Protect your harvest and expensive farm equipment inside of a durable SteelMaster metal Quonset Hut barn.
Choose the farm storage building or shed that’s right for you:
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BUILDINGS UP TO 70% OFF
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Agricultural industry professionals and residential property owners love our barns because of their initial affordability and long-term cost savings.
| Cheap pole barn | $4 – $10+ per sqft |
| Quonset steel barn* | $10 – $20+ per sqft |
| I-beam steel barn | $13 – $22+ per sqft |
| C-Channel steel barn | $14 – $23+ per sqft |
| Traditional wood barn | $25 – $29+ per sqft |
*Prices may vary by location & project requirements
The cost of labor and materials needed for a traditional wooden barn makes them among the more pricy solutions to farm storage.
This is especially true when compared to pre-engineered metal farm buildings where the price per square foot can be as little as half in some cases.
While I-beam and C-Channel barns provide excellent options they are much pricier than a Quonset barn that provides the same, if not better, storage protection for agricultural goods.
“Cheap” storage can solve the short-term problem of keeping things like hay or farming equipment safe from the elements but should be seen as they are intended – as a temporary solution. A Quonset hut barn can cost a little more than a cheap pole barn yet provides an excellent permanent solution to farm storage. This makes Quonset barns one of the most cost-effective choices when evaluating metal farm building prices.
One of the advantages of cheap pole barns is that with a competent work crew, they can be erected in about three weeks which is faster than a traditional barn building.
Because Quonset huts come prefabricated and are easy to erect, they can be completed in about the same amount of time, if not sooner.
Both pole barns and Quonset barns are faster to build than traditional barn buildings which means you save money on labor and construction costs.
Quonset huts have the further advantage of not requiring any special skills or tools to complete.
| Barn type | Construction time* |
| Quonset barn | 1 week or less |
| Pole barn | 2-4 weeks |
| Traditional barn | 4 – 6 weeks |
*Construction time may vary based on experience & project requirements
There are several factors to consider when purchasing a metal barn including the grade of steel, the width, height and length of the building. Typically, steel barn costs range from $8 – $16+ per square foot.
Simple animal run-ins or equipment coveralls are the cheapest farm buildings because they only consist of the steel arches you assemble and erect. If you need protection beyond shelter for your animals and equipment, you’ll want to consider these common barn-building customizations and size options.
Depending on your needs, your barn can have two endwalls, one endwall, or no endwalls.
SteelMaster’s building specialists will help you find a barn that fits your budget and size requirements.
Should you insulate your Quonset hut barn? The short answer is…it depends. The control of the temperature or air quality can depend on several factors such as what you store inside and where your building is located.
When purchasing a barn kit, with or without the pole, an important factor to consider is long-term versus short-term costs. Compared to a Quonset, the maintenance costs of cheap pole barns or wooden barns are extensive and expensive.
| Pole barn | Quonset Barn | |
| Impact damage repairs | Yes | N/A |
| Re-roofing | Yes | N/A |
| Painting | Yes | N/A |
| Wood rot | Yes | N/A |
SteelMaster not only offers affordable pricing for quality buildings every day, we also have clearance models available that is sure to fit any shopper’s budget. Customer Howard Arnold is pleased with the durability and affordability of his Quonset-style barn.
Howard says purchasing his SteelMaster barn offsets the high prices of hay he uses to feed his animals and says he believes his Quonset barn will last for decades. So far, he has not had to do any maintenance to the building since tightening the last bolt.
“Zero maintenance to the barn up to this point and hopefully from forevermore,” Howard said.
Many of our customers buy one or two barn kits just to have them on hand for any immediate storage needs that crop up. They use them as temporary buildings on the farm, then if they need a long-term storage solution they turn them into permanent buildings.
The arches of a steel barn can be put on shipping containers, on the ground (not recommended for many agricultural applications), or anchored to a concrete foundation which makes the building easier to construct than a cheap pole barn kit and much more durable.
Every steel panel of your Quonset barn kit is pre-drilled and prepunched right at our factory. The entire building only requires one size nut and one size bolt to put together. All you need are a few tools, a few friends, and a few days to put together a SteelMaster Quonset Hut.
Step 1: Pre-construct your arches on the ground
Lay the arches of the building out on the ground and hand-tighten each panel together. You’ll want to decide if you’ll be raising the entire arch or half of an arch at a time and pre-construct the arches accordingly. For larger buildings, it often makes sense to raise a half arch at a time.
Step 2: Raise and connect arches one at a time
Now that the arches are mostly assembled on the ground, raise each of them, connect them to the foundation (if a foundation is needed) and then connect the arch to the previously raised arch.
Step 3: For every 4th arch raised, tighten bolts completely
Once four arches are up, go back and fully tighten the first arch. Then each time your raise a new arch, go back and tighten the arch that’s four arches back.
Step 4: Install endwalls
Now that the building has been erected, install the endwalls you’ve selected for the barn. A popular option is to use steel endwalls provided by SteelMaster as they are functional and economical.
The time each of these steps will take depends on your construction experience and any help you have during construction. Many barn kits we sell are erected in as little as three to seven days.
Each building is specifically engineered to endure the harshest weather conditions. The corrugated, commercial-grade steel combined with the amazing strength of the arch design help to make SteelMaster’s barns some of the strongest on earth. Our barn buildings have survived dangerous hurricanes, destructive tornadoes, hail storms, and even heavy snow loads after a brutal winter storm.
SteelMaster customer Greg S. purchased a DIY prefab barn not only because he liked the aesthetic, but because he needed a building that would be able to handle heavy snow loads and other possible natural disasters in his area. When he saw that he could get the aesthetic and durability without sacrificing the easy construction a metal barn kit became the obvious choice.
It seemed like working with Legos or Tinker Toys. I like flexibility and have always been a change artist.
Greg S., Michigan
| Pole vs. Quonset Barn | Pole Barn | Quonset Barn |
| Clear Span | No | Yes |
| Expandable | No | Yes |
| HVHZ Impact rated | No | Yes |
| Up to 190mph winds | No | Yes |
| Prefab Construction | No | Yes |
| Portable | Yes | Yes |
| Maintenance cost | Yes | No |
In traditional pole barns, wooden poles are buried in the ground and used as columns for the roof.
The walls of the pole barn can be made of wood, or sometimes tin, and screwed or nailed into the poles.
Pole barns are typically not engineered to meet structural requirements because they’re not thought of as permanent structures in some locations due to the lack of foundation.
The poles of a pole barn are used for structural support, which is great for keeping the barn from collapsing, but terrible for usable space on the interior.
Ideally, you’d want to ditch the pole, to maximize movable space and maneuverability within the barn, but keep the portability of a pole barn.
Quonset “pole” barns are structurally sound and provide 100% usable space without beams, trusses or poles inside and can still be disassembled and reassembled anywhere on your farm or property if need be.