5 Benefits of Metal Carports | Are Metal Carports Worth It?
Metal carports come with many benefits. Carports are structures which protect vehicles, lawn equipment, and other valuables from hail, snow, rain, UV light, and falling tree limbs. Carports can be free-standing or attached to something.
In the past 30 years, the prefabricated steel carport industry has exploded. You can buy metal carports in all 50 United States. Metal carports have become a popular alternative to metal garages, as they offer similar protection at a significantly reduced cost.
In this article, we’re going to explore the benefits of owning a metal carport, whether metal carports are worth it, and the differences between metal carports and metal garages.
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Are Metal Carports Worth It?
Are metal carports worth it? Yes, metal carports are worth the investment as it is significantly cheaper to replace some sheet metal on your carport than to replace a broken windshield or to repair a damaged body panel.
The odds of actually needing to replace a carport are extremely low, as they last 30 to 50 years on average. Your carport is an investment and will undoubtedly pay for itself over time.
The most common type of carports manufactured today are prefabricated metal carports. Manufacturers make these with steel, aluminum, or tin, with steel being the strongest and longest lasting option of the three. The Carport Co. sells only steel carports. We do not believe tin and aluminum to be sound investments.
What's the Difference Between a Metal Carport and a Metal Garage?
To help provide additional information to our potential customers, we want to touch on the differences between a carport and a garage.
Whilst both metal garages and metal carports and made from the same type of steel, carports are fully open or only partially enclosed, whereas garages are fully enclosed structures. Typically, carports don’t come with doors, windows, or frame outs, but garages do.
An enormous benefit of a carport vs a garage is price. Once you factor in concrete costs, permitting requirements, labor, insulation, electrical work, etc, a garage can easily cost $15,000 to $30,000. Our standard carports start out as low as $1,200. In most areas, there is no need to bother with concrete or permits. Though, if you need to get a permit for your carport, we recommend reading this article we wrote about carport permits.
5 Benefits of Owning a Metal Carport
Owning a metal carport comes with many benefits. To keep this page concise for our readers, we’re going to pick the most financially beneficial benefits carports provide. You can expect these benefits to pay for themselves within a matter of months.
We’re going to focus on the main 5 benefits carports provide:
- Protection From Harsh Elements
- Cost Saving
- Versatility
- Increased Property Value
- Quick and Easy Installation
1. Steel Carports Offer Protection From Harsh Elements
The biggest benefit you gain from owning a carport is protection from harsh elements. Metal carports protect your car and other assets such as trucks, lawn equipment, grills, motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs, bicycles, and so much more from weather damage.
Steel carports can withstand up to 50 pounds per sqft of snow, keep your vehicle’s windshield safe from heavy hail storms, prevent rusting from rain and moisture, reduce scratches caused by particles carried by wind, avoid UV damage from direct sunlight, which can affect leather seats, your steering wheel, door handles, the interior of your vehicle, as well as the pain on the exterior of your vehicle.
Carports also offer protection from falling trees, branches, and limbs. Your carport won’t care whether a tree fell because it was old and rotted, or if it was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm and fell over. Your carport will catch it all the same.
2. Metal Carports Help You Save Money
Metal carports come with a variety of cost saving benefits. Some are things most people wouldn’t ordinarily think about.
Many opt for metal carports over metal garages because of space requirements, rules and regulations set by cities and townships, and budget concerns. Metal buildings come with things like concrete costs, insulation requirements, the cost of power needed to operate lights and garage doors, etc.
Replacing a carport is always going to be cheaper than replacing whatever you’re storing underneath it. If something heavy falls on your carport, it’s likely the carport redirects the falling object so it doesn’t land directly on your vehicle. If your carport needs to be replaced, it will be significantly cheaper to replace than an entire vehicle. Think of your carport like a unique form of a vehicle extended warranty. Extended warranties cover mechanical issues, whereas carports physically cover your vehicle.
3. Metal Carports Offer Unmatched Versatility
Many people hear or read the word “carport” and think that carports are only for protecting vehicles. However, this isn’t the case.
We’ve seen metal carports used in the following ways:
- Outdoor Entertainment Area: Set up a patio with a TV and furniture to enjoy modern technology whilst still being outdoors.
- Workshop or Hobby Space: Have a place to enjoy your hobbies such as welding, woodworking, arts and crafts, and so much more.
- Storage Space: Store dry wood for your wood-burning stove or furnace, keep lawn equipment out of the elements, protect dirt bikes, ATVs, bicycles, and more.
- Play Area for Kids: Keep playground equipment, trampolines, kiddy pools, and more under a carport so your kids can play, rain or shine.
- Outdoor Home Gym: Work out outdoors, rain or shine. Enjoy nature whilst building strength.
- Additional Parking: Carports can protect cars, trucks, RVs, campers, trailers, or whatever else you wish to maintain.
- Gardening Area: Control exactly how much water is getting to your plants by preventing rainwater from entering the soil when you don’t intend for the plants to receive extra water.
- Gazebo Alternative: Hang out in the middle of a yard or field with protection from the sun and elements.
- Outdoor Dining Are: Host family gatherings, eat dinner outdoors, and have meals with those who are important to you outdoors.
If you’d like to see more, you can explore more metal carport ideas on Pinterest.
4. Steel Carports Increase Your Property Value
If you’re a landlord or homeowner who is planning to sell a house or your home within the next few years, adding a steel carport to the property is a great idea. Carports increase property value and help get a higher sale price when selling the home or property.
A carport will only increase your property value by a few percent, as they do not get attached directly to houses, and don’t shelter humans. It’s a nice benefit of carports, but certainly not a main selling point.
If you’re looking to increase property value drastically, we would recommend purchasing and installing a larger, fully enclosed structure, like a metal garage or metal workshop.
5. Buying a Metal Carport Comes With Quick and Easy Installation
Carports only take a couple of hours to set up. There are usually 2-3 installers who will come to set up the carport, and they will have it done within 2-3 hours, sometimes faster.
Lead times for smaller projects, like metal and steel carports, hover around 1-6 weeks, depending on location. Rust belt states usually see 2-3 weeks lead times, southern states hover are around 2-3 weeks, and states in the Midwest that are west of Indiana will be around 4-6 weeks. We have detailed lead maps for various manufacturers on our Resources page.
You can place an order today, have the installers out to your property in just a couple of weeks, and have the structure installed within hours.
Discover How a Carport Can Benefit Your - Contact The Carport Co. Today
The Carport Co. team would love to assist with your project. Once you submit a quote, we’ll provide personalized recommendations, itemized pricing, expected lead time to your locations, photos of projects similar to yours, warranty information, and much more.
To get started, call (317) 300-4190 or email [email protected]. We can’t wait to work with you!
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Do you think The Carport Co. would be a good fit for you? We’d love to earn your business. Fill out the quote form, and one of our friendly representatives will be in touch with you shortly. We’re here to answer questions you may have, provide personalized recommendations, and get you an estimate on your project.
To speak with someone, call (317) 300-4190 or email [email protected].
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance your property with a durable, versatile, and visually appealing metal structure. Contact The Carport Co. today and experience what we can do.
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The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide is a collection of articles by The Carport Co. These articles have been catered to first time steel and metal carport, garage, and commercial building buyers. Our goal is to share as much information with customers as possible, to help make informed decisions, and ensure a customer doesn’t discover an addition they would have liked to added at the time of sale, but was not aware of the option’s existence.
Here is a preview of a few articles. To view the full Buyer’s Guide, please visit the Ultimate Buyer’s Guide page.
