How Can You Make Your Metal Building Look Better?

Dressed Building

When you purchase a metal building, functionality may be front of mind, but you should also consider the way your building looks and how that might impact how you plan to use it. Contrary to popular belief, pre-engineered metal buildings don’t need to look like metal boxes or industrial buildings. Instead, they can offer many of the same aesthetic elements of wooden structures, but with far-superior structural integrity.

What are some of the things you can do to make your metal building look as good as it functions?

Play with siding and finishes

Don’t want your metal building to look like a tin box? It doesn’t have to. Depending on your building’s intended use, you may want to add any number of aesthetic elements to the exterior. Consider using brick, glass, wood, stucco or stone in combination with your building’s existing steel panels to boost curb appeal.

Add wainscoting

Adding wainscoting to your steel building gives you another opportunity to showcase your desired style and give your building an elegant, upscale look. Wainscoting is a strip of steel that runs along the exterior of your building and is typically between about 3″ and 4″ high. Some metal building buyers like to add wainscoting in a color that matches a building’s roof. Others like to choose colors that contrast against the primary color of the building. While wainscot enhances your steel building’s aesthetics, it also adds an additional layer of protection against dents and dings.

Add accessories

You also have near-endless options when it comes to accessorizing your metal building. Consider forgoing traditional doors and windows in favor of customized, aesthetically pleasing options, or consider adding cupolas, roof curbs, trim packages and similar elements to help your building stand out and draw eyes from the road. You can also add awnings and overhangs, which not only make your metal building look better, but also increase its usable covered space at the same time.

Alter the roofline

While a metal building with a low roof pitch is often the most economical option, it is not the only option. Changing the pitch of your metal building’s roof can have a dramatic effect on how it looks. You can also choose from specific roof designs, such as a hip roof or a gable roof, to improve the appearance of your steel building.

While these are some of the most effective ways of enhancing the look of your metal building, this is not an exhaustive list of all methods you might use to do so. If you have a particular picture in mind of how you’d like your metal building to look, MBO can help you find budget-friendly ways to make your vision a reality.