GUIDE TO METAL BUILDING LOADS

There are several factors taken into consideration when designing a metal building. The building's overall use, occupancy, function and aesthetics are some of the first things that come to mind for a consumer. For an architect and engineer, however, the design process goes quite a bit deeper, complying with local building codes.

Local building codes include regulations specific to building loads - the amount of force exerted on a building vertically, horizontally and longitudinally.

COMPLYING WITH BUILDING CODES MEANS COMPLYING WITH BUILDING LOAD REQUIREMENTS
These forces exist inherently via gravity and nature, but they are also created by certain weather or climatic conditions in any given region in the United States. The primary goal of building codes is to keep a building's occupants safe, as well as facilitating public health and safety. They begin at the federal level, with regulations passed by the International Building Code (IBC), and get more specific as they move to the state and local level, in order to address more geography-specific conditions. This is why the load requirements in your municipality might be different than one elsewhere.

Here are some of the metal building loads your architect and engineer will pay attention to as they design your building.

LOAD CLASSIFICATIONS
As we touched on above, building loads are classified into three different types:

Vertical. The vertical load of a building consists of three different load categories.

Dead load. This is the load or weight created by the building materials themselves, including the roof, floor, wall, and foundation systems, as well as claddings, finishes, and fixed equipment.
Collateral load. This weight is created by the additional and incidental parts and equipment that are added to the building, including things like the HVAC system, fire protection systems, lighting, suspended ceilings, and so on.
Live load. This is the load that will be created once occupants and furniture are in the building, as well as temporary petitions and office equipment. It also includes the weight of workers or repair personnel that may get on top of the roof or wall sides for maintenance and repairs.
Impact load. This includes any exterior weight that may fall or drop on the building through some force of nature or human error. This category also accounts for vibration.
Horizontal. A horizontal load will impact a building from side-to-side rather than from the top down. These loads are typically caused by things like seismic activity (earthquake) or wind.

There are also longitudinal loads, but those loads are calculated for specialty designs such as bridges or gantry girders, so they are less applicable in the metal building industry.

A RUNDOWN OF BASIC LOAD CONSIDERATIONS
Within the above categories and designations are more specific load requirements, typically determined by geographic location but also dependent on the surrounding building environment.

Snow loads. All those light, fluffy flakes add considerable weight to the top and sides of a building. If you live in an area where it snows, your building design will incorporate the infrastructure and materials to account for snow impact both on the metal roof as well as snow loads that may accumulate as the result of drifts or snow that is blown against the sides of a building.

These designations consist of roof snow loads, ground snow loads, snow exposure factors, snow thermal factors and snow drifts.

Wind loads. This load calculation is fairly universal for all buildings constructed in the U.S. Buildings have to meet a minimal wind load requirement, with requirements becoming more strict the more wind your building will be exposed to. This load requirement is especially important in an era that is concerned about increasing changes in weather patterns, especially for regions prone to hurricanes or tornadoes.

Wind loads are calculated according to average and extreme wind speeds, combined with geographic features that either shelter or leave a buildings exposed to wind conditions.

Seismic loads. Similar to wind loads, every building in the United States must comply with the basic seismic load requirements set forth by the combined efforts of the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC), FEMA, and the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). However, states that are more prone to frequent or more severe seismic activity have more stringent seismic load requirements. To determine these regions, experts have created highly specific seismic zoning maps that have refined representations of potential seismic ground shaking in a given location with a consistent return period.

Whether you work with an architect to design your metal building and/or engage the metal building manufacturer to do this engineering work for you, the end result is a strong and durable building that is custom designed for your specific location. Not only is complying with these various load specifications mandatory through your local building department, compliance is essential to keep you and your building's occupants safe.


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