Steel Garage Kit Prices By Size
A steel garage kit is the shell: the frame, the wall and roof panels, the fasteners, the trim, and the engineer-stamped plans. It is not the slab, the erection labor, the permits, or anything inside the walls. That distinction is why two quotes for “a 30×40 garage” can differ by $60,000 and both be honest.
This page collects what manufacturers actually publish, at the sizes people actually build, with the source named on every figure. Where a number is calculated rather than quoted, it says so.
Steel Garage Kit Prices By Size
The ranges below apply General Steel’s published materials rate for steel barndominium construction — $20 to $31 per square foot — to each footprint. These are shell kit costs only.
| Size | Square Feet | Kit Price Range | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20×20 | 400 | $8,000 – $12,400 | One car, no workspace |
| 24×24 | 576 | $11,520 – $17,856 | Two cars, tight |
| 24×30 | 720 | $14,400 – $22,320 | Two cars plus a bench |
| 24×36 | 864 | $17,280 – $26,784 | Two cars plus real shop space |
| 30×30 | 900 | $18,000 – $27,900 | Three cars, or two plus storage |
| 30×40 | 1,200 | $24,000 – $37,200 | Three cars and a workshop |
| 30×50 | 1,500 | $30,000 – $46,500 | Shop with living quarters above |
| 40×60 | 2,400 | $48,000 – $74,400 | Four bays, RV height, or a shop house |
| 40×80 | 3,200 | $64,000 – $99,200 | Equipment storage or a full shop house |
Ranges calculated from General Steel’s published $20–$31 per square foot materials rate. Shell only. Your quote will differ by frame type, wind and snow load, door and window count, and where the building ships.
What Manufacturers Actually Quote
Calculated ranges are a starting point. Here is what three real published kits cost, with the price and the dimensions taken from the same product page in each case.
| Kit | Size | Square Feet | Published Price | Per Square Foot | Frame Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide Steel metal garage | 24x35x10 | 840 | $15,800 | $18.81 | Open web tapered |
| Worldwide Steel garage & shop | 40x60x16 | 2,400 | $48,500 | $20.21 | Not published |
| Worldwide Steel barndominium | 40x40x12 | 1,600 | $75,000 | $46.88 | Not published |
General Steel publishes size examples of its own, quoted here as published rather than recalculated: a 30×40 two-bedroom building system at $24,000 to $37,200, a 40×60 three-bedroom at $60,000 to $93,000, and a 60×70 four-bedroom at $72,000 to $111,600. Their 30×40 figure lands exactly on the range calculated from their own per-square-foot rate. Their 40×60 figure runs higher than that rate would predict, which is worth knowing before you treat any single number as the number.
Red Iron Versus Cold-Formed Steel
Look at the table above and one row does not belong. Two Worldwide Steel kits price at $18.81 and $20.21 per square foot. A third, on a smaller footprint, prices at $46.88 — roughly two and a half times the rate.
That gap is almost always the frame.
Cold-Formed And Open Web Frames
Cold-formed steel is rolled from sheet at room temperature into C-shaped or Z-shaped sections. Open web tapered frames use a trussed web between top and bottom chords. Both are lighter, cheaper to ship, and quicker to stand. For a garage, a shop, or a building that will never carry a second floor, they are usually the right answer, and they are what produces a kit in the $19 to $31 per square foot band.
Red Iron Rigid Frames
Red iron is structural I-beam, welded into tapered rigid frames and finished in the oxide primer that gives it the name. It carries far more load, spans wider without interior columns, and takes point loads — a car lift, a mezzanine, a second story of living quarters, a crane rail. It costs materially more per square foot, and when a kit on a modest footprint prices near $47 a foot, a rigid frame is the usual explanation.
The practical rule: if the building will only ever be a garage, cold-formed or open web will do the job for half the money. If anything will live above the bays or hang from the frame, red iron is what you are buying. Ask which one a quote is written on before you compare two quotes to each other, because a cold-formed price against a red iron price is not a comparison.
What The Kit Price Includes
Manufacturer inclusion lists are close to identical. Worldwide Steel publishes theirs on every product page:
- Wall and roof panels
- Pre-punched framed openings for all specified doors and windows
- Galvanized steel fasteners, clips, and connectors
- Sealants and closure strips for all panel laps and framed openings
- Color-matched trim and flashing
- Engineer-stamped plans
- Installation instructions
What The Kit Price Excludes
This is the list that breaks budgets, and it is published just as plainly:
- Installation
- Permits
- Foundation
- Interior build-out
- Site prep and grading
Doors and windows beyond the framed openings, insulation, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing are separate on most quotes as well.
The Full Cost, Not Just The Kit
General Steel breaks a steel barndominium into four line items. Each figure below is theirs, kept in its own tier rather than blended into a single total:
| Line Item | Published Rate |
|---|---|
| Materials, steel building | $20 – $31 per square foot |
| Concrete slab | $10 – $15 per square foot |
| Erection | $7 – $12 per square foot |
| Interior finishes | $40 – $160 per square foot |
Morton Buildings, a post-frame builder rather than a kit supplier, publishes a finishing range of $50 per square foot to more than $100 per square foot. Two different companies, two different building systems, two figures that should be read side by side rather than averaged.
The line that matters most for a garage is the last one. A shell with a slab and no interior is a garage. The moment living quarters go in above the bays, interior finish becomes the largest number on the page and it swings four to one depending on how it is specified.
Specs That Change The Price
Square footage sets the baseline. These four specs move it, and most quotes will not volunteer them:
| Spec | Why It Changes The Price |
|---|---|
| Eave and ceiling height | A 10-foot eave and a 16-foot eave are different buildings. Garage bays commonly run 12 to 14 feet of clearance; RV and car lift builds need more. Taller walls mean more panel, heavier frame, and higher wind load. |
| Clear span | How far the frame crosses with no interior column. Deep spans of 30 to 50 feet are what make a shop usable, and they are where rigid frame earns its cost over cold-formed. |
| Overhead door height | A standard residential door is 7 to 8 feet. Commercial-grade roll-up doors tall enough for an RV, a boat on a trailer, or a vehicle lift push both the door cost and the eave height that has to accommodate it. |
| Bay count | More bays means more door openings, more framing at the openings, and usually more width rather than more length — which costs more than adding the same area lengthwise. |
Compare steel garage kit quotes from up to 12 manufacturers →
Garage Kits By Bay Count
Bay count is how most people actually shop. Each of these sizes is a common answer:
- One car — 20×20 or 20×24. Enough for a vehicle and little else.
- Two car — 24×24 at minimum, 24×30 or 24×36 if a workbench matters.
- Three car — 30×30 or 30×40. The 30×40 is the most searched garage size there is, and the extra ten feet is what turns storage into a shop.
- Four car and up — 40×60 and beyond. At this size the building is usually a shop house or an equipment barn rather than a garage.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Does A 30×40 Steel Garage Kit Cost?
Between $24,000 and $37,200 for the shell, calculated from General Steel’s published $20 to $31 per square foot materials rate across 1,200 square feet. General Steel publishes the same $24,000 to $37,200 figure for its own 30×40 building system. Add roughly $12,000 to $18,000 for the slab and $8,400 to $14,400 for erection at their published rates.
Why Is One 40×40 Kit More Expensive Than A 40×60?
Frame type. A 40×40 on a red iron rigid frame will out-price a larger 40×60 on a cold-formed or open web frame, because the frame is carrying more load and spanning without interior columns. Square footage is not the only variable and often is not the dominant one.
Does A Steel Garage Kit Include The Concrete?
No. Every published kit price excludes the foundation, along with installation, permits, interior build-out, and site prep. Budget the slab separately at $10 to $15 per square foot on General Steel’s published rate.
Can You Put Living Quarters Above A Garage Kit?
Yes, and it is what the frame decision turns on. A second floor is a point load the frame has to carry, which generally means red iron rather than cold-formed. Specify the living quarters before the frame is quoted, not after.
What Is The Cheapest Steel Garage Kit?
The smallest footprint on the lightest frame. A 20×20 shell calculates to $8,000 to $12,400 at published materials rates. The real floor on a finished, usable building is higher, because the slab and erection are not optional.
Get Steel Garage Kit Quotes
Published prices tell you the shape of the number. They do not tell you what a building costs delivered to your site, on your wind and snow load, with your door schedule. That takes quotes.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What size garage do I need for three cars?
30×30 at minimum and 30×40 if you want workspace. A vehicle bay needs 10 to 12 feet of width to open a door without hitting the next car, so three bays across a 30-foot wall works. The depth is what decides whether it is storage or a shop — 30 feet parks three cars, 40 feet parks three cars and leaves room to work behind them.
Can you build an apartment above any garage plan?
No. A finished floor overhead is a point load the frame has to carry, and a plan drawn for an empty garage is not automatically rated for it. On a steel building this is usually the difference between a cold-formed or open web frame and a red iron rigid frame, which roughly doubles the shell cost per square foot. Decide on the living quarters before the plan is bought, not after.
What is the difference between a garage plan and a garage kit?
A plan set is the drawings — floor plans, elevations, sections, and enough detail for a builder to price and permit the job. It costs hundreds to low thousands. A kit is the physical shell — frame, panels, fasteners, trim and engineer-stamped structural plans — and costs tens of thousands while excluding the slab, erection, permits and everything inside the walls. Most people need both, and the plan determines what the kit has to carry.
How tall does a garage need to be for an RV?
Around 14 feet of door height for a Class A motorhome, and the eave has to be tall enough to carry a door that size. Door height sets eave height, eave height sets the wall panel and the frame, and the frame sets most of the cost. Size the door first and let the rest follow — height cannot practically be retrofitted into a finished building.
What is the most popular garage size?
30×40. It is the most searched garage footprint there is, and the reason is that it is the smallest size that does two jobs at once: three bays across the 30-foot wall, and enough depth left over for a real workbench rather than a shelf.
Prices on this page are published figures from the manufacturers named, collected in %currentyear%. Each figure is presented in the tier its source published it in. Manufacturer pricing changes; verify against the source before relying on any number.
