What do you call a metal building? Do you call it a pre-engineered metal building or PEMB? Or do you call it a metal building system? Does it really make a difference?
Historically, metal buildings have been commonly known as PEMBs and have been used for warehouses, storage facilities and agricultural buildings.
Today, metal building systems are used in all types of projects, from education to sports and recreations, wineries and distilleries to government and transportation buildings. So much so that the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) notes that over the past 80 years, more than 14 million metal building systems have been constructed. Its research indicates that 34% of the low-rise buildings built in the U.S. use metal building systems.
Over the years, the industry has changed the way it looks at metal building systems. The “pre-engineered” part of “PEMBs” dates back to the early days of metal building systems when they were often referred to as “kit buildings” or “factory buildings” because they were made in standard sizes and could be ordered as a kit.
As metal buildings have evolved and advanced, so have the structural analysis tools used to design them, leading manufacturers to move away from standard sizes and configurations. Instead, manufacturers have moved toward a model of custom engineering each project for the specific application, location and building codes applicable to each individual project.
With this change, the MBMA and its allies in the construction community successfully got “metal building system” defined and adopted in the 2024 International Building Code, which allows designers and code officials to specify the requirements of metal building systems more accurately and consistently.
This aligns with the Construction Specifier Institute, which chose the term “metal building systems” for its MasterFormat section 13 34 19 because it is considered all-inclusive and can be expanded to include subsets to account for specific conditions.
Metal building systems offer designers a ton of creative freedom to create the type of project an owner desires. To help learn more, the MBMA has a continuing education course called Specifying the Latest in Metal Buildings, which looks at how to properly specify a high-performance building system to meet an owner’s design vision and exceed their expectations. Visit MBMA’s website at www.mbma.com for more information.
