What is a Clear Span?
A big part of shopping for a new building is knowing all the terminology that you are likely to encounter. You don’t want to be confused by various terms and end up making an uninformed buying decision. Fortunately, shopping for metal buildings is pretty simple as long as you take a moment to learn about a few key things. In this post we’re going to explain what clear span is and how it plays a role in carports.
What is Clear Span?
A clear span is a building that is completely open on the inside, devoid of any structural support like columns that would get in the way of using the space. While the benefits of having a large clear span space are many–and we’ll talk about those later–it’s not easy to create this kind of indoor room without having structural issues. Some materials, like wood, are just too heavy to allow for the creation of a big clear span. That’s why metal is such an appealing choice for so many types of structures. With a light material weight, metal buildings can offer feature huge clear spans, allowing them to function in ways that wooden buildings cannot match.
Clear Span Allows for Creativity
You can do things inside a clear span building that you can’t do when there are columns or posts in the way. If you have been looking at design options for other types of buildings and can’t quite find what you need, it’s likely that a clear span is going to turn out to be the solution. Here are just a few of the things that you can do with this kind of structure on your land.
- Park large equipment. If you need to park large pieces of machinery, either overnight or for winter storage, you’ll have to have enough space inside your building for those items to fit. Often, they are wide enough that they won’t fit through the posts of another type of building, or even if they can squeeze through, there isn’t enough room to turn around. A clear span remedies that issue and gives you ample parking space with no limitations on how the equipment can be moved around once inside.
- Store supplies optimally. You can probably store most of your supplies in a building that needs posts for support, but you may not be able to optimize that space as you can when those posts are gone. Without any physical interruptions in the space, you can decide on the optimal format for storing your goods and you can easily retrieve them when the time is right.
- Work on big projects. If you would like to use your carport as a workspace or garage for cars, a clear span frees you from the limitations that might otherwise be placed on what you could build. Without posts or columns clogging up the layout, you can work on anything that will fit inside without having to make special accommodations.
The Appeal of Working with Metal
With so much to like about a clear span building, it’s easy to see how this capability could turn you in the direction of a metal structure for your upcoming project. This material affords you many customization options, a modest cost for the project, a short building timeline, minimal ongoing maintenance, and more. Even if you didn’t need the benefits of a clear span, a metal building would still be a smart choice given the countless other advantages it would provide.
Is a Clear Span Right for You?
Think about how you are going to use this new building and how having a big clear span may or may not help you accomplish your goals. Having a large clear span may be essential for some situations. Our Build & Price tool makes it easy to design your ideal building and explore the custom features we make available. No matter how you design your building, the team at Carport Kingdom is ready to help bring it to life. Reach out right away to learn more.
