Learning from a mistake is usually a good thing, unless that mistake costs a lot of money to make. Learning from someone else’s mistake is far cheaper, so over the next few posts we will look at some mistakes made in past church building projects, so your church does not have to repeat them. First up: a church design making use of pre-engineered metal buildings, often called PEMBs.
What the Salesperson Promises
Pre-engineered metal buildings are not a mistake by themselves. How they get marketed and how they get used is where churches can run into trouble. Ask around and you will likely hear the same claims: PEMBs save 50 percent of the cost of the building, they are easy to install, they ship quickly, and the building can even be taken down and resold later. Each of these claims sounds appealing, but none of them tell the whole story.
Where PEMBs Actually Make Sense
Pre-engineered metal buildings can be a genuinely cost-effective choice for the right church building project. They work well as clear span structures, meaning the frame runs from side to side, with no columns in the middle of the room, and that advantage grows once a building passes about 5,000 square feet. Below that size, other methods of construction, such as wood framing or bar joist, can cost less. Shape matters too. Simple squares and rectangles keep PEMB pricing competitive, while a lot of in-and-out walls or a distinctive building shape adds cost fast. The same goes for the roof. Moderate pitches, generally a 1:12 to 2:12 slope, are the most economical, and straight, simple rooflines keep costs down, while hips and valleys add expense.
Material Savings Are Not Building Savings
Here is where the 50 percent claim falls apart. A pre-engineered metal building package is typically just that: a package of material. It is the steel frame and, depending on the quote, the wall and roof panels. It does not include erection, foundations, or insulation. When a manufacturer compares their material cost to a fully built structure using traditional methods, they are not comparing apples to apples, and that gap can cost your church building project real money before it is caught.
One church learned this the hard way when it purchased what it believed was a low-cost metal building. Only after the contractor began erecting the frame did anyone realize the package did not include any wall or roof panels at all. The church had bought the steel skeleton, sometimes called red iron, and nothing else. It is an easy detail to miss on a proposal, and an expensive one to discover on-site.
The Second Mistake: Thinking You Can Move It Later
The other assumption that gets churches into trouble is believing that a pre-engineered metal building can be disassembled and resold if the church ever needs to relocate or expand. These buildings are engineered for a specific site, with wind, seismic, and snow load requirements calculated for that location. A structure designed for Cleveland cannot simply be shipped to Florida or California, expecting the same performance. The loads do not match, and the building code will not allow it.
We’ve heard of one church that discovered this after deciding its metal building no longer fit its needs and tried to sell it. Thirty years later, that building is still sitting unsold. It has come up in conversation more than half a dozen times, but every prospective buyer runs into the same wall: the structure was never engineered for their site’s loads, and it no longer meets current code after three decades of updates.
Building Wisely, Not Just Cheaply
None of this means that pre-engineered metal buildings are always a poor choice. Used in the right scenario, on the right size and shape of building, they can be a cost-effective option for some church designs. Used in the wrong scenario, however, expecting savings and flexibility that the product was never built to deliver, they can be a mistake you’d rather somebody else make.
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