Using Pre-engineered Metal Buildings as Outdoor Shelters
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You can enjoy the great outdoors even in rainy weather with open-air buildings metal pavilions and shelters.
Basically huge permanent canopies, open-air structures are protective roofs without exterior walls. Sometimes called shade structures, open-air buildings protect people or assets from the blazing sun, pounding rain and hail, or snow— without obstructing the view.
Shade Shelter Uses
There are open-air metal pavilions and shelters for agriculture, aviation, churches, commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, and residential purposes:
AIRCRAFT: Working on planes or helicopters is not always comfortable— or even possible— in bad weather. Shade shelters shield mechanics and aircraft from Mother Nature at her worst. Aircraft owners find open-air hangars an economical way to safeguard their aviation investment.
CHURCHES: No one wants to arrive at services in their Sabbath best, only to be drenched by a downpour trying to get from the parking lot to the sanctuary. For the convenience of their flocks, many churches erect open-air structures as covered entrances. This allows drivers to drop off their passengers in a dry, shady area.
In picturesque rural areas, churches erect shade shelters for outdoor church events like weddings, picnics, singings, or youth group activities.
Churches with fleets of vans or buses find shade shelters a wise way to protect church vehicles.
EVENT VENUES: Most up-scale event venues incorporate lovely vistas or beautiful landscaping and gardens to attract customers. However, the weather can suddenly turn on a dime, playing havoc with long-planned outdoor events— especially weddings. Large, open-air shelters provide an excellent alternative to cancelling events in bad weather.
FARMS and RANCHES: Rural enterprises find many uses for metal pavilions and shelters, including:
• Barns
• Covered feedlots
• Equipment shelters
• Hay sheds
• Livestock pens
• Riding arenas
• Stables
INDUSTRY: Any business depending on big trucks or heavy-duty dirt moving equipment benefits from open-air shelters. Metal pavilions and shelters safeguard expensive vehicles and shield personnel as they maintain company equipment.
PARKS: Recreational areas find may uses for canopy shelters:
• Camper parties
• Covered amphitheaters
• Covered park entrances
• Equipment and vehicle storage
• Group events or meetings, like family reunions
• Multi-purpose structures
• Outdoor concert stage covers
• Picnic pavilions
RESIDENTIAL: Homeowners choose open-air shelters as an affordable choice for multi-vehicle carports, multi-purpose structures, or as RV and boat storage. Progressive apartment complex owners also offer carports for their tenant’s vehicle protection.
SCHOOLS and SPORTS FACILITIES: Why restrict outdoor fun to days with picture-perfect weather? Open-air shelters cover basketball courts, batting cages, skateboard parks, swimming pools, tennis courts, and volleyball courts, allowing kids to enjoy the fun, rain or shine.
RHINO Steel Structures: We’ve Got You Covered
One style of open-air buildings beats all other systems for affordability, durability, and protection: pre-engineered steel. Here’s why:
- Rigid prefabricated steel structures span much farther than any other building system, creating massive column-free areas. Steel buildings clear span as far as 300’ wide. Pre-engineered metal structures allow lofty ceiling heights. Standard eave heights reach up to 40’. Even higher buildings are possible with custom orders. Metal shelters and structures have limitless building lengths.
- Wood shelters rot, splinter, crack, and sag over time. Steel buildings go up straight and plumb— and stay that way throughout the life of the structure.
- Open-air shelters can be vulnerable to damage during violent storms, as high winds create lift beneath the roof. In wood shelters constructed, nails may pull out under the force of the winds. Pre-engineered metal structures use large high-strength steel bolts and nuts to connecting the framing pieces, which stand up to lifting forces.
- The fire-resistant qualities of steel buildings protect the structure— and earn substantial insurance discounts over other building systems.
- Open-air facilities have one major enemy: birds. Pole barn construction, web-truss steel systems, or ordinary wood truss systems attract birds. Making their nests in the trusses, or just sitting overhead to chirp and sing, they foul everything— and every one— beneath them. Pre-engineered metal buildings do not use truss-roofing systems, leaving no place for birds to perch under the roof.
- As an organic material, wood shelters attract mold, mildew, termites, and other pests. Inorganic steel never molds, mildews, or attracts pests. Even the most determined Formosan termites cannot munch on steel.
- Steel shelters built for farm animals are much easier to keep clean than wood structures. Steel also eliminates cattle and horses from chewing on the framing, as they often do with wood structures.
- Maintenance on most shelter structures is a real pain— especially high-maintenance wood structures. Steel pavilions and shelters require very little upkeep.
- As a facility’s needs change, so must its buildings. Steel structures expand easily by simply adding more steel bays at either or both endwalls. Should the need arise, steel buildings are easy to enclose and insulate.
- Environmental-conscious consumers and builders appreciate the high-recycled content of steel open-air structures. Steel is the most recycled material in the world. It is also the only material that retains all strength— even when recycled repeatedly.
- Optional skylights are available to maximize natural light in shelters.
- Construct easy-to-erect open-air steel buildings and shelters on any type of concrete foundation you prefer, including perimeter walls, piers, or slabs.
Steel open-air buildings outlast and outperform wood and other shelter systems every time.
Call RHINO Steel Building Systems for a free quote on open-air structures for your business, church, city, home, park, or school. RHINO metal pavilions and shelters meet or exceed all the local building codes for which the building is designed— for the LIFETIME of the structure— guaranteed.
Phone RHINO now at 940.383.9566 to discuss your metal structure, open-air building, or canopy construction needs.