SteelMaster Featured in Daily News

SteelMaster buildings are quickly becoming a popular structure to use for a house. However, the idea is not exactly new. The Weintraubs of Rhinebeck, NY built their SteelMaster home in 1998, but it was just recently featured in a NY Daily News article…

It's a steel: Eco-friendly Quonsest hut upstate brings the outside in
By Karen Angel

custom-steel-homeAfter Linda and Andy Weintraub laid out $110,000 for 11 acres in upstate Rhinebeck 13 years ago, they didn't have enough money left to build a house large enough to accommodate their lifestyle.

"It required a considerable amount of room," explains Andy, a consulting economist and retired Temple University professor. They had three children and wanted space to entertain groups. Plus, Andy adds, "I like having a workshop, and Linda wanted a studio."

Their solution for getting more space without paying a premium wasn't an obvious one: a modified Quonset hut, with straight walls instead of the rounded ones typical of the World War II-era metal shelter.

"We realized that steel construction was much less expensive than wood," says Andy, 72.

Saving money wasn't the only consideration.

"We had a very specific desire to create something that was adventuresome in terms of design, and we had made a commitment to seeing how ecologically responsible we could be," says Linda, 69, an independent art curator and former director of Bard College's museum. The couple's "long history of doing experimental projects" included adding a silo to a 1749 stone farmhouse to create more space and converting a barn into a home.

metal-home"With every one of our houses, people say, ‘You'll never leave,' but we find the design process so satisfying we look forward to the opportunity," Linda says.

Their 3,000-square-foot, two-story Quonset hut has just one bedroom but "sleeping nooks and crannies that make it possible to accommodate 20," Linda says – a necessity now that they have seven grandchildren. The open floor plan lets in plenty of light. A separate 1,500-square-foot Quonset hut with a small loft houses a studio and a workshop and another serves as the garage.

The steel for the three buildings cost just $36,000, and the total for construction - including adding doors, windows and fixtures - was $250,000. The walls are insulated with polyurethane foam, and a ­geothermal heat pump provides both cooling and heating - keeping their total energy costs at $325 a month.

"When our house was complete, it cost about two-thirds of what you'd pay for a house of equivalent size," Andy says. "Suffice it to say, this is a very economical way of building. This is a very low-maintenance house. It's been up since 1998, and it has never needed a drop of paint on the outside. It will never need a new roof."

The overall effect is stunning - and surprisingly warm - from a row of begonias in big pots on a ledge outside to the light-suffused second floor, an open expanse with banks of tall windows that houses the living room and kitchen. The furnishings are an artful collection of 1950s modern (the dining room tabletop was once bowling-alley flooring), folk art, furniture made by Andy and organic materials, like a driftwood coffee table.

steel-building-interiorOutdoors, from the root and stick fences to the skinny moat ­surrounding the studio, fed by rainwater and a stream, the Weintraubs' handiwork is ­everywhere. Six acres of trimmed ­meadow stretch down to a stone amphitheater with 150 seats, where local arts groups stage music and theater productions ­several times a year. For more intimate gatherings, there are a couple of small firepits. Two lambs frolic in a pasture and a pig wallows nearby, blissfully ignorant that they will end up in the freezer in the fall. A circular garden - ­terraced to enhance fertility - yields about two dozen kinds of vegetables. "The land provides us with most of our food," Andy says.

Kindred experimental-design spirits, the Weintraubs met as teens when growing up in New Jersey. They moved from Coopersburg, Pa., to Rhinebeck in 1982 after Linda was appointed director of Bard's Edith C. Blum Art Institute in nearby Annandale-on-Hudson. Andy, a theater buff, founded the Center for ­Performing Arts at Rhinebeck.

Through their involvement in the arts, the couple developed deep ties to Rhinebeck, which hit the national radar screen last summer when Chelsea Clinton got married there. After living in town, they found a plot in Rhinebeck with a view of the Catskills and a park-like setting. While researching alternative construction methods, they found Quonset hut manufacturer SteelMaster.

Because Quonset huts have no beams or interior posts, they are an architectural blank canvas, a quality that appealed to the Weintraubs who use design as a creative outlet. Plus, SteelMaster uses recycled steel, upping the green quotient, and easing environmental concerns. The sheets of steel arrived stacked on a pallet, along with 15,000 bolts in buckets.

"I couldn't believe this was it!" Linda says. "But we got exactly the units we needed. There was no construction waste, which is a major part of landfill bulk."

In just four days, with a few friends, they erected the steel shell - roof and walls, held together by thousands of bolts. Andy did all the interior woodwork. The landscaping and decorating were a joint endeavor.

"Our esthetic goal was to marry steel with very organic materials," Linda says.

They harvested cedar trees growing on the property for deck and staircase railings, laid stone for the entryway floor and created a small fishpond in the foyer, all part of their effort "to bring the outdoors into the house," Linda says. Cedar branches sprout everywhere: as trimming for a master-bath wall, on the sides of their kitchen island, and in a homemade coat rack and bookcase.

The ceiling is a marvel of metal ribs sprayed with polyurethane and coated with a lightweight cement mixture, at once creating insulation and a surrealistic moonscape effect.

All in all, Andy says, they are so content with their Quonset hut experiment they would build this way again even if money weren't a consideration.

"We are so pleased with the fulfillment of our three-part dream: ecological, economic and esthetic, and a fourth in terms of serving our family and social needs," Linda says.

Now, she adds, when people say to the couple, "You'll never leave," they are probably right.

Putting the peddle to the metal prefab

Like Andy and Linda Weintraub, a growing number of Americans are turning to prefabricated metal houses to lower costs and create sustainable homes.

"Factory-produced housing is a much more practical way to achieve the types of environmentally efficient and sustainable designs that are pressingly needed in a period of limited energy resources and climate change," says Barry Bergdoll, chief curator of MoMA's Architecture and Design Department who curated the 2008 exhibit "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling," which showcased five prefabs.

Shipping containers are also becoming increasingly popular as homes. The Intermodal Steel Building Units and Container Homes Association (ISBU), founded in 2006, now has 15,000 members from all over the world. "About 100,000 containers for use as some type of ISBU are being sold annually in the U.S. alone," says managing director Barry Naef. "Their versatility, strength, recyclability and ease of transport are the main factors."

Architects are using them to create chic habitats.

New York-area architect Adam Kalkin is among those driving the metal momentum in the New York metropolitan area.

Kalkin provides a step-by-step guide to shipping-container architecture in his 2008 book, "Quik Build: Adam Kalkin's ABC of Container Architecture." It centers on his Quik House prototype - a two-story, 2,000-square-foot structure made of five shipping containers that starts at around $100,000 can be assembled in a day and was featured in the "Home Delivery" exhibit. He has just released a $99,000, three-story, three-container house called the 99K that the owner can build from a kit and a set of plans.

"I love metal," says Kalkin, who lives in an 1880s farmhouse encased in an airplane hangar in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Everything is OK at the Steel Corral

During the summer of 2009, Sandie Cardone realized her lifelong dream when she and her husband Wes purchased a steel storage shed kit from a company in Virginia Beach, VA and built it up in a clearing on their 10 acres of wooded property in Chelsea, MI.

To be certain, it wasn’t the actual building for which she yearned, it was what it allowed her to do, which was to bring her horse and mule home from a local stable where she had been boarding them for the past five years.

Once the steel storage buildings was up and able to provide the shelter that the Cardone’s needed to complete their equine space, the animals were able to come home to “Equiscape Gardens” where they joined a miniature donkey, miniature horse and two goats already living on the property.

“In 2007, we began to prepare our yard to keep [the horse and mule] at home,” says Sandie. “We did this slowly as we could afford it, avoiding any debt in the process. By the summer of 2009, I could wait no more!”

The Cardone’s bought the majority of the items used to prepare their “barnyard” second-hand from the Internet. In seeking “farm-stuff”, Sandie came across a small steel shelter, which began her search for a larger one to be used as a run-in.

“I stumbled upon the SteelMaster website doing a Google search for Quonset Huts,” says Sandie. “I really liked the shape, size, and ease of construction that the buildings offered. I liked the fact that the side walls of the building are straight, with the round top, which allows for the most room inside for the horses. I liked the company’s industrial foundation—it made the construction a breeze! The cost also sold me! I had done a lot of research on how to create the best shelter for the animals. The SteelMaster building had the most to offer for the amount spent!”

After asking their good friend (who is also a licensed builder) to put together the storage building, it took about one week to have the footers framed and poured. After that cured for one week, the Cardone’s were then able to begin construction.

“The assembly only took three days,” says Sandie. “I wanted to keep the animals away from the metal walls, so I wanted a wood lining in the shelter. We had our trees that had been cut down to clear the corral area milled into lumber. The builder used Maple boards to build the kick walls, which took one day. We used treated wood to add the short wall in front so that a gate would fit the opening and be able to swing into the building out of the way. This was another day’s work. So in total the process took about three weeks to prepare the foundation, assemble the SteelMaster building and add the custom wood liner/gate.”

Now that Sandie has everything she has dreamed of, would she do anything differently? “Overall, I am very happy with my SteelMaster building,” says Sandie. “The product was as nice in person as it was in the photos online. My builder referred to the building as “a giant erector set” and had a ball putting it together.  The animals are happy to be home, and they have the perfect shelter to protect them from the Michigan heat in the summer and brutal winter weather.”

Home Away From Home During Hurricanes

In 2004 and 2005, Aubrey Brown was living a quiet life in Clanton, Ala., passing the time spinning his wheels to create pottery to sell at craft shows around the region. But it was during those two years that Brown and his wife came under the attack of unwelcome visitors on three separate occasions. The intruders pounded on the doors and windows, bellowing out their insatiable demands and leaving chaos and destruction in their wake.

To be fair, it wasn’t just the Brown family who found themselves at the mercy of these adversaries. Their whole community and most of the state were frantically doing everything they could to protect themselves from the treacherous reach of Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina.

Like everyone else, Brown gathered supplies and battened down the hatches in preparation of the storms—but as many of his neighbors made their way to the local shelter, Brown moved his family into their steel shed, which housed their motor home.

“My SteelMaster shed can withstand 140 mph winds, which is more than I can say about my house,” says Brown. “Before each storm hit, I stocked the motor home with bottled water and food, gassed up the tank, made sure the generator was working, and then my wife and 82-year-old mother and I hunkered down until the hurricanes passed.”
As the family watched shingles fly off the roof of their workshop and trees bow in half to touch the ground, Brown said they had nary a worry from their vantage point inside the steel shed that he bought years before from SteelMaster Buildings in Virginia Beach, Va.

“My wife and I travel a lot in our 32-foot motor home from craft show to craft show, so I bought the RV shed to house it in and keep it out of the sun during the off season,” says Brown. “I also store all of my welders and cutting torch and tools for mechanical and farm repair in the shed. Anytime the weather is too cold or raining, I just back the motor home out, pull in what needs to be repaired, and fix it. When it is real cold, I lower the 12 by 12 door and use a patio heater to work in comfort.”

The versatility of a SteelMaster building and roofing system goes a long way with the company’s thousands of customers, many of whom have worked along with SteelMaster engineers to custom design their building to meet their very specific needs.

“SteelMaster offers unique custom solutions for building applications such as architectural design, affordable steel housing, athletic facilities, retail stores/business facilities, as well as specialty buildings such as bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, churches, and so much more,” says Michelle Wickum, the director of marketing for SteelMaster. “Regardless of what purpose our buildings and roofing systems serve, each and every one provides security and durability against fire, snow, and hurricane-force winds, as was the case with the shed that Mr. Brown and his family sought shelter in.”

SteelMaster’s steel and metal pre-engineered buildings are designed for a broad range of residential and commercial applications including homes, farm buildings, garages, workshops, agricultural storage, Quonsets, airplane hangars, RV storage, roofing systems, carports, military buildings, commercial warehousing, and industrial storage as well as a wide variety of custom building applications including athletic facilities, retail stores, churches, bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, and correctional facilities.

History Lights the Way for Steel Buildings

In today’s world, information overload is a very real consequence to the evolution of technology. In many instances, the latest and greatest turns out to be baseless and fleeting—so much so, that people are looking backwards for the map to success in an effort to circumvent future wrong turns or dead ends.

Douglas Miracle of London, KY did just that in October 2010 when he bought his second steel arch building from SteelMaster Buildings in Virginia Beach, VA.

A decade prior he bought the same building from SteelMaster to use as a workshop/garage.

“It was a great price, needed less maintenance, and was easier to construct than other building on the market,” says Miracle. “I received their sales brochure, and there was no comparison in price at that time.”

According to Michelle Wickum, the director of marketing for SteelMaster Buildings, the company has been guided by the basic principles of offering customers a reliable, well-made, versatile, and durable pre-fabricated steel structure at an affordable price for more than 29 years, and continues abiding by those same principles today.

“At its inception, SteelMaster engineered and designed a new, stronger structure based on the historic designs of the Quonset hut,” says Wickum. “SteelMaster evolved the Quonset into a new structure that combines the architectural strength of the arch along with 21st century technology which allows the buildings to be designed and engineered to handle all types of climates and conditions. And over the years, we continued to develop the original Quonset design and engineering to meet the same primary goal: provide all-purpose prefabricated steel buildings and roofing structures that can be shipped anywhere in the world and can be constructed quickly and easily.”

The fact that he can construct the building himself is another variable that motivated Miracle to buy another SteelMaster building.

“On the first building, I completed most of the site preparation myself and then contracted the concrete work,” says Miracle. “The first day I had five people to help me begin my project. After the first day it was just my father-in-law and I. Then, after all the arches were up, I completed the building on my own. It took about two weeks to complete. It was a simple project for me; not much of a challenge. I will most likely do the construction on this second building the same way that I did the first one; except that I purchased the IBC connectors with this building. I think this will be an easier way to start.”

steel-garage

Wickum says that the fact that customers like Miracle can construct the building themselves saves them the money of hiring a contractor and also gives them a sense of pride over the finished product because they had a hand, literally, in making it happen.

“Most of our customers assemble and raise the arches to complete the construction of their SteelMaster building on their own, or with the help of friends,” says Wickum. “Our buildings feature a one-size nut and bolt system as the only fastener and precision-fit component, which simplifies the process. Our precision-built arches fit together perfectly. The precision overlap of the arches provides more steel at critical connections, ensuring the easiest-to-assemble, strongest, best-fitting arch system available.”

Once the building is constructed, customers have the option of finishing their building with any SteelMaster steel end wall or adding a custom garage end wall that they create and add on themselves. They can also add insulation, skylights, vents, electrical wiring, lighting, doors, partitions, and a host of other accessories.

“Customizing the interior of your SteelMaster Pre-Engineered Garage is easy to do,” says Wickum. “With our clear span, truss-less design you can divide up the space in your SteelMaster steel garage however you want.”

As for Miracle, he isn’t about all the fancy bells and whistles—he says he prefers to stick to simple construction.

“With my first building, I used insulated metal panels to form my end walls and later added electricity and lights,” says Miracle. “It’s basically just a neat building—strong, cool, and interesting.”

In addition to garages like Miracle’s, SteelMaster’s steel and metal pre-engineered buildings are designed for a broad range of residential and commercial applications including homes, farm buildings, workshops, agricultural storage, Quonsets, airplane hangar, RV storage, roofing systems, carports, military buildings, commercial warehousing, and industrial storage as well as a wide variety of custom building applications including athletic facilities, retail stores, churches, bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, and correctional facilities.

What Would You Keep in Your Steel Building?

While taking a peek inside Clarence Abadie’s steel building will answer the question as to what he stores inside, that answer will undoubtedly leave you wanting to know more.
Like, for example, why does this 76-year-old man keep a fully functional, one-person helicopter inside of his steel building that sits in the backyard of his home in Tickfaw, LA?
The short answer is simple—building and flying helicopters are hobbies of his. The long answer is much more interesting and involves travel, intrigue, high flying adventures, duty to country, and loss.
As a young adult, the Marine Corps taught Abadie how to fly, and after his four years of service were finished in 1960, he knew he wanted to focus his career around flying. He was due to rotate back to the states before his discharge from his post in Okinawa, Japan, but he accepted an offer from the CIA to work for Air America, doing various covert operations during the next 15 years in places such as Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. After the company disbanded in 1975, Abadie came home to Louisiana and finished earning his college degree in professional aviation.
From there he worked for various companies during the next two decades and lived in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Kwajalein Island, Abu Dhabi, and the Bahamas before returning to Louisiana where he retired in 1996.

“When it was time for me to retire, my wife and I were quite happy to come home to Louisiana and settle down here,” says Abadie. “Our three sons were grown and out of the house, so we were ready for a slower pace of life.”
When Abadie’s wife of 30 years died in 2007 after battling thyroid cancer for six months, he realized that the best thing he could do was keep his mind and hands busy, so returning to flying was the natural choice for him.
“I bought a helicopter kit and built a rotary wing gyrocopter, but I soon found out that it was too difficult to fly it out of my yard,” says Abadie. “I sold it and then built a Helicycle instead. I wanted to move it out of my garage, and that is when I bought my SteelMaster building. I wanted something durable and something easy to put up. SteelMaster was it.”
For more than 29 years, SteelMaster Buildings, which is located in Virginia Beach, VA, has manufactured, designed, and supplied pre-fabricated arched steel structures to 40,000 customers located in every state of the United States, in 40 countries, and on seven continents around the world.
“SteelMaster Aircraft Hangars provide clear span buildings that are both economical and durable, making the steel structures world-renowned in the field of aviation,” says Michelle Wickum, the company’s director of marketing. “The unique design of SteelMaster’s metal buildings allows spans up to 150 feet in width, with unlimited lengths. With no need for interior supports, people can maximize the use of the space in these steel Airplane Hangar. Whether you have a single, twin engine, or commercial jet, SteelMaster steel buildings can accommodate your needs.”
Now that Abadie has his own helicopter and a proper building to store it in, where does he want to travel?
“Out of all the places I have been, I’m more than content to just fly around here for fun,” says Abadie. “I’m comfortable here—Louisiana is where I belong.”
SteelMaster Buildings manufactures, designs, and supplies customers with pre-fabricated arched steel structures including garages, workshops, carports, agricultural storage, metal barns, Quonsets, airplane hangars, RV storage, roofing systems, storage buildings, military buildings, commercial warehousing, and industrial storage as well as a wide variety of custom building applications including homes, athletic facilities, retail stores, churches, bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, and correctional facilities.

Arizona Mom Takes Building of Family Business into her own Hands

It was the fall of 2009 when the ticking of the clock sprung Chantelle Taylor and her husband into action.

There was a man in their hometown of Holbrook, AZ who was selling his business, one that centered on the production of small wood projects, like survey sticks. The Taylor’s wanted to buy it with the hope that someday, in the near future, the business would afford them the opportunity to both work from home and raise their three children (ages 6, 5, and 1 year old) together.

But to get that dream off the ground, they needed a wood working shop—immediately. There was equipment to store and orders to fill. Chantelle’s husband worked a full-time job during the day, so the couple had to find a quality building that was affordable, practical, and up and ready to use in no time flat.

“We needed a Strong Buildings that could withstand strong wind, because it is common for us to get gusts up to 70 mph around here,” says Chantelle, who is 29 years old. “We realized it would be more economical for us to construct it ourselves, so I needed a company that would give us a quick and solid price out the door as wells as the plans for how to get it built. We found everything we needed through SteelMaster.”

For more than 28 years, SteelMaster Buildings, which is located in Virginia Beach, VA, has manufactured, designed, and supplied pre-fabricated arched steel structures to 40,000 customers located in every state of the United States, in 40 countries, and on seven continents around the world.

“The quick and easy construction of our garage/workshop kits makes it ideal for “do-it-yourselfers” like the Taylors,” says Michelle Wickum, director of marketing for SteelMaster. “The unique design of these prefab buildings provides security and durability against fire, snow, and hurricane-force winds, while remaining aesthetically pleasing.”

Because her husband was busy at work each week day, Chantelle decided to take the building of the wood shop literally into her own hands. “We subbed some of the work out, but I did a lot of it myself,” says Chantelle. “I would alternate kids so there was always one of them there with me while a babysitter watched the other two, and I just figured it out through reading books and asking questions. I built all the forms and constructed the arches myself. When it came time to pour the concrete and then again when it was time to raise the arches, I asked my family to come and help. I appreciate the fact that SteelMaster sells a product that anybody can build—you don’t have to have a lot of experience to get it done.”

“Every SteelMaster pre-fabricated buildings features easy-to-understand, complete illustrated assembly instructions in the newly revised construction manual,” says Wickum. “Using our one-size nut and bolt system as the only fastener and precision-fit components, assembling your new SteelMaster Building is a breeze.”

The extra one size nuts and bolts that SteelMaster provided with the building meant that Chantelle had a solution for an issue that was worrying her.

“Once I started wiring for the electrical, I was concerned that I didn’t have any trusses or studs to attach conduit to,” says Chantelle. But after I got started and remembered I was given many extra bolts and nuts with rubber washers, I realized I could attach to anywhere on my building! It's all together now and working just like we planned. We just worked our fifth order for survey stakes, so we are doing great and the building is a perfect fit for our needs.”

For More Information About Steel Building Kits and Garage Building Kits Visit Steelmasterusa.com

Offering Affordable, Dependable Steel Building is Only the Beginning

Seventeen years ago, James D. "Danny" Hendricks of Woodland, GA was leafing through farm and home magazines when he came upon an advertisement for a company in Virginia Beach, VA that sold steel buildings. Since he was scouting out options for a workshop, Hendricks called to request literature on the buildings and established a rapport with the director of marketing.

“I was fortunate to talk with David B. Adams, who at that time was the director of marketing with SteelMaster Buildings, and after speaking with him, I was convinced that this was the building that I needed because it would fit my needs from a quality and durability standpoint,” says Hendricks. “He was very informative from my first conversation with him, and we became very good friends.”

For more than 28 years, SteelMaster Buildings has manufactured, designed, and supplied pre-fabricated arched steel structures to 40,000 customers located in every state of the United States, in 40 countries, and on seven continents around the world.

SteelMaster prefabricated workshops have been used by all types of hobby enthusiasts including wood workers, metal shops owners, classic car professionals, as well as numerous types of businesses around the globe. The company’s workshop kit, prefabricated workshops, and metal shops provide 100 percent unencumbered, usable space to organize, store, and protect valuable tools and machinery as well as provide comfort, security, and durability against fire, snow, and hurricane-force winds. People who own a SteelMaster workshop have the flexibility to truly customize the inside of their building because the unique clear-span design allows them the opportunity to hang lighting, run conduit, build shelving, add a loft, insulate, and heat/cool the building.

Three years after Hendricks bought his workshop, he purchased a second building for machinery and hay storage. Then three years later, he bought yet another building to use for storage of lawn and garden equipment. He says that part of the reason he continued buying from SteelMaster was because of the level of customer service he continued to receive after he first started communicating with Abrams.

“On one occasion after the purchase of my first building, a stranger drove into my yard,” says Hendricks. “As this man stepped out of his car, he said, ‘I am David Adams with SteelMaster Buildings, and I was passing through your area and wanted to stop by to meet you and see your building.’ We had a very good visit, and our friendship lasted.”
According to Michelle Wickum, who is currently the company’s director of marketing, SteelMaster has always taken this approach with its customers.

“Our company was founded with a mission to be the best in the business, and we are,” says Wickum. “To be the best, that doesn’t just mean delivering the highest quality buildings at an affordable rate, it also means going the extra mile for our customers and touching base with them after their building is constructed to make sure that it is everything that they need it to be. We genuinely care about the people we serve.”

Hendricks says he believes in SteelMaster and its buildings so much that he hasn’t been shy about spreading the word to others.

“I appreciate that the ease of which I have been able to assemble and construct my buildings as well as their durability, quality, and the fact that they blend very well into my farm layout and the landscape, says Hendricks. “As a result, I have helped SteelMaster sell numerous buildings in this area of Georgia. The picture that is shown in the Georgia section of the SteelMaster website shows the back side of my three buildings. I am proud of my buildings, and I appreciate them being a part of the company’s website.”

SteelMaster’s steel and metal pre-engineered buildings are designed for a broad range of residential and commercial applications including garages, carports, metal barns, Quonsets, airplane hangars, RV storage, roofing systems, military buildings, commercial warehousing, and industrial storage as well as a wide variety of custom building applications including athletic facilities, retail stores, churches, bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, and correctional facilities.