Looking Back at the Progress We’ve Made

The progress of the steel building industry has been phenomenal in the past couple of centuries in terms of both technology and cost savings. Premium quality metal, as a source of primary building material, emerged largely due to its non-flammable composition. Building construction using steel frames and beams was used in the late 19th century on the mainland U.S. and has continued to develop. In addition, at the same time, the evolution of the original pre-fabricated metal structures was seen.

As the car industry was in its developing stage in the early 20th century, building with metal or steel was largely used for motor car garages. Although first assembled as a mixture of wood and metal, this particular modernized auto storage building was soon substituted by a total metal configuration in order to boost the fire resistance elements of the complete building. Expenditure was also reduced. These buildings were first produced by the Butler Manufacturing Co. The Austin Co. introduced pre-engineered assembly, as it is applied to metal framing, at the start of the 20th century. Star Building then directly followed in the 1920s with their ability to offer inexpensive metal drilling structures to oil companies in the Midwest.

The great advantage for steel building popularity began during W.W. II when airplane hangars were produced featuring a 100% steel construction for use by the military. At this juncture, also, very distinct structures called Quonset huts became standard. A large number of these unique structures were made, and entailed only the aid of a limited labor force and hand tools to assemble, plus, if needed, they could later just as simply be taken down and transported to a different location. It was economical to acquire a Quonset hut but they were unattractive in appearance. The Armed Forces put these distinctive curved roof huts to use as machine shops and barracks and the general public also used them as storage buildings.

After W.W. II, the quick erection advantages and inexpensive price tags were underscored with pre-fabricated steel structures in the absence of any aesthetics, to persuade people to buy. The external look of these buildings was not as important to consumers as the protection they could provide to items housed inside. A classic roof slope of 4:12 came with this next origination of steel building system method, although its exterior appearance was very plain. The inexpensive and questionable durability and quality of these first pre-fabricated all-steel structures put reservations into building buyers’ minds as these unsightly buildings were left to corrode and fall apart in the United States for many years. Fortunately, however, advances in metal structures quickly resulted in a different wave of construction that has proved to be very popular in terms of design and purpose.