The Winds may Howl, but the SteelMaster Stays

Imagine a hurricane that packs such a wallop that map makers would be forced to redraw North Carolina’s coastline. It’s a possibility for the Outer Banks—a 130-mile string of barrier islands which jut out and chisel the ocean’s edge like few others throughout the world. A hurricane bearing an especially powerful surge could overwhelm the Outer Banks with sea water, sending an artillery of 25 foot waves that would obliterate anything standing in its way.

Or would it?

For the past 30 years, SteelMaster Buildings, which is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Va.—just a bit north of the Outer Banks, has manufactured and sold its steel buildings and roofing systems to residents and business owners of the storm-challenged area. SteelMaster’s owner Rhae Adams sold many of those buildings to their owners, and he is proud to say that while surrounding structures have caved from Mother Nature’s fury, the company’s buildings still stand tall. He believes this is due in no small part to the chemistry that is behind the creation of their tough exterior.

“Every building that has been sold down there has been designed to withstand a 150 mph wind load by thickening the steel to make them stronger,” says Rhae. “Rust isn’t a factor with our buildings either because we use a top-of-the-line steel that is made through complex chemistry resulting in an unheard of tensile strength. We use a mill that produces metal where the tensile strength is so strong that no one else in the world has it.”

Another factor that plays into the resistance of the company’s buildings is that each one is mill coated with Galvalume Plus steel coating which provides a dry-coated, maintenance-free finish that also keeps the building cool in the summer and easy to heat in the winter. Best of all, all SteelMaster steel buildings include lifetime engineering and a 30-year warranty backed by its factory and the ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel mill.

So through Hurricane’s Diana, Gloria, Charley, Hugo, Emily, Bertha, Fran, Bonnie, Dennis, Floyd, Isabel, Alex (which made history when it became the strongest hurricane, at 120 mph, to ever venture that far north), Charley, and Ophelia, the SteelMaster buildings throughout the Outer Banks did not falter, and in fact, have thrived.

“We’re real proud of our buildings,” says Rhae. “I know that every steel building that we sell is the strongest and finest-made on the market, and that is exactly what the folks living along the Outer Banks need and deserve.”

All of the buildings featured on the map below have survived mulitple hurricanes throughout the past decades.