Agricultural steel buildings · Farm buildings

Agricultural steel buildings, designed around your machinery and your farm.

Machinery store, hay and straw barn, farm workshop: Sunrak designs agricultural steel frame buildings to the size of your machines, open-sided or clad, with a roof ready for solar panels if you want one. You receive a free quote with a layout drawing, then a kit delivered with assembly instructions.

  • Free quote, no obligation
  • Layout drawing to your dimensions
  • Drawings, sketches and photos welcome
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Free, no obligation

Describe your farm building, get a drawing and a price.

No payment, no commitment. Give us the dimensions of your largest machines, the use and whether you plan solar panels.

Step 1 of 3 · Your project

Your project
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Open-sided agricultural steel building with a solar roof, straw bales and a tractor
Open-sided farm building with solar roof
What changes on a farm

Six points the drawing of a farm building must settle.

A farm building is not a warehouse dropped in a field. Machinery, fodder and exposure drive the design.

01

Machinery clearances

Eaves height, door height and column spacing follow your largest machine: tractor with cab, combine, telehandler with the boom raised. Give us its dimensions.

02

Open, part-clad or fully clad

Hay and straw need air; machinery needs shelter from driving rain. Part cladding on the weather side is often a good compromise.

03

Wide clear spans

Every column gets in the way when manoeuvring. Wider spans free up the floor but need heavier frames: the drawing finds the balance for your routes.

04

Snow and wind in open country

An isolated, open-sided building is very exposed. Loads are derived from Eurocode 1 and the UK National Annex using the site location and altitude.

05

Impact and corrosion

A bucket clipping a column, damp, livestock air: column protection and corrosion protection are specified on the quote for each part of the building.

06

Solar on the roof

Pitch, orientation and module weight are decided at order stage. A frame designed for panels does not need strengthening later.

Planning and Building Regulations

Agricultural permitted development and the Building Regulations exemption.

Permitted development (England). Schedule 2, Part 6, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows building works on agricultural units of 5 hectares or more when they are reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture within that unit. The right comes with limits on ground area, height and distance from classified roads, and further restrictions for livestock buildings near protected buildings. Before building, you must apply to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether prior approval is needed for siting, design and external appearance. Smaller units fall under Class B, which is narrower. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.

Building Regulations. Schedule 2, Class 3 of the Building Regulations 2010 exempts agricultural buildings when no part is a dwelling, no point is closer to a building with sleeping accommodation than one and a half times the building’s height, and a fire exit is within 30 metres of any point. The exemption does not apply if the building’s main purpose is retailing, packing or exhibiting.

Our dimensioned drawings can support a prior approval or planning application.

Before you order
Check with your local planning authority whether your building is permitted development and whether prior approval is needed. Do not start work until the authority has answered or the time limit set by the Order has passed.

Sources : legislation.gov.uk, GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 6 (agricultural and forestry) ; legislation.gov.uk, Building Regulations 2010, Schedule 2 (exempt buildings) ; Planning Portal, prior approval

Steel portal frames and purlins of a farm building under construction, before roofing and cladding
Portal frames and purlins before roofing

A farm building kit, erected by the contractor you choose.

Columns, rafters and purlins are marked and delivered with bolts and assembly instructions keyed to the layout drawing. Concrete pads are cast beforehand to the base reactions we provide. We do not install in the UK.

Scope

What Sunrak supplies, and what it does not.

Supplied by Sunrak
  • The free quote, with a dimensioned layout drawing based on your machinery.
  • The base reactions shown on the layout drawing.
  • The made-to-measure frame with roofing, cladding, doors and accessories, supplied as a kit with assembly instructions.
  • On request, a frame designed to carry solar modules.
  • The manufacturer’s certificates, sent with the quote. For structural steel components, EN 1090 is the standard to ask about.
Not supplied
  • Prior approval or planning applications.
  • Site investigation, groundworks, pads and slab, unless shown on the quote.
  • Solar modules, inverter, grid connection and their installation.
  • Erection: we do not install in the UK.
How it works

From your machinery sizes to an erected building.

1
Check

Planning authority

Find out whether your building is permitted development and whether prior approval is needed.

2
Free quote

Drawing and price

Dimensions, clearances, doors, cladding, solar or not: you receive the layout drawing and the price.

3
Consents

Your application

The dimensioned drawing is the technical basis for prior approval or planning.

4
Fabrication

Made to measure

Factory fabrication. Lead time is confirmed on the quote.

5
Delivery

Kit with instructions

Delivered ready to erect; erection by the contractor of your choice.

Agricultural steel buildings FAQ

What farmers ask before ordering a steel farm building.

Do agricultural buildings need planning permission?
Not always. In England, Class A of Part 6 of the General Permitted Development Order allows buildings reasonably necessary for agriculture on units of 5 hectares or more, within limits and subject to a prior approval application to the local planning authority. Outside those limits, planning permission is needed.
What is prior approval for a farm building?
Before building under agricultural permitted development, you apply to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether it wants to approve the siting, design and external appearance. Work must not start until it has answered or the time limit in the Order has passed.
Are agricultural steel buildings exempt from Building Regulations?
They can be, under Schedule 2, Class 3 of the Building Regulations 2010, if no part is a dwelling, the building is far enough from any building with sleeping accommodation and a fire exit is within 30 metres of any point. The exemption does not cover buildings used mainly for retailing, packing or exhibiting.
How much does an agricultural steel building cost?
Price depends on floor area, clear span, eaves height, snow and wind loads, cladding, doors and whether the roof is designed for solar. We do not publish prices per square metre: the free quote gives the price of your building.
Can the roof take solar panels?
Yes, if you tell us at order stage: the weight of modules and rails goes into the frame design. Modules, inverter and grid connection are not supplied.
Does Sunrak erect the building?
Not in the UK. The building arrives as a kit with assembly instructions, and a contractor of your choice erects it. Foundations are your responsibility unless the quote says otherwise.