Before your steel building is manufactured, it must undergo several important steps. To begin with, the design process involves you and the building suppliers representative conferring about your steel buildings specifications. Based on these discussions, your building will be sent to the technical people where it will be engineered and detailed to make sure that it will be structurally sound. After this, the building will now be manufactured.

Your discussions with the suppliers representative, is the most crucial part of your steel building project. To avoid the problems that are often faced with steel building construction, it is vital that you know the following information for you to be able to establish how your steel building would look like.

Buildings Dimensions
The final use of your steel building defines its size. Do you want a small workshop or do you need a large storage building? The dimensions of your steel building are its length, width, and height. For the buildings height, you are actually specifying the eave height or the height of the overhanging edge of the roof. Typically, the buildings height equals the clearance height inside plus 2 feet.

The buildings width, height, and length (in feet) comprise its dimensions.

Roof Pitch
The roofs pitch or slope determines the steepness of the angle of the roof. This measurement is specified in terms of the rise over the run, so a roof that has a 1:12 roof pitch would rise 1 inch for every 12 inches of width. For example, if your steel buildings width is 24 feet, the distance from the edge (eave) to the center (peak) of the roof is 12 feet. A 1:12 roof pitch means that the peak is one foot higher than the eave of the steel building. Based on the buildings dimensions, decide what roof pitch (in inches) is best suited for your steel building.

Framed Openings
Doors of metal building structures that are larger than walk-doors, require framed openings. Examples of these are those doors designed to let machinery in and out of the building. Since framed openings involve structural changes to your building, it is highly important to know their exact locations and measurements. Typically, framed openings, are covered by large doors, that is why, they need to be 2 feet shorter than the buildings height. This allows for door mechanisms to work properly. The door jambs or the side door supports, need to remain 2 feet away from the nearest columns. Walk-doors, windows, and vents are not classified as framed openings.

Decide how many framed openings you require for your steel building, as well as their sizes (length, width, and height), measured in feet.