What Are The Best PEMB Use Cases?

And Is A Pre-Engineered Metal Building Good For My Project?

If you made it this far, you might be wondering if your specific project is a good fit for a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB). In this post, we’ll cover just a few of the best use cases for rigid-frame, heavy-duty steel building systems like the ones crafted by our partnered PEMB manufacturers.

Don’t see your industry? Don’t worry! Just about any permanent construction project in today’s day and age is a potential fit for a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) system – it’s just about finding the mix of quality, price point, looks, and efficiency that you want in your next structure.

The best way to find out if your project could benefit from using a PEMB system is to click “Quote My Building” on any of our website pages so that we can connect you directly to the best manufacturers in the USA. From there, our partners will gladly answer all your questions and help you make a great decision, whether that leads you to working with them or to selecting a different solution.

Before we jump into the specifics, we wanted to let you know which industries we will highlight here so that you can skip right to the section that impacts your project. We’re going to discuss industrial buildings, commercial and retail buildings, airplane hangars, indoor sports and rec center buildings, agricultural buildings, home garage and workshop buildings, boat/RV storage facilities, and more!

If you’ve ever driven through the industrial area of your town or city, chances are you’ve seen a lot of Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings whether you knew it or not! That’s because PEMB systems are widely considered the fastest, most cost-effective way to stand up new industrial and manufacturing space. If your next commercial project is a 30,000 square foot factory floor or custom warehouse facility, chances are you’re in the right place.

Specifically, you should choose a Pre-Engineered Metal Building if you will have equipment like cranes or large vehicles moving around on your shop floor, or if your operations will require your workers to move around your space actively on a regular basis. That’s because PEMB systems are known for their ability to “clear-span” long distances of more than 200’ without any interior columns! If you need a wide open floor space to do what your business does, there is no better choice than a rigid-frame Pre-Engineered Metal Building.

Commercial Buildings

Every year, more and more small and medium-sized business owners and commercial real estate developers are choosing pre-engineered metal buildings for their new commercial and retail installations. Business owners and developers love the simplicity of the PEMB design process, which helps them cut out or limit pricey external work from architects and structural engineers. All PEMB manufacturers include structural engineering documents like permit drawings and blueprints of record to back up their building systems, that’s why they’re called “Pre-Engineered” buildings in the first place!

One of the most popular commercial applications of Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings (PEMB) is for use by contractors like plumbers, roofers, maintenance contractors, HVAC companies, general contractors, landscapers, and other businesses with large heavy equipment that needs to comfortably fit into their new facility. When you work with a great PEMB manufacturer like the ones we partner with at PreFab Depot, you have full control over your design process. That means you can have one side of your new facility for high-clearance vehicle bays and shop space, and another area for offices, meeting rooms, and a lobby or showroom.

If you’ve been dreaming about this kind of all-in-one commercial headquarters for your growing business, the best place to start is by filling out our quote form to get competing bids from highly qualified US-based manufacturers

Retail Centers

Are you a commercial real estate developer or the owner of a retail business? Whether you’re building one storefront for your own company’s use or developing a shopping center for multiple tenants, you owe it to your bottom line to consider a Pre-Engineered Metal Building System (PEMB). There’s a common misconception that “steel buildings” need to look plain, boring, and industrial. That’s not the case at all! With the use of some simple aesthetic upgrades like wainscoting, custom wall panel, and accent columns, you can “dress up” a PEMB system to meet the vibe of any neighborhood and to pass just about any commercial zoning code, even one that prohibits metal siding.

The “juice” of a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) is all in the structural system, so you’ll still get the time, labor, and cost savings of using a PEMB even if you install different siding. When you go to prefabdepot.com and click on “Quote My Building,” you’ll be matched with a premium direct building manufacturer whose expert teams have seen it all! Just let them know the look you’re going for in your next retail building and they will have a wealth of ideas about how to design and order something that will erect in days or weeks, slash your budget, and still look great the way you need it to.

Airplane Hangars

If there was ever a use case that was tailor-made for a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB), it would be the aviation industry. It goes without saying that the last thing you need when trying to taxi and park an aircraft is the challenge of navigating around dangerous interior structural columns. Aviators by definition need wide open “clear-span” buildings to get their aircraft out of the elements.

PEMB systems can span incredible distances of up to 250’ without the need for any interior columns, meaning that airplane hangars from a small shed for your Cessna all the way up to aviation maintenance bays for large commercial aircraft consistently choose Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) systems to meet their needs.

One thing many aviators wonder about when considering hangar construction is how they will mate their hangar door to their new building. Hangars often feature large, complex door systems like hydraulic single-lift or bi-fold doors that must be engineered into the structure they serve from the very start of the design process. In fact, we like to say that hangar construction really starts with the door system, and ends with a building designed to perform with that door system.

After you click on “Quote My Building” anywhere on our website, you’ll be contacted by a premium building manufacturer with plenty of expertise building custom hangars for all kinds of aviation applications. Just let them know what kind of door system you’re considering and how large of an opening you need, and they will help you design the perfect hangar for your needs and budget. Don’t know what kind of door system you need? No worries. Just let them know you want some pointers and they will be happy to run through some of the common door systems used on Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) hangars.

Indoor Sports Facilities

Whether you’re a club coach, parent, or local investor looking to add value to your community, you might be wondering whether you can fill a need in your community by offering a new indoor sports facility for use by local athletes. It’s a story we’ve heard time and time again: many communities just don’t have enough practice facilities to keep their local sports teams on the field, especially during the winter months when outdoor practice just isn’t an option. If you’ve had this insight regarding your own town or city, you’ve probably realized that if an indoor practice and competition facility was available in your area, it would be booked solid and printing money.

That’s the point where many folks with this kind of great idea get stumped. Think of the logistical headache! You would have to find land, hire consultants and engineers, raise money, and steward a new business through a construction and launch phase that you might not be prepared for.

Fortunately, Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) manufacturers employ specialists that can answer a lot of your initial questions and give you a great head start on making your vision a reality.

Better yet, these early design and estimation services are typically free of charge – it’s all part of their effort to earn your business and win your contract to manufacture and deliver your building system. PEMB manufacturers won’t have all the answers – they typically can’t help you acquire land or raise money, for example – but they can give you valuable insight into the design, topline costs, and what to expect from the process if you decide to pull the trigger.

The reason we’ve got so much experience with these projects in our industry is that a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) is the ideal building system for indoor sports facilities. In fact, most sports facilities would simply not work with any other type of prefabricated building solution. Once again, that’s because of the wide clear spans – the long distances between interior columns – that make it possible to offer a large interior space wide enough for a volleyball court, basketball court, gymnastics floor, hockey rink, soccer field, or football training facility. Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings (PEMB) are used all the way up to the big leagues!

Check out the Raiders’ new field house recently constructed when the historic NFL franchise moved from Oakland to Las Vegas. It’s a PEMB! And chances are your next project will be too if it ends up getting off the ground and coming to fruition.

Agricultural Buildings

Another classic use case for Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) systems is in new barns, workshops, and outbuildings on farms, ranches, and other agricultural sites.

Farmers and ranchers choose PEMB systems for the same reason as any other commercial customers and growing businesses; they are tough, affordable, and quick to deliver and install. That means you’ll save time and money on your next agricultural building and get moved in sooner, in time for your next harvest or planting cycle or in time to allow you to ride your horses indoors throughout the winter!

Of course, farmers and ranchers are usually aware that they have other options to build a simple outbuilding on their property. Pole barns, which are framed with lumber, tube steel buildings, framed with square steel tubing, and Quonset huts, multi-sectional rounded buildings reminiscent of WWII barracks buildings, are all often cheaper options for agricultural applications. So, why do so many agricultural pros choose a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) anyway? Well, it comes down to strength, warranty, longevity, and property value.

In terms of strength, none of these other building systems can span wide distances without interior columns – in the industry, we call this the PEMB clear span. That means if you’re planning to park large ag equipment like combines, harvesters, and tractors inside your building, you might have to navigate around dangerous interior columns and look up at ugly triangle trusses taking up the upper part of your building interior. Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings (PEMB), on the other hand, can span up to 200 feet (or even longer) without columns, and can be easily designed with the wide door openings you need for your equipment. Because of their superior materials and warranties, metal outbuildings also offer more resale value to your property if you ever look to sell. Many farmers and ranchers who are familiar with all of these options choose to invest in a PEMB system and set up their property for success in the long term.

Garages and Workshops

Like many private and commercial customers exploring new construction projects every year, you might be wondering if a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) is the right solution for your garage or workshop building. The answer is, it depends…

If you’re building a garage or shop smaller than around 2,000 square feet, or less than 40 feet wide, there might be cheaper options available to you. Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings (PEMB) are still used for small workshops and garages all the time, but they’re only chosen by customers who want to invest in a premium option with a long warranty or who prefer steel for other reasons. Once you’ve seen the difference in quality, you probably won’t want to choose a pole barn or tube steel building, even if it will cost you a little less up front. You’ll pay for this down the road with higher labor costs, higher maintenance costs, and faster replacement costs when your building starts to show wear and tear after just a few years in the field.

By the same token, if you are building a garage/shop structure on your private or commercial property that’s more than 3,000 square feet or one that requires a wide span distance, like 50-60 feet or longer, you can’t go wrong with a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB).

You’ll get more storage space with a beautiful vaulted ceiling, you’ll get a fantastic warranty on a tough-as-steel building system, and you’ll probably still come in at or below the price of a wood or tube-steel structure. That’s because the larger your building gets, the more the advantages of prefabricating your structure offsite at a manufacturer’s factory will start to overtake the cheaper materials used in less expensive building systems.

Labor costs will also start to tip in your favor around this square footage mark, because Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings (PEMB) have many fewer components and simple installation procedures that scale up to major savings when you start to look at larger building projects.

One way to find out whether your project makes sense with a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) is to click on “Quote My Building” on our website. You’ll get matched with premium, vetted, US-based manufacturers who can answer your questions and point you in the right direction – whether that’s a PEMB building or something else!

Boat/RV Storage

At PreFab Depot, we believe honesty is the best policy. The simple truth is that if you’re looking to build a mini-storage facility with small units designed to serve individual customers, you probably should NOT choose a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB). Mini-storage facilities are typically subdivided every 8 to 12 feet because that’s all the space your customer is going to rent, and that means there’s no need for the wide open clear span interior that’s the classic hallmark of a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB). This means that much lighter-duty materials can be used – you could build the dang thing out of toothpicks if you wanted to! If you are interested in mini-storage, you should look for a manufacturer that specializes JUST in building mini-storage. Trust us, they are out there!

On the other hand, if you’re one of a growing number of business owners looking to offer recreational vehicle storage for RVs, boats, and campers in the off-season, a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) might be the perfect way to add to your offerings. RV and boat storage is a HUGE industry, and it’s growing by the day. With more people buying rec vehicles every year and with garage and street parking limited for these types of vehicles in most neighborhoods, there’s a huge demand for dry docks and RV parking lots where customers can store their “toys” until they’re ready to hit the lake or the trail again.

The reason Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings (PEMB) are perfect for boats and RVs is that these types of vehicles need much wider rental bays than a mini-storage facility, by comparison. If your customer needs to pull a 10’x45’ trailer or a 20’ boat into your all-weather storage facility, they’re going to need large access bay doors and wide open interior spaces to get their equipment in and out without damaging it – or damaging your building!

Whether you own an existing open storage lot and are looking into a premium indoor offering or whether you’re just looking at your local market and seeing an opportunity, there are tons of PEMB designs that could serve your new RV storage and boat storage needs. After you click on “Quote My Building” and get matched with one of our awesome manufacturing partners, ask your representative about “roof only” and “commercial storage” options they might be able to help you design and build today!

Time to Get a Quote On Your PEMB!

If you made it this far, it’s time to head back to our home page, PreFab Depot.com, and click on “Quote My Building” to get matched up with competing premium PEMB manufacturers who can get you great prices and critical early feedback on your commercial project. We did the hard work of sorting through the entire steel building industry, and we used our expertise to select only the best American Pre Engineered Metal Building companies that give great customer service and use ONLY US-milled steel.

Whether you’re ready to get started or still have some questions, they are happy to give you a preliminary quote or ballpark per-square-foot number that can help you determine the best path forward for your commercial construction project. It’s our pleasure to help you

Hire the Best, Ditch the Rest.

Let’s Forge Ahead with your Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) project together!

What Are The Best Use Cases For Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings?