Metal Buildings 101

BASIC TERMINOLOGYkirby-metal-main
Most metal buildings have four outside walls.  Two of these walls are called sidewalls.  This occurs where the roof meets the walls and aligns parallel to the flush floor without any increase in the height of the walls.  The other two walls, called endwalls, show a rising line where the walls meet the roof and the height of the walls change.

The point where the sidewalls meet the roof is called the eave.  It often has special trim to dress it up or a gutter to catch the rain flow from the roof.  The distance from the bottom of the base plate to the point where the roof and sidewall intersect is where the eave height is determined.

If you visualize a straight line across the endwall by extending the eave line on one sidewall to meet the eave line on the other sidewall, you would be creating a triangular area referred to as the gable.  The point where the two rising halves of the roof meet at the endwall is called the peak.

The line where the sidewall meets the endwall is usually finished out with a special piece of trim known as corner trim.  The peak receives a plastic or metal cap known as the peak box.  The peak box usually receives an identifying mark, or the Kirby logo.
The roof pitch or roof slope is usually shown as a ratio to 12 (i.e., 1:12, ½:12, 4:12, etc.).  When inches are used as a basic unit, a 4:12 roof pitch means that the roof rises 4 inches in every 12 inches measured horizontally across the width of the building from the side to the peak of the building.

Kirby metal buildings have three basic dimensions:  span (width), length, and eave height.  The span is the distance from the outside of the sidewall girt on one side to the outside of the sidewall girt on the other side.  The length is the distance from the outside of the endwall girt on one endwall to the outside of the endwall girt on the other endwall.  Eave height is the distance from the bottom of the base plate to the top of the eave strut.

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