Buildings and structures
Updated: 2026-10-19
Frames
- Timber frame — studs, beams and rafters of structural timber; the most common choice for sheds and workshops.
- Steel frame — light steel sections, suited to garages and carports.
- Steel portal frame — I-beam frames a few metres apart with purlins and wind bracing; for larger farm buildings.
- Steel lattice truss frame (hangar) — galvanised tube posts on base plates and welded lattice truss rafters about every 3 m; a light storage or farm hangar.
- Masonry — block walls.
The stud or frame spacing is chosen by the rules, but you can also set it yourself.
Cladding and roof
Walls — profiled steel sheet, OSB, sandwich panels or timber boards on battens. Roofs — mono-pitch, gable or flat; covering — steel sheet, bitumen shingles, sandwich panels and more.
Pick a colour from the most popular RAL shades or enter one yourself; gates and doors can be painted, wrapped in film or printed.
Open walls
For each wall you can choose: fully clad, with a gap at the bottom, or open (columns only). This gives carports, shelters and semi-open farm buildings. A concrete plinth can be added under the cladding.
Truss hangar
A galvanised hangar frame consists of tube posts on base plates, lattice truss rafters at every frame (3.25 m in the example), purlins and wind bracing. The bill of materials counts the truss in metres and adds a joint set for each frame. Section sizes are provisional and must be chosen by a structural engineer.
Worth knowing: if the truss span is over 6 m, the building is no longer a simple structure (STR 1.01.03 item 31), so an 8.2 m wide hangar needs a building permit. The system warns about it and suggests a smaller option.
Clad hangar
The same hangar with steel sheet walls and roof, a gate at the end.
15 × 20 m hangar with lattice columns
You can paste the description as text: “hangar 15x20 m, lattice columns, polycarbonate band 1 m under the roof, sectional gate 4x4 m”. The columns are then lattice, like the trusses: two chords and diagonals, priced from fabricated steelwork per kg. Under the roof, a clear polycarbonate band replaces the sheet in the eave walls.
A sectional gate needs room above the opening for its tracks — at least 400 mm. If you do not give the wall height, the wall is raised so the gate fits. Labour hours for such a hangar follow market erection rates, and footings are counted one per column.
A 15 m span is more than 12 m, so such a hangar is a special structure (STR 1.01.03 Annex 4, 3.1). It needs a design and a building permit, and the sections are chosen by a structural engineer.
Lattice columns without covering
The same hangar without walls and roof: lattice columns and trusses every 5 m, purlins and wind bracing.
Industrial hall (preliminary)
For a large hall there is a frame of I-section columns and open-web trusses (OWJ) every 6–8 m. Walls can be up to 12 m high and the span up to 40 m.
Such a hall is always a special structure because the span is over 12 m (STR 1.01.03 Annex 4 item 3.1). So Statyk gives only a preliminary bill of materials and view. The design is prepared by certified specialists and a building permit is needed. The sections are an example, not a calculation.
Clad hall
The same hall with sandwich panel walls and roof, 9 m eaves, 6 × 6 m gate.
Mono-pitch truss carport
A carport for cars or machinery: galvanised posts every 2.5 m, mono-pitch trusses of C-sections, purlins and a steel sheet roof. The open long walls have cross wind bracing in the end bays; the same bracing is in the bill of materials. Sections are provisional and must be chosen by a structural engineer.
The system sets the carport's group under STR 1.01.03 (K = S × H³) and tells whether a permit is needed from your answers to the site questions.
Covered carport
The same carport with a steel sheet roof: 14° pitch, 3.5 m on the low side, about 5 m on the high side.
Small portal-frame building
A workshop or store can use a portal frame of I-sections: columns on base plates and gable rafters with haunches at the eaves and ridge, bolted together. Purlins and wall girts are fixed to the frames and sandwich panels to them. The long walls have cross bracing in the end bays.
All of this is shown in the view too: through an open end or in the frame view without covering you see the frames, girts and bracing that the bill of materials counts. Sections are provisional — a structural engineer chooses them.
With sandwich panels
The same building with sandwich panel walls and roof: 3.2 m eaves, 18° pitch, one end left open.
Sandwich panel warehouse
A typical warehouse or workshop: portal frame, sandwich panel walls, a low gable roof with gutters and downpipes. Sectional gates can have a row of windows. An apron — a concrete, paving or gravel strip — can be added around the building and is included in the bill of materials.
With a 12 m span such a building is non-special, so it needs a permit. The system suggests the smallest option that needs no permit.
Insulated garage with windows above the gates
You can paste a description as text: "8 m x 10 m, 5 m at the highest point / 4 m at the lowest, sandwich panels, 2 gates 4x4 m, 2 windows above the gates". The wall takes the lower height and the mono-pitch slope is calculated from the difference. The gates go into the high wall, with a window above each gate and a gap left for the lintel.
The floor can be left without concrete: the foundations are then only under the columns, and a concrete floor is priced separately. An 8 m span is more than 6 m, so such a garage is a non-special structure and needs a permit.
Floors and foundations
Concrete slab, screw piles or concrete piles, pad footings, strip footings; floors — concrete, timber on joists or none. An unsuitable combination is flagged with a suggested change.