Aluminum is one of the most plentiful metals on earth. It makes up a little more than 8% of the earths crust, and can be found in combination with other elements in over 270 different kinds of minerals. This is perhaps one of the reasons that although it is very abundant, it is also one of the most difficult metals to extract from the earth.
Freestanding aluminum carports
If you are thinking of getting a metal carport or a metal building of any kind, a great choice for protection of your vehicle from all kinds of weather is a free-standing aluminum carport. Many options are available for free-standing models, including ceiling panels to cover underside of the roofs structural elements, many color options for the roof and posts, and many styles of gutters and downspouts for effective water drainage. Choose from a huge selection of different sizes and heights, depending on the number of type of vehicles that you are going to store.You don't even need to store vehicles - many people use a carport simply as a protection from the weather for events. They can even be used as a permanent shade protection in the backyard where you lack trees for shade from the sun. Rather than building a pergola or a trying to figure out how to integrate a roof over your deck into the look of your house, you could simply assemble a nice style of aluminum carport in your backyard. It offers instant protection from rain and sun, where you could permanently set up your dining area. It would be very simple to create a bug proof dining room outdoors by adding see-through netting to the sides of the carport. The advantages of this over one of those temporary dining tents is the durability and the very fact that it is not temporary. You will not need to disassemble your dining tent at the end of the year, and then go out in the spring to set it up all over again. The added bonus is that your carport can also act as a winter protection for a vehicle that is not used in the winter.
Another great use for one of the many styles of aluminum carports available is shade and weather protection for animals on a working or hobby farm. Your horses or cattle would welcome a chance to get out of the sun or rain in inclement weather. Add one or two walls on the sides facing the prevailing winds, and you have just created an extremely useful all weather protection that can be installed anywhere with very little effort and overhead. No matter how remote your pasture or storage area is, transporting an aluminum carport kit is a simple matter, and the tools to build and install it are minimal as well.
Deciding to install a carport is a substantial decision, and you want to make sure you choose one with quality parts and materials to ensure a long life. In order to properly protect a vehicle or anything else that requires weather protection, you want to make sure that the structure you build is durable and is built to last. Choosing an aluminum carport gives you the benefits of a lightweight material which is especially advantageous with respect to delivery costs, but as an added bonus, if you buy one of the many aluminum carport kits available, working with this extremely lightweight metal will make construction of the kit all that much easier. Generally the majority of aluminum carport components are constructed of aluminum - for example the roof panels, fascia, gutters and downspouts (or some styles combine the fascia and gutters) are all made of aluminum. However, the main structural elements, such as the posts and I-beams or C-beams of the roof are often made from steel. In order to gain the weather resistance that is inherent to aluminum, steel must be protected from oxidation. This is often accomplished by painting or enamel powder coating the steel elements.
Portable Aluminum Carport Covers
Although aluminum carport covers are generally installed permanently by bolting them down to a solid base, or setting the posts in cement posts which extend down below the frost-line, some uses are better suited to a more temporary installation, and aluminum carport covers are a perfect solution for this sort of semi-permanent installation. For example a car dealership may want to install a carport as sun and rain protection at a major car show where they have the new models of convertible cars on display, and a portable tent would just not be big enough to cover the vehicles in the display. The lightweight and portable nature of an aluminum carport makes set up and take down easy and a metal carport display just looks more professional than a circus tent style display.The same sort of use could be applied to someone such as a contractor, where there is no space inside the job to set up any sort of workshop. Bringing a portable metal carport and setting it up for 2 months to protect the workers and tools from the sun and rain makes a much more efficient worksite, and again is super easy to set up, take down, transport to the next job, or store away in between jobs.
You might not realize it, but aluminum carports are an extremely eco-friendly way to add extra outdoor storage. Aluminum is an extremely sustainable building material, which means there is very little waste in the manufacturing process, and it can be almost 100% recycled at the end of its life, making it an almost infinitely re-useable building material. Bet you didn't think about that when you were shopping for your carport cover kit.
Well, I've learned quite a bit about aluminum carports during my research to find the best option for my carport project. I still need to do a bunch more research, because the snow and ice loads in my part of the country can be quite substantial, and I need to factor that into the carport that I decide to go with. When you are narrowing down your choices, remember to keep that in mind, and select an aluminum carport with a sufficient snow load rating for your geographic location. Check back, as I keep updating my blog with all the information I learn as I go. I'm hoping to do a pros and cons of aluminum carports comparison next, so stay tuned for that.
