From their initial development in the 1960s, steel portal frame buildings have become widely popular across the world. According to building experts, the reason for such widespread popularity is their numerous advantages over other construction materials like timber and concrete. And it pays to look briefly into these advantages before learning its typical applications.

Advantages Of Steel Portal Frame Buildings

Here are five notable advantages of steel portal frame buildings:

• Durability: Steel can outlive both timber and concrete, assuming that they’re all properly maintained. It’s not vulnerable to splits, cracks, insect attacks, rot, and expansion, as is the case with timber. Also, it’s not as porous as concrete, hence not susceptible to mold and mildew.
• High Strength: Steel is denser than both timber and concrete. To carry a given weight, you’ll need less steel than you would timber or concrete. Thus, steel comes with added benefits like lower shipping costs and reduced workforce requirements.
• Less Waste: Steel can be recycled countless times without compromising the engineering properties of the resultant products. Therefore, any scraps arising from the construction of portal frame buildings are still useful. On the other hand, there’s a limit to how many times the wood can be repurposed.
• Fast setup: Steel components are easy to install, thanks to the computer-aided production of bolts and steel plates. Upon arrival at the site, fabricated parts take only a short time to assemble. This is unlike concrete that requires the erection of formwork and several weeks of curing.
• Wider spans: Steel beams can span longer distances than timber and concrete without the need for middle supports. This property allows the construction of steel portal frame buildings with large open spaces up to 36 meters wide.

Do note that all these properties don’t just come automatically. It takes a contractor with vast professional experience and excellent design and building skills to construct a steel structure that stands the test of time. So, as you shop around for contractors, go for reliable ones, like Steelgram Fabrications and others.

Now that you have a clear understanding of the advantages of steel portal frame buildings, it’s time to get into their conventional uses.

“Steel Portal Frame Building from Steelgram Fabrications”

Applications Of Steel Portal Frame Buildings
Generally, steel portal frame buildings are suitable for industrial applications requiring low-rise structures with wide-open spaces. Here are seven practical examples:

1. Vehicle Showrooms

To effectively spread the luxurious and affluent feeling needed in vehicle showrooms, the display areas of the vehicles should have plenty of room around and above them. A portal frame construction can make this possible. Also, there’s a need for wide-open spaces to accommodate the dozens of vehicle enthusiasts showing up at these events. And in addition to that, the spacious sheds allow the vehicles to effortlessly navigate to their select spots for the show.

2. Aircraft Hangers

Some commercial aircraft are as long as 100 meters with a similar-length wingspan and a tail height of up to 20 meters. Therefore, housing them requires a structure with a high ceiling and wide longitudinal and transverse spans to allow the whole plane to slide into its storage area and also leave a small room around for inspection procedures. Luckily, coming up with such an enormous structure is possible with the ever-advancing steel construction technology.

3. Warehouses

Any large retailer needs a significantly big space to store products before selling to customers. Think about those supermarkets that stock hundreds, if not thousands, of products. Steel portal frame constructions allow them to protect their merchandise from weather elements. Also, the warehouse managers can have their offices right within the buildings, in the form of mezzanine floors.

4. Factories

Many factories usually need to house gigantic production equipment and dozens of workers. As such, they need buildings with wide spans and high ceilings. The generous headroom allows for adequate air circulation so that the workers don’t feel suffocated by the hot and stuffy conditions. It also helps the managers oversee the entire production chain in one glance, and thus, be able to operate more efficiently.

5. Indoor Sports Arena

Games like table tennis, archery, darts, martial arts, and boxing don’t usually take place on large open fields. They belong indoors. But even so, the playing area must be designed in such a manner that gives the players enough room to wander around and the fans to have an unobstructed view of the game. Thus, you’ll find authorities opting for steel structures since they can easily meet the required vertical and longitudinal spans.

6. Agricultural Sheds

Suppose your farm grows to the extent where you harvest thousands of bales of hay every year. How and where do you store them? A steel portal frame building might be the answer. As much as most agricultural produce isn’t classified as high-security, you’ll still need to protect it from the weather elements. For instance, hay rots when moisture penetrates the bales. Similarly, potatoes rot if stored in non-dry conditions. Through a super shed equipped with corrugated iron sheets on the walls, you can keep those farm products fresh and safe for quite some time as you wait to sell them.

7. Office Blocks

Offices don’t have to be constructed of concrete columns and beams with masonry walls. However, you can still have high-end offices made from steel frames. This is not applicable for businesses like insurance companies, banks, media houses, and the like. A good example is a road construction company with a long-term project in a remote area. They can erect a steel building to house the site engineers, surveyors, and other construction workers. And when they finally complete the project, they can deconstruct the steel structure and use the components for another site office elsewhere.
Bottom Line
Steel portal frame buildings have an extensive range of applications. They’re popular because of the versatility of steel as a construction material and the faster construction period. If you want to set up one for your business, make sure to look for a reliable contractor so that the structure stands the test of time.