Olympia Steel Buildings Weblog

Top Reasons To Build With Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings

Pre-engineered steel buildings are ...

• Cost Effective – Save up to 50% off cost of conventional construction with pre-engineered steel buildings rather than building with wood, brick or stone.

• Energy Efficient – Energy Star rated “Cool paints” for metal buildings & metal building roofing keep your building 20 degrees cooler in the hot sun.
• Pre-engineered steel buildings tight building design and construction means there is no air infiltration into the building, saving you on HVAC costs both summer and winter.
• Metal building metal roofs reflect up to 70% of the sun’s energy, keeping your building cool and saving you even more on energy costs.
• Olympia’s “High Energy Insulation System” steel building insulation system saves you even more.

• Green – Steel buildings use 70-72% recycled material & can earn your building project points toward LEED certification.

• Fast, easy, do-it-yourself building construction – for simple building projects, 3 guys, a weekend and you’re done.

• No surprises – pre-engineered steel buildings come in an easy-to-assemble metal building kit with everything you need & meet all local building codes.

• No architectural fees – from simple to complex, if you have a design and need in mind, pre-engineered steel buildings designers, consultants and engineers can eliminate the need for expensive architectural fees.

• Warranties, Warranties, Warranties
• 25-year warranty on the roof  - AZ55 Galvalume® - 26 gauge, 80,000 psi
• 40-year warranty on the paint  - various colors available
• 50-year warranty on the structural steel frames

• Virtually maintenance free – Steel buildings never need painting, never need re-roofing – just hose the building down and you’re done.

• Fully customizable with windows, doors, skylights, sidelights, vents, cupolas, gutters & downspouts, a variety of environmentally friendly colors, and panels that can achieve the look of wood, brick or stone.

• Fire, insect and pest resistant so your insurance costs can be lower and you never need worry about termites again.

• Flexible building solution for virtually any type of building project.

• Can withstand high winds and heavy snows – no worries about hurricanes, tornadoes or blizzards.

• Peel and stick solar panels for standing seam metal roofs can make any building an energy-efficient power-house, on or off the grid.

Olympia Steel Buildings Cool Metal Roofing Is Energy Efficient and Sustainable

Cool Metal Roofing for pre-engineered steel buildings and metal building systems is a family of sustainable, energy efficient roofing products comprised of unpainted and pre-painted metal finishes. Cool metal roofing is available in a wide variety of finishes, colors, textures and profiles for both steep-slope and low-slope roofing applications.

The roof can have the greatest impact on the energy use of any building, including pre-engineered steel buildings and metal building systems.

Generally, metal roofing's "coolness" is determined by its reflectivity and emissivity. As the diagram demonstrates, when solar radiation strikes a roof surface, some of that radiation - up to 70 percent in the case of a "cool metal roof" - is reflected off the roof's surface, less heat is tranferred into the building and the building remains cooler. Therefore, a roof surface with high reflectivity as well as high emittance value, such as a "cool metal roof" will remain cooler and less heat will be transferred into the building or into ambient air than with a roof surface having low reflectivity, such as a typical asphalt shingle roof system.

Mill-finish metal roof systems for steel buildings have very high solar reflectance but limited emittance. Metal roofs with oven-cured, pre-painted organic coatings that incorporate new "cool pigment" technology offer high total solar reflectance and high infrared emittance even with dark colors. Emissivity as high as 90% can be achieved for painted metal roofs.

Energy Savings up to 40%
Cool metal roofs help reduce energy consumption by lowering cooling loads. Reflective roofs directly save up to 40% in heating and cooling energy costs, as reported by Laurence Berkeley National Laboratory.

ZEUS-SHIELD Roof Panels are available with TRINAR® COOL CHEMISTRY® Series coatings which contain ceramic infrared reflective pigments. These special pigments are designed to reflect infrared energy while still absorbing visible light energy, thus appearing as the same color yet staying much cooler. Painted metal roofs retain 95% of their initial reflectance and emittance over time.

End Result
The end result is sustainable building material that can reduce peak energy demand and help to mitigate urban heat island effects.

Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings and LEED - What You Need To Know

LEED®, “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” is a program that promotes Green Building values of sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmental responsibility. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), “LEED is an internationally recognized certification system that measures how well a building or community performs across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” http://www.usgbc.org/

Five of the six LEED categories are applicable to Olympia Steel Buildings :

• Sustainable Site
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Materials and Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovation and Design Process

Building with Olympia pre-engineered steel buildings can earn your building points toward LEED® certification in the following areas:

• Sustainable Sites 7.2 – Heat Island Effect – Roof
• Materials and Resources 5.1 – Recycled Content
• Materials and Resources 5.2 – Recycled Content
• Exemplary Performance- Recycled content 70-72%

Be sure to consult with your LEED-Accredited consultant about all the ways your building project may achieve LEED points

Olympia Steel Buildings Freestall Dairy Barns

Comfortable cows mean higher milk production. Olympia Steel Buildings freestall dairy barn metal building systems are continuously filled with fresh, outside air providing a healthy and comfortable environment for cows to maintain their productivity throughout the year regardless of hot summer or cold winter weather conditions.

Olympia Steel Buildings freestall dairy barn metal buildings  incorporate an innovative integral moveable side curtain system with dual curtain drive units and galvanized curtain doors, which allow airflow and exposure to the outside elements to be controlled. A manual curtain door drive unit is also available. Olympia's open ridge building ventilation system allows for ample air exchange, venting the large quantities of heat and moisture produced by cows out of the buildings. Other barn systems that may be closed too tightly allow condensation to form on interior surfaces and become damp, conditions which are uncomfortable and unhealthy for cows and can accelerate building deterioration. The bottom line is whether cows are comfortable. . .

Olympia Steel Buildings Free Stall Dairy Barns

Naturally ventilated free stall barns have become the mainstay of the dairy industry.

Olympia Steel Buildings galvanized clear span free stall dairy barn buildings are open, airy, well ventilated galvanized pre-engineered steel buildings with wide open layouts, 28 ft bay spacing & no posts to deal with. Olympia Steel freestall dairy barns buildings are bright with good lighting and equipment integrated into the building design for the most efficient layout for light and ventilation. Olympia Steel Buildings is known for its well-designed freestall barns. Having easy access to water and easy cattle flow, wide outside rows and open ventilation equal comfortable cows.

Olympia Steel Buildings Polyester Paint

Olympia Steel Buildings Siliconized Polyester Paint

Olympia Steel buildings siliconized polyester paint is an energy efficient color option for steel buildings that carries a 40-year warranty against chipping, cracking, peeling and blistering. A galvanized coating beneath the paint provides additional protection against rusting.

Olympia's paint for steel building panels can reduced energy costs for cooling by up to 20% and peak cooling demand by up to 15 percent. These savings are realized because the pigmentation in the cool paint used for Olympia steel buildings increases the amount of solar energy reflected off the roof so your building will always stay 20 percent cooler in the hot sun. The "cool" paints used by Olympia steel buildings come in 12 environmentally friendly colors that not only protect the environment but also put money back in customer's pockets by providing huge savings on energy bills. Olympia Steel buildings energy efficient color option can also qualify for energy credit under the federal tax code.

Olympia's painted galvalume steel sidewall panels are wind rated to meet Florida code. The Florida wind rating approval code number for Olympia's steel building sidewall panels is FL-3985-R2.

Metal Buildings Competitors' Paint

Some metal buildings competitors offer only a 10 year warranty on their metal side wall panels. Some other metal building companies offer only a 20 year warranty on their metal side wall panels. Some companies metal side wall panels are not wind rated and do not have a Florida wind rating approval number.

Olympia Steel Buildings Roof Sealant For Metal Building Roof Panels

Olympia Steel Buildings Roof Mastic Sealant For Metal Building Roof Panels

Olympia Steel Buildings uses a sealant or mastic tape on its metal building roof panels and on the sides. The side lap panels have have a 1” wide flat mastic strip and the end lap panel has a 1” wide double bead sealant strip that creates a watertight seal. The large 1" seal allows the fasteners to easily hit the mastic and penetrate the sealant, creating a tight seal against water and air infiltration into the steel building, giving you a nice tight building for efficient heating, cooling, ventilation, and protection  against the elements.

Some metal building competitor’s use only a 3/8” or 1/2” wide flat mastic strip on the side lap panel.  This narrow flat mastic strip cannot ensure a watertight seal. Strong winds can force rain against the metal building through the panel overlap, allowing water into the building. Where one vertical panel overlaps another there is only a 3/8” or 1/2” wide flat mastic strip increasing the risk that the screw used to fasten the panels together will missing mastic tape allowing water and air penetration into the building so that you do not have a nice tight energy-efficient building.

California Builders Choose Olympia Steel Buildings

Olympia Steel Buildings are great for California builders, businesses and homeowners, whether you need a new warehouse or manufacturing plant, an office building, a retail store or strip mall, whether you want to start a mini-storage warehouse business, or even a garage or residential home.

Olympia pre-engineered steel buildings and metal building systems are approved by LA County and are designed and engineered to meet all California metal building codes, including seismic, wind and snow loads.

Residents of the Golden State love the fact that steel buildings are not only rot and rust resistant, making them virtually maintenance free, healthier for livestock and the perfect protector for commodities storage, Olympia steel buildings are fire resistant too! This means that when "fire season" hits, your property will protected against the ravages of Nature.

Metal steel buildings roofs do not ignite as do shake shingles and other similar materials, and steel building siding is fire resistant as well. Metal building materials can have the look of stucco or stone, and even wood, but will not ignite as wood siding and shingles can.

California farmers love Olympia Steel buildings for agriculture too. Whether designed for a dairy facility, metal storage barn for commodities, a horse barn or riding arena, Olympia Steel buildings are the steel metal buildings of choice for California.

Olympia Steel Buildings Joins U.S. Green Building Council

Because steel buildings are naturally “Green”, and because we want to do our part to be environmentally responsible, Olympia Steel Buildings has joined the U.S. Green Building Council to demonstrate our support of sustainable building practices and our commitment to Green Building principles and design.

The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices and advancing structures that are environmentally responsible, cost- and resource- efficient, and healthy places to live and work. Their Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System emphasizes state-of-the-art practices in five areas:

• Building site development that is environmentally friendly and responsible
• Water conservation and responsible water use
• Energy efficiency, including alternative energy sources
• Renewable materials
• Indoor environmental quality

What this means to you is that when you purchase an Olympia Steel building, you will have the opportunity to save money and build Green with the latest in Green building technologies. You may qualify for energy credit under the Federal tax codes, and you will be able to apply for LEED certification for your building project. Read more about pre engineered steel buildings and Green building construction …

Cool Coatings Make Steel Buildings "Cool"

Did you know there is Federal Energy Credit available for metal roofing that meets Energy Star guidelines? Energy Star designation means these products will help lower your energy costs and be good for the environment. AkzoNobel's Cool Chemistry® versions of CERAM-A-STAR® 1050 series of coatings used by Olympia Steel Buildings are designed to comply with Energy Star guidelines for steep slope roofs. Energy costs for cooling can be reduced by up to 20% and peak cooling demand by up to 15 percent.

Not only that, but Olympia offers an industry-leading 40-year warranty on the CERAM-A-STAR® 1050 color paint coating used to coat all of their painted steel sheeting against chipping, cracking, peeling and blistering in a choice of twelve environmentally friendly steel building colors. More about cool coatings for metal buildings…