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Heavy Snow Loads Won’t Damage These Steel Storage Buildings

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Quonset Huts in California for steel commercial storage

Endless sandy beaches, bright sun, palm trees, and warm temperatures are all classic characteristics of the sunshine state California, but the tiny town of Mammoth Lakes, wrapped in an abundance of gentle, majestic beauty is a stark contrast. In the midst of this beautiful scenery are three steel storage buildings. They belong to the Mammoth County Water District, a facility that provides water and wastewater services to about 3,500 residents in the area.

Mammoth Lakes is in the Southwestern portion of Mono County, located on the Inyo National Forest. It’s surrounded by calming lakes, acres of rich green forest, gorgeous snowcapped mountains, and dramatically plunging valley floors.

aerial view of industrial area with solar panels and quonset hut buildings

While many of the more well-known areas in the state enjoy mildly warm winters, Mammoth residents are hit with brutally cold, single-digit temperatures, and the area is blanketed with several feet of snow each year.

In January alone, the area has received about 10 feet of snow. This kind of climate is ideal for the popular Mammoth Mountain Ski resort, but can pose a problem for residents and businesses forced to deal with extremely heavy snow loads.

That’s exactly what brought the Mammoth County Water District to SteelMaster Buildings.

A few years ago, they built three Quonset HutTM-style buildings, but two of the steel storage buildings collapsed under the weight of heavy snow.

They came to SteelMaster to purchase two new and improved steel storage buildings. One is an XQ 30’w x 14’h x 40’l and the other is an XQ 40’w x 16’h x 66’l.

SteelMaster’s structures are normally made with 22-gauge steel, but MCWD’s needs required something a bit stronger to prevent a repeat of what happened to the other two buildings.

SteelMaster’s longtime sales representative William Kain provided the company with professionally engineered stamped drawings that called for 14 and 12 gauge steel panels to increase the strength of the building.

The smaller building is a mixture of 14-gauge steel, which is used on every other arch. The larger building is made of pure 12-gauge steel through the entire design.

The facility also has another building on the property in addition to the two they purchased from SteelMaster, and each structure has a specific purpose. Two of the buildings are used for storage of various items and equipment, and the other building is used as a fabrication shop.

Jerry Baker, the line maintenance supervisor at the water facility, says they are going to put heaters inside of one of the buildings as they plan to have workers inside of it more often.

As the brutal cold settles in and snow starts to fall, the Mammoth County Water District will no longer have to worry about the danger of heavy snow. Their equipment is well protected from the elements and their new steel storage buildings will be there for years to come.