Metal buildings are one of the most popular construction options in the United States.
Not only are metal buildings one of the lowest cost-to-build options per square foot of space, but they also offer durability, weather resistance, and speedy erection times.
Many are also guaranteed for up to 50 years, with expected lifespans of up to 100 – making them most cost-effective and more durable than wood.
If you’re putting up a 5,000-square-foot warehouse, you can expect costs to average between $6 and $15 per square foot for materials. With erection and foundation included, that can go up to $25 per square foot.
However, on average, total costs for the building and erection will be between $17 and $25. If you add on finishing and flooring, that can go up to $40 per square foot.
This means that the cost to build a 5,000-square-foot warehouse should be between $85,000 and $200,000 with all costs included.
However, “just” the building will start at about $37,000-$55,000 and the rest includes the costs of labor, foundation, and finishing.
5,000 Sq. Ft. Warehouse Uses
A 5,000-square-foot warehouse is ideal for dozens of applications ranging from car garages to body shops and workshops to agricultural storage.
In addition, the classic 50×100 building is extremely common, which means you can easily buy prefab building kits without ordering a custom building. This will save you on costs.
However, if you want something non-standard, like a 40×125 or 25×200 building, you will have to have the building engineered for you.
The following includes a few of the most common options for a 5,000-square-foot warehouse:
Industrial Buildings
5,000 square feet is more than enough to house many industrial and manufacturing processes. Therefore, these buildings are ideal for industrial usage.
Here, metal buildings offer durability, ease of construction, and affordability. Many are also extremely easy to ventilate and can be constructed tall enough to ensure worker safety inside of buildings with heavy machinery.
Metal building manufacturers also sell buildings with pre-engineered ductwork and ventilation, although most industrial and machinery buildings will require extra ventilation.
You can simply have this integrated into the design, so your building arrives ready to use.
Retail and Commercial
5,000 square feet is more than enough for most retail and commercial spaces. For example, shops and retail stores with 5,000 square feet of floor space are ideal for many consumers.
5,000 square feet is also suitable for many workplaces, meaning a metal building is a great option for an affordable headquarters or office location.
Metal buildings are cheap and easy to insulate.
For example, you can opt for insulated panels rather than choosing to install insulation inside the building. That reduces total labor and installation time, although costs can be as high as $17-$27 per square foot for the paneling.
And, with more and more prefabricated buildings coming with large glass windows and options, you’ll be able to build in a storefront to ensure your metal building is attractive to shoppers as well.
Office Spaces
A 5,000-square-foot warehouse is an ideal office space for a company with 33-65 people. That makes this a good building size for most small-to-medium businesses, with room for growth and storage for small businesses.
Of course, you’ll have to build in insulation, drop the ceiling, and integrate partitions for an office space. However, those partitions and interior finishing are often available from metal building manufacturers as well.
Small Warehouses
Warehouses can range up to about 200,000 square feet. But, if you’re looking for something a little smaller, a 5,000-square-foot warehouse may be ideal.
While only a third of all warehouses in the United States are smaller than 25,000 feet, you can still store a lot in a small warehouse.
For example, a pallet is 12.22 square feet, meaning you can fit over 300 full pallets (not stacked) into a 5,000 square foot warehouse, with room for your forklift.
Athletic Spaces
A 5,000-square-foot building is a basketball court + 300 square feet.
This means you wouldn’t want to install a basketball court in one (you wouldn’t have space for the audience). However, it can be ideal for small gyms, practice areas, tracks, and many other areas.
Here, you’ll typically want to add finishing the floor to the total costs. For example, a rough concrete floor is not suitable for most athletics. However, a polished and finished concrete floor is.
You’ll typically add about $5 per square foot to finish a floor to a high level – which means an extra $25,000 in costs.
Garages
A 5,000-square-foot building is an ideal option for a multi-car garage for storage, professional, or recreational purposes. A 5,000-square-foot garage can park about 50 cars, which means it’s also suitable for car dealerships and other similar-scale car storage.
Here, you’ll want to ensure that you invest in a sufficiently thick foundation to hold the weight and machinery required for a garage. That can mean investing as much as double in the foundation, raising the average costs to about $14 per square foot, finished.
You’ll also want to add some finish and smoothing to the concrete to make it easier to work on. Therefore, you can likely expect total costs to be about $17 per square foot, or $85,000 for the foundation in addition to the building costs.
Workshops
5,000 square feet offers plenty of space for workshops like carpentry, body shops, machine shops, etc. These typically require about the same considerations as a car garage, although you should be able to get away with a much lighter foundation.
In addition, you can opt for small partitions and glass to have an office area separate from the main building.
How Much Does A 5,000 Sq. Ft. Warehouse Cost To Build?
In most cases, you should pay between $15 and $40 per square foot for a 5,000-square-foot metal building, including erection and the foundation. That includes costs like the kit, the foundation, the delivery, planning permission, and labor.
For example, the following chart details estimates for each of these costs.
| Cost | Cost per Sq. Ft. | Low | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metal Building Kit | $7-$19 | $35,000 | $95,000 |
| Foundation | $4-$9 | $20,000 | $45,000 |
| Delivery | NA | $0 | $600 |
| Planning Permission | NA | $100 | $2,500+ |
| Labor | $5-$10 | $25,000 | $50,000 |
| Total Cost | $16-$38.40 | $80,100 | $192,110 |
*Please note, these estimates are based on quotes at the time of writing in July 2023. Actual costs are subject to change over time and may be different depending on your location. Please use these numbers as a starting point for your own research or contact us for an up-to-date quote.
8 5,000 Sq. Ft. Building Price Factors
There are 8 major price factors that will always impact the cost of your building no matter where you are.
The two largest of those are labor and the cost of the steel. Other factors include whether or not you want insulation, and the cost of the foundation can actually be quite considerable.
1. Cost of Steel
The actual cost of steel can dramatically impact the direct cost of your steel building.
However, those costs may not be as straightforward as steel prices increase and the metal building immediately jumps in price. That’s especially true if you’re buying a metal building kit.
For example, most steel building manufacturers will set fixed rates for their buildings, sometimes for 6-12 months.
In other cases, you may be given a direct quote based on the cost of materials at the time of request. In some others, the quote will be based on the price of steel 6 months ago, when the manufacturer purchased it.
Therefore, it doesn’t always make sense to check the direct cost of steel per ton, unless you’re buying raw steel and having it cut for you on-site – and that will cost you a lot more in labor.
2. Height and Roof
A classic warehouse has a simple flat roof. In most cases, a building kit will likely have a roof set at about 15’ off the ground. That roof will be flat, which means you’ll have poor water drainage.
However, if you want a pitched roof, you’ll probably increase total costs by about $10,000 or more.
In addition, if you want a multi-story building, you can basically triple total costs, because the lower floors and the foundation will require reinforcement.
The cheapest 5,000-square-foot buildings are classic flat-roof 15’ high warehouses. However, if you want something else, you should factor in that it will cost a great deal more.
3. Local Cost of Labor
Labor costs are one of the largest factors in erecting a steel building. Here, you can typically average labor costs out to $5-$10 per square foot including machine and crane rental. However, in actuality, costs can vary quite a bit.
For example, actual costs of labor can range from about $11 to over $94. You can expect a team of 10 people to take just under a week to erect a 50×100 building.
You’ll also need about 3 days of labor for the foundation. This means that, on average, you’ll pay about $3,000 per day in labor, or an average of $30,000.
On the other hand, if you live in a rural area with cheap labor, those costs could drop as low as $10,000. And, in a union area, it could go as high as $75,000.
Actual costs mostly vary from region to region. Therefore, you’ll always want to check what local labor rates look like.
4. Delivery
Your metal building company may offer free delivery with your order. You may also pay a rate per mile traveled. Therefore, you could end up paying anywhere from $0-$700+ to have your building delivered.
If your metal building manufacturer is also offering erection services, you can typically have the building delivered in stages, as it’s ready to go on the building, which can improve lead times and reduce materials being in the way.
5. Assembly Type
Most of this article has assumed you’re going for a prefab kit for your 5,000-square-foot warehouse. However, there are other options. For example:
- Kits – These cost $5-$24 per square foot and are not customizable. You are essentially buying an “off the rack”
- Made-To-Order Prefabs – These are designed based on your specifications or customizations and pre-cut in the factory so that you can bolt them together on-site.
- On-Site Construction – Here you order steel and have it cut and welded on site. This can reduce costs of materials but increases cost of labor.
Each of these has its own pros and cons. However, if you’re looking for a standard warehouse, you’re likely best off choosing the prefabricated kit, because that reduces costs of materials and the cost of assembly and labor.
In addition, the design will come stamped by an engineer at no extra cost to you. However, if you live in an area like Florida that requires extra wind resistance or snow load certification, you may need the made-to-order option.
6. Foundation and Base
Building a foundation can be significantly expensive, especially if you’re putting a large metal building on top of it. For example, that involves:
- Survey – $1,500+
- Soil Testing (optional) – $1,500+
- Planning Permission – $100-$2,500+
- Excavation and Grading – $2,500-$45,000
- Trenching or Sub-base (optional) – $5,000+
- Concrete piers for Supports – $2,000+
- Concrete Foundation – $20,000-$70,000
The flatter and more suitable your plot, the less time it will cost to prepare the site and build a foundation on it. However, you’ll always have to excavate to install the piers for the building supports.
In addition, if you aren’t working with flat ground, you will have to excavate and grade.
7. Permits and Inspections
Planning permission will cost you from $100 but up to $5 per square foot in city limits. In most cases, you can expect costs to average around $750. In addition, if your building is for agricultural purposes, you will get a cheaper rate.
How can you tell? Check your local building authority. Most will have rates clearly listed on their website. In addition, some will have a calculator which you can use to predict costs based on your specific building, purpose, and zone.
8. Interior Finishing
If you’re using a building as a warehouse, you typically won’t need much in the way of finishing. However, for most other purposes, you will want some finishing.
For example, the following options will all increase direct costs.
- Finished Foundation – $25,000
- Framed Doorways – $200-$800 each
- Commercial Doors – $900-$5,000 each
- Plumbing – $2 per square foot
- Insulation – $1 per square foot
- Windows – $200-$5,000 each
For example, if you want to add framed openings and windows the front of the building to use as a storefront, it could add several thousand to your quote.
That’s because you’ll have to engineer the openings to offer the same strength and support and buy the glass and frames.
In addition, most metal building manufacturers have a large list of customizations you can choose, including different paint colors and panel materials, and each can change the cost of the building.
Example Calculations
Building a warehouse will always depend on your location and the specific building you choose.
However, the following calculations give rough estimates of what costs should look like:
- Prefab building kit on 6” slab-on-grade foundation – $80,100
- Prefab building kit on 6” slab-on-grade foundation (in urban area) – $160,000
- Engineered metal building with a storefront on 6” slab-on-grade foundation – $237500
- Engineered metal building with a storefront on basement foundation – $280,000
There are many other cost factors that can impact your building, so feel free to request a specific quote for the building you need.
Why Trust Rex Metal Buildings?
Rex Metal Buildings is a metal building manufacturer with erection and foundation services.
We offer metal building kits, metal buildings, and delivery in all 50 states, with construction services included.
Cost Efficiency
Rex Metal Buildings can offer an all-in-one package of a prefabricated metal building kit, foundation, delivery, and erection, all in one place. That, combined with our competitive prices will help you to save money.
Prefabricated metal buildings are already one of the cheapest and most durable building options you can choose from. With Rex Metal Buildings, we search our network to see who can offer the lowest quote on your building so you save money.
Low Lead Times
Rex Metal Buildings maintains contractors in all 50 states. That means we can quickly align foundation construction, metal building delivery, and erection crews to ensure your metal building goes up as quickly as possible.
For some of our metal building kits, lead times are as little as 10 days although most are 2+ weeks. If you want a specific quote, contact us for more.
Fixed Quotes
Rex Metal Buildings uses fixed quotes on all of our metal building kits. This means you can get a flat-rate price for your building, with no hidden costs and no surprise engineering or design fees.
What you see is what you get. And, if we’re handling the slab and erection for you, we’ll offer an upfront quote as well.
Foundation and Slabs Available
Most metal buildings need a concrete slab built to standard for supporting that building. So, it makes sense to have the experts handle it.
Rex Metal Buildings offers foundations and concrete slabs, so you don’t have to worry about aligning multiple companies for your building. Instead, we’ll handle everything and save you on costs at every stage of planning and research.
Service in All 50 States
Rex Metal Buildings uses a network of contractors to ensure we can offer metal building erection in all 50 states.
You won’t have to worry about whether or not we deliver to your area because we do.
What’s Next?
If you’re ready to get started with your new warehouse, Rex Metal Buildings can help. Contact us and one of our sales team will be happy to help you with a custom quote, timelines, and other details you need.
Fill out the form at the top of the page to get started.