural engineers may evaluate different aspects of the project. Architects may be involved in developing the overall design. Contractors and trades bring practical construction considerations into the conversation.
Sometimes those priorities don’t immediately agree.
An architectural feature can look great on paper but create a practical problem once the structural or construction requirements are considered. That’s when the team has to work through the details and find the balance between what the owner wants the building to look like and what it needs to do.
That coordination happens before the project becomes steel in the air.
It’s another reason we want to understand as much as possible about the building early.
So Why Not Just Buy an Engineered Building Package?
It’s a fair question, especially when price enters the conversation.
You may find a metal building package based on a design that has already been engineered and structurally certified. Within the parameters of that design, you have a set of available options.
For some applications, that may be all that’s needed.
But that’s different from a pre-engineered metal building designed around your particular project.
With a PEMB, we’re starting with your site, use, requirements, and goals. Engineers use that information to determine what your building needs rather than asking your project to fit within an existing design.
That distinction can also explain some of the difference in upfront cost.
You’re paying for more than steel and components.
You’re paying for a building engineered for where you’re putting it and what you’re asking it to do.
The Right Metal Building Begins With the Right Information
When someone calls Rigid Building Group looking for a metal building, we don’t want to sell them a box.
We want to understand what they need to build.
Sometimes that means asking questions a client may not have realized would affect the building at all. That’s part of the process.
A pre-engineered building isn’t one-size-fits-all. That’s the point.
The site, use, loads, features, and goals of the project all help shape the finished structure. When those factors are considered from the beginning, you aren’t simply choosing a building.
You’re designing the building your project actually requires.
That’s what “pre-engineered” means to us.