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General Steel – Is It Worth Building With Them in 2024? (Review)

A large brown metal building by general steel
A large brown metal building. Image via gensteel.com

As a major supplier of specialized metal building solutions, General Steel serves various clients, including families, churches, schools, farmers, and growing businesses. The business has a reputation for offering excellent quality and durable buildings at competitive prices. In this article, we’ll take a look into General Steel and its products in detail, as well as a few customer testimonials. Whether you’re looking for a new home or a commercial building, finding the right builder to work with is a crucial step to ensure the success of your project. Read on to see if General Steel is the best choice for your build.

General Steel Overview

When talking about metal buildings, General Steel is always included in that conversation because it’s one of the biggest names in the metal building industry. They supply prefabricated metal building kits used for any purpose imaginable. This ranges from horse stables to churches, storage buildings to houses, and warehouses to aircraft hangars. As far as General Steel is concerned, anything is possible with metal building kits.

The company has over 20 years of expertise in the market and has established itself as a top supplier of steel building solutions. They have a strong track record of successfully completing countless projects and have gathered a wealth of positive feedback from satisfied customers.

They specialize in evaluating wherever you are in the process of building and offering the best solution possible. This may include delivering the highest quality steel building. For others, it can be drafting a plan for the entire construction project. They promise that wherever you are in the process of completing your project, they have a solution for you.

Metal building homes or barndominiums have been gaining a lot of popularity. If you are intrigued, check out the pros and cons of metal-building homes to get a better idea about these kinds of houses.

a large red metal building in a rural setting
A large red barndominium. Image via gensteel.com

History 

Since being founded in 1995 by Jeff Knight in Littleton, Colorado, the company aimed to become a leader in the steel construction industry. Over the years in operation, the company has supplied over 20,000 metal buildings across the United States and internationally.

Their team has had the privilege of working on various notable projects, such as the building used for Presidential press conferences at the White House, sports facilities for the NCAA, expansions for Fortune 500 companies, and a water treatment plant in Afghanistan.

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"A single story red and white barndominium with a white roof, set against a scenic rural background.
A red and white barndominium. Image via gensteel.com

Products and Services

Prefabricated Metal Buildings

A prefab metal building is a building system that is fabricated off-site, typically in an environment-controlled factory. It is then delivered to the location where it will be erected. This allows for much quicker construction timelines.

General Steel offers many prefabricated metal buildings for a wide range of purposes. This includes barns, hangars, carports, garages, and even barndominiums. If what you’re looking for is not on their catalog, they give you hundreds of customization options you can add to a base-building package to have a personalized kit.

For those looking to build a barndominium with a floor plan in mind, that option is available too. If you are shooting for a low-cost alternative, there is no better way than ordering a prefab kit and doing the rest of the construction work. 

Preconstruction Services

For folks in the planning stages of their project, General Steel offers pre-construction packages that are a popular option due to being a cost-effective way to plan and carry out your project. These services include starting your project from scratch until completion of construction, acquisition of permits, designing custom floor plans, 3D renders, and overall cost analysis.

If you are in the planning stages of building your dream home, you might want to look into our Pinterest account, where you can browse others’ ideas on their dream homes. 

A two-story white barndominium with a white door, small stone staircase, and small glass windows. The building features a porch that overlooks a picturesque rural landscape.
A simple two-story white barndominium. Image via gensteel.com

Construction

Although General Steel does not get directly involved in the construction process, it can offer the most extensive network of general contractors across the country. They ensure contractors in their client’s vicinity are available to take on construction needs. This includes pouring concrete, erection, and other construction services. They also ensure that their contractor network is made available to clients anytime if they need any construction work done on their General Steel building in the future.

Cost

There are several factors that affect cost. One example would be the type of building you are planning to build. The cost of a garage will be different from a barndominium’s cost. The most important cost factor in steel buildings is the price of steel. Steel can be subject to wild price fluctuations. If the steel price shoots up, so will the steel building prices. Luckily, General Steel has come up with an in-depth look into nationwide steel pricing trends to forecast the price of steel. You can check this out on their website.

If you have a rough idea of the building type and size you plan to purchase, you can plug in this info on their Price Your Building page. This should give you an accurate estimate of the price. 

A two-story white and stone brown barndominium with a white door and small glass windows, set against a beautiful rural background.
A two-story white and stone-brown metal building. Image via gensteel.com

Client Testimonials 

To give you an idea of others’ experience with General Steel, here is what their clients have to say:

“I called General Steel to get a quote for a 44x 55 foot addition to a diesel shop.  They were very responsive with the quote and there quote was the best.  The salesman passed me on to a project manager and he took it from there.  We discussed all aspects of the building and it’s use to finalize the order.  I was pleased with the service and responsiveness and would buy from them again.”

Barry Nelson. Source: Google Reviews

“I had a great experience dealing with Cameron on the ordering of our new Building, he made it simple and explained all aspects of the ordering process.  When the order was done Ryan has taken over the layout and has been very helpful and made the process seamless.  Very happy with the sales department and the design folks.”

Steve Robertson. Source: Google Reviews
A two-story stone barndominium with small glass windows, set amidst a wide and well-manicured lawn, offering a serene rural atmosphere.
A two-story barndominium. Image via gensteel.com

Advantages and Disadvantages 

Advantages

  • Warranty. General Steel Buildings provide a structural warranty for 50 years, a paint warranty for 40 years, and a roof warranty for 20 years.
  • Proven track record. They have a ton of positive feedback and success stories from their past clients.
  • Area of Service. General Steel Ships to all 50 states including Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio. They even ship buildings anywhere in the world.
  • Customization. Hundreds of ways to customize your building. This includes doors, windows, insulation, color schemes, and siding. Our Instagram account is rich with ideas on custom homes. Go ahead and check it out!
  • Information Availability. They publish everything about their products and services on their website. This shows how they value efficiency.

Disadvantages

  • Financing. One disadvantage to General Steel Buildings is that they cannot help you finance your metal building home. You would have to look for a lender on your own.
  • Website Interface. The interface of their website is not very intuitive. Although this is understandable due to the amount of information stuffed into the website.

Should You Choose General Steel?

It is clear that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by far. With all the services it offers, the quality of its products, and the abundance of positive feedback, General Steel is definitely the right choice. Check out our Facebook page for regular content on ,shouses, shipping container homes, prefab houses, pole barn homes, and other unique house types.

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Written by Metal-Building-Homes.com

We strive to deliver informational and inspirational content for unconventional homes. From barndominiums to steel-framed modular homes, this is the place to browse if you're looking into untraditional housing options.