Carports are a popular choice when it comes to protecting your car, truck, SUV, RV, motorhome, boats, and more from the weather. Whether you reside in a southern state where damaging hail is a factor in the summer months or in one of the northern states where ice and snow is a hassle in the winter months, carports can provide the shelter and protection that you need. Over the last hundreds of years, since the invention of the motorized automobile, homeowners have been utilizing carports and car shelters to protect their valuable investment and the price has come down considerably in the last 15 years. The affordability and quick installation make metal car carports the most popular choice for vehicle protection today.
Early on, in the early to mid-1900s, carports were generally constructed with a wood frame and utilized available building components at the time, such as custom wood trusses and asphalt shingles. As wood truss manufacturers started up, carport builders could lower their cost by purchasing pre-built truss systems for the carports. While the conventionally constructed wood car carports did the job, they were not inexpensive nor were they installed quickly. In the mid-1990s, with readily available steel components, metal carports began to grow in popularity with residents on the east coast.
Know more about Metal Car Carports
Metal car carports were built in small manufacturing shops. Those small shops began to set the standard sizes in length, width, and height. By establishing those standard sizes, manufacturers were able to make carports modular. Roof trusses, legs/posts, and the addition of a side base rail onto which the legs could be mounted as opposed to digging a hole to install the legs into the ground, all worked well to make the installation process much more efficient. Unlike wood, the steel tube for the frame could be cut to exact length as it was produced on the tube mill with little or no waste. Panel lengths were also standardized right off the machine, also reducing the material waste and reducing the labor time for installation.
Once the manufacturing produced standardized modular components, the installation process was simplified. The base rail on each side of the metal carport unit could now be placed on top of the ground and secured with anchors. Installation crews would connect the roof trusses to the legs or posts and place them onto the pins on the base rails. Panels and trim were placed on top of the unit and secured with self-tapping screws. As each crew became more experienced, the time required to assemble a carport greatly decreased. With the modular process, a crew has virtually no on-site fabricating to do. With metal carports, there’s some on-site cutting of panels but the process is primarily just assembly of the components. Today, an 18’ wide x 21’ long carport can be assembled and installed in just under an hour!
Metal Carports Manufacturing and Installation Process
With the manufacturing and installation process streamlined, those manufacturers that were most efficient became large companies. Their sales base grew from a small regional area on the east coast to complete coverage throughout the United States. Competition over the years has become intense and carport prices have dropped 30-40%. Now that these metal carports are so affordable, there’s no reason not to have one for the affordable protection for your car, truck, RV or motorhome.
Metal carports are excellent shelters for your vehicles. In the warmer months, they provide protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Those UV rays can harm the paint and finish on your car, inflicting irreversible damage. Today, there’s a great deal of plastic used on the exterior of cars. Bumpers, side mirrors, and trim utilize plastic. The UV rays quickly affect the pain on those plastic parts and they certainly make them more brittle with time. The heat and the radiation can also deteriorate your car’s interior, which certainly affects the vehicle’s value.
Given the high cost of a car whether it is new or used, as much attention should be given to protecting your investment from sun damage as you give would to regular maintenance on the engine and other upkeep. Parking your vehicle in a shaded area where it’s shielded from direct sunlight is the best solution.
Protection from Metal Car Carports
Metal car carports also provide affordable protection from the weather. Damaging hail, especially large in the southern US, can destroy the value of a car. Large hail can occur most anywhere but it does seem more common in the south. Every Spring, demand climbs for car carports, RV carports, and other vehicle shelters because of hail damage. As affordable as these units are today, they generally cost less than it would cost to repair your vehicle from a minor hail storm.
If you have trees nearby, the sap is one of the toughest and most damaging contaminants on a vehicles finish. Many car owners like to park their vehicle under trees for shelter and shade. While their intentions may be good, long-term, that practice can have damaging effects on your finish. Once the sap gets onto the finish and your car is exposed to the sun, the sap becomes like a resin, especially that of pine trees. That sap eventually breaches the car’s clear coat finish, causing deterioration around every spot. Baked on tree sap won’t wash off and many solvents have a tough time removing it. If you can avoid exposure to tree sap by using a shelter, that’s your best solution to that problem.
Metal carports and shelters also provide protection for your cars and trucks in the winter months. Snow, sleet, freezing rain may not damage your car as much as the sun or hail, but scraping the ice and snow off your windows is certainly an inconvenience. Should you experience heavy snow, sweeping that snow off of your car, along with the dirt and grime already on the car, can damage the exterior finish.
Protect your Vehicle – Build a Metal Car Carport
The best way to your car’s interior and exterior from sun damage, from hail, from tree sap, and from snow and ice is to use as many tools as possible to protect your investment. Keeping your vehicle clean and waxed will help and providing long-term shelter and shade is to your advantage. Metal car carports are the most affordable shelter solution to vehicle owners today. With each small preventative measure, your vehicle will hold its value for years to come.
If you’d like a quote on one of our metal car carports, then click the button below and we’ll get you started on the road to get affordable protection for your car, truck, SUV or other vehicles!
