Why Commercial Businesses Choose Fabric Buildings Instead of Traditional Construction Methods

As a commercial business, staying ahead of the competition, investing in your property, and building efficiencies within your operations are likely goals. To do that, think fabric. Fabric buildings for commercial businesses are one of the most cost-effective methods of expansion, organization, and growth possible today. Whether you are using them for storage, retail setups, warehousing, manufacturing, or numerous other strategies, the benefits of fabric buildings are hard to overlook.

At Britespan, we encourage you to learn why commercial and industrial businesses use fabric buildings, the value they provide, and the growth they support.

Speed of Construction and Time to Occupancy: Fabric Buildings Outpace Traditional Builds for Commercial Needs

One of the most significant benefits of fabric buildings compared to pre-engineered metal buildings is speed. Instead of brick-by-brick construction, implementing a fabric building takes a fraction of the time. The timeline is dependent on what you invest in and your goals, but consider some of the differences you might see.

• Commercial brick buildings take 4 to 12 months to complete, depending on their complexity. The more detailed the work, the longer it is likely to take.
• Commercial wood buildings can take 6 to 12 months to complete, depending on the complexity of the project. However, it is not uncommon for larger, commercial-sized buildings to take as long as 18 months to build.
• The build time of an average commercial building using block may take 18 months or longer due to the number of factors that go into the process.

Here’s the difference that fabric buildings for commercial businesses offer. It takes about 10 weeks, or about 4 months for larger projects, to get fabric buildings up and ready to go. Why is that?

There are many advantages of fabric structures, but speed from building to occupancy is incredibly important today. This can happen for several reasons:

• The rapid fabrication of the fabric buildings is one of those reasons. Depending on what you need and specifications for your project, fabrication in our facility takes a fraction of the time that it takes to do the same type of work on a commercial building. Simply, it’s built faster.
• The installation process is streamlined. Unlike the brick-by-brick process of building a traditional building, commercial businesses can count on the installation of their fabric buildings to be much more streamlined and effective.

With faster fabrication and installation, your business can get a building in place quickly and have it ready to use for virtually any objective.

Faster construction directly translates into quicker occupancy and operational readiness for your business. That also means reduced downtime as you move into the space and a faster pace to start earning revenue from that structure. Fabric buildings for commercial businesses just make sense when timing matters.

Cost Advantages Beyond the Initial Build: Analyzing the Long-Term Value of Fabric Structures for Commercial Operations

Many of the benefits of fabric buildings are realized in the months and years after the construction is complete. You are in these spaces, using them daily to meet your business objectives. Consider the lifecycle and other cost benefits of fabric buildings over traditional construction to see the true difference. Specifically consider the Britespan building benefits.

Energy Savings Potential

Modern fabric buildings vs traditional construction differ in many fundamental ways. However, one of the most unique differences is in the natural ability of fabric buildings to require less energy to operate and maintain them. Because of their natural light source, they require a fraction of the energy to light the space to safe working levels. That is due to the incredible amount of natural light that pours into them. The unique structure enables light to enter the space while still providing privacy as well.

Note that the amount of light is controllable and can be specific to your project or business needs. Take a look at some of the commercial fabric storage options available to see how easily this can transform the need for managing light use. When every dollar matters, eliminating the need to use lights in your commercial business is a simple money saver. Consider the advantages of natural lighting for your business operation.

Reduced Maintenance Needs

Fabric buildings for commercial businesses are also beneficial because they reduce the need for maintenance and upkeep tremendously. Investing in durable fabric buildings for businesses reduces the need for all of the tedious tasks necessary to maintain traditional construction buildings.

A traditional building requires constant cleaning, repair, inspections, and troubleshooting to keep it operational. You may have a team within your business dedicated to keeping the structure functioning at its best, but that is money that you may not need to spend.

With fabric buildings, the level of ongoing maintenance is quite minimal. There is no painting to worry about, and no need to replace components of the siding because someone damaged them. With fabric buildings, none of those concerns apply. For example, you can reliably use these spaces for commodity storage for years without having to do more than a slight cleaning of the exterior and they will continue to look new. They continue to operate reliably without a lot of work.

Flexibility to Move or Expand

One of the most important factors to consider in fabric buildings vs traditional construction, if it applies to your business, is the flexibility that fabric offers that traditional construction cannot. For example, if you are a transportation and logistics business operating in an area where there is a significant amount of immediate capacity needs, you can get a new warehouse structure up within weeks to meet demand. Then, when that specific period ends, you can take down that fabric building and transport it to the next destination. The flexibility of fabric buildings makes them far more beneficial overall.

The use of flexible fabric building solutions for businesses also benefits those organizations that need space that will grow with them. Fabric structures enable you to build a structure where you need it to be, and then expand onto it as you need to. You could do this with traditional buildings, but the process is more time-consuming and may face numerous limitations due to the structural design. The nearly limitless ability to transform a space with fabric buildings and grow that space as you need to makes these structures ideal for many needs, including distribution centers and extensive warehousing needs.

So, Why Choose Fabric Buildings?

As a business, step away from the mindset that the only way you can expand your business or modify your functional space use is through a traditionally constructed building. You could build a hard-sided structure. Yet, fabric buildings for commercial businesses simply make sense.

Consider options from Britespan, such as our Apex Building Series, one of the most versatile solutions available today. These structures are stunning and functionally versatile thanks to their dome-shaped profile. They have a strong, noticeable peak and sidewall legs that increase interior space by getting rid of the need for columns. More so, they are fully engineered specifically for your site location and needs, and will provide decades of ongoing support for your business needs. Use them for:

• Warehousing
• Maintenance buildings
• Commodity storage
• Equipment storage
• Manufacturing
• Retail equipment storage
• Transportation and distribution
• Energy and oil services
• Loading docks – the list is endless

If you are considering expanding your business footprint but need affordable space options, turn to Britespan to learn more about the use of our fabric buildings for commercial businesses. In doing so, you will learn the numerous advantages they offer as well as just how affordable these structures can be for most commercial needs. Contact Britespan now for a free quote and to start the conversation.