Illinois Couple See the Beauty in Steel Carport

Talking with David and Becky Drinkwater of Beach Park, IL, their pride is palpable as they discuss an addition they made to their homestead two years ago.

"It's just so beautiful," they both say, almost in unison. "We've gotten so many compliments from everyone who sees it."

Some may be surprised to learn that the impetus for the excited lilt in their voices is a steel carport that stands in their driveway and protects their car. "Becky and I were talking about purchasing a carport to park our new car under, and we agreed that we didn't want to have to look at or deal with a poorly constructed, ugly, box-shaped thing sitting in our driveway," says David. "We live on more than two acres of land that looks like a beautiful park, and we didn't want to build a garage or any structure that would take away from that park-like environment-we wanted it to remain open."

 After visiting various home improvement chain stores, the Drinkwaters were losing hope that they would ever find something that was affordable and met their aesthetic standards.  "One day we were on the Internet, and we happened upon SteelMaster Buildings," says David. "After researching their product and talking to a few folks who work there, we knew we found what we were looking for."

Located in Virginia Beach, VA, SteelMaster Buildings has 30 years of experience designing and producing steel and metal pre-engineered arch buildings for a broad range of residential and commercial applications, including carports.

"The SteelMaster Ultimate Carport is the strongest steel carport in the marketplace and is built to withstand a variety of climate conditions while at the same time has a unique, pleasing look about it and offers 100 percent usable space, thanks to the arch design," says Michelle Wickum, SteelMaster's director of marketing.

For the Drinkwaters, the arch of the carport is a thing of beauty. "Aesthetically, the arch of the roof looks really cool to us," says David. "Plus I love the quality of it. It is a powerful, really strongly built structure. I'm convinced that if we were hit with a hurricane, the house would blow away, but the carport would stay right where it is." Betsy says she couldn't agree more. "When you drive up to it, it's so beautiful, and everyone remarks about that."

In fact, the Drinkwaters believed so strongly in the beauty of their carport that they submitted photos of it into SteelMaster's 2010 spring photo contest. "They were one of the five runner ups for that contest," says Wickum. "The photograph of the carport was chosen as it was an excellent representation of the strength of SteelMaster carports.  In fact, we liked the photo so much that we featured the Drinkwaters' carport in our 2011 calendar."

When David submitted his photos, he also wrote a few paragraphs about their carport that really expresses it all:

The arch design of the carport is what I find most exciting and visually attractive.  It is also extremely strong and very well built.  One could not want for a more aesthetically pleasing and substantial carport anywhere in the world.  One could safely say that I was greatly impressed by the product and the customer support that was provided during its construction.

It was very helpful to have your staff explain construction techniques that would help me make my carport square and level and fit together properly.  Rich often was the person I called the most. He told me how to build a wooden template to set down on the sonotubes so that I could suspend my J-bolts into the wet concrete. 

I procured a laser level to make all my sonotubes level.  I did that at dusk to see the red line on the sonotubes and then traced them with a marker and cut them off with a jigsaw.  I mixed all my concrete by hand with a hoe and wheelbarrow.  It took about 70 bags of concrete to fill the four sonotubes.  It tested my manhood. I have a cordless impact driver that was indispensable in torquing all the nuts down to specs.

I only had one assistant, the woman of my dreams and my sweetheart, Becky, who was indispensable. 

With thousands of satisfied customers, including buildings located in every state in the United States, on six continents, and in more than 40 overseas countries, SteelMaster takes pride in knowing its steel buildings have earned the favor of people like the Drinkwaters.

SteelMaster's steel and metal pre-engineered buildings are designed for a broad range of residential and commercial applications including Garages, Workshops, Carports, Quonsets, Airplane Hangars, RV Storage, Military Buildings, Commercial Warehousing, and Industrial Storage as well as a wide variety of Custom Building applications including Athletic Facilities, Retail Stores, Churches, Bus Stops, Smoke Shacks, Doggie Dorms, and Correctional Facilities.

SteelMaster Carports

Sometimes what you want, is exactly what you need.

When Tina Winnett realized she desired somewhere other than her exposed parking space to store her brand new, shiny white vehicle, she did what most of us do when we need facts with pictures from an infinite source of wisdom. She "googled it".

SteelMaster's designs and prefabricated steel and metal arched buildings and carports are plastered all over the world-wide web, so Tina had little problem honing in on what she wanted.

Tina summed up the reason she chose SteelMaster by saying, "I recently purchased a new vehicle and realized I needed to protect it from bird droppings, sap and debris where I park under an oak tree. I Googled carport images on the internet. The minute I spotted the SteelMaster carport, I knew I had found the look I wanted. I immediately went to the company website, and was impressed by the affordability, quality and sturdiness of the steel, the warranty, and finally by the conversation I had with SteelMaster's Senior Project Specialist, Michael Suozzi. I learned that that upon completion, the carport could even withstand all types of weather conditions. Michael told me about some customers in Alabama with SteelMaster carports that withstood the devastating tornadoes of April, 2011. After going through three hurricanes here in Lakeland, Florida in a six-week span in back in 2004, and a recent tornado that dropped trees and snapped a power pole in my back yard, I decided this was the carport I needed."

"Although it can be easily assembled, I decided to hire a contractor to erect the building. When he first started assembly, he had some reservations about the sturdiness of the carport because the bolts had to remain loose up to a certain point. Once he began tightening everything up, he was very impressed," said Tina.

"I love the look of the carport and have received many favorable comments from friends and neighbors. Obviously, it serves the purpose for which it was purchased, and I am convinced it will withstand whatever mother nature sends my way in the future," Tina added confidently.

"SteelMaster buildings are engineered for life," said Michelle Wickum, SteelMaster's Director of Marketing. "Our Steel Arched Buildings are designed to meet the wind loads of their destination whether located in Florida, Alabama or the Caribbean. Our buildings are made with consideration given to climatological factors in order to provide protection from water, freezing temperatures, fire, and even hurricane-force winds."

"Statistical weather data plays a huge role in each customer's design process," adds Michelle. "Our company's use of Galvalume Plus Coating not only provides our carports with strength and superior corrosion resistance, it also makes SteelMaster Buildings maintenance-free for life."

Each SteelMaster prefabricated design kit comes with a 30-year mill-backed warranty by ArcelorMittal (NYSE MT). Through common ownership, SteelMaster owns the ArcelorMittal factory where its buildings are engineered, designed, and manufactured , thus allowing the company to set the most stringent quality standards for Steel Buildings in the industry.

SteelMaster's steel and metal pre-engineered buildings are designed for a broad range of residential and commercial applications including carports, just like the one Tina Winnett now enjoys. SteelMaster designs also include projects for homes, farm buildings, garages, workshops, agricultural storage, Quonsets, airplane hangars, RV storage, roofing systems, carports, military buildings, commercial warehousing, and industrial storage as well as a wide variety of custom building applications including athletic facilities, retail stores, churches, bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, and correctional facilities.

This month, SteelMaster is celebrating its 30-year anniversary. With more than 40,000 satisfied customers with buildings throughout the United States, located in more than 50 overseas countries, and on six continents, SteelMaster is a stand out, and remains the leader in Steel Arched Pre-fabricated Buildings world-wide.

Carports