The "base building price" generated by STEELBUILDING.COM's online system includes PBR roof panels made of bare GALVALUME®, which is a silver color. For a modest increase in price, you can upgrade to a colored roof. Our standard colored panels consist of a GALVALUME® sheet that has been prepped and coated with Silicon Polyester paint before fabrication (for more on our "base building price," see our discussion of designing your steel building online).

Both types of panel are extremely durable: our bare GALVALUME® warranty (PDF format) runs 20 years and our colored paint warranty (PDF format) runs for 25 years (except for crimson red paint, which carries only a 5-year warranty). The choice basically comes down to economics versus appearance. The bare GALVALUME® panels cost a little less, but the painted panels give your steel building a much more polished look.

When deciding between color (see below) and Bare GALVALUME®, you should take the pitch of your roof into account. Higher-pitched roofs are more conspicuous. You can see almost all of a 3:12 roof while standing just a few feet from the building. With a low pitch (1:12 for example), very little of the roof is visible from ground level, so its color may be less of a concern (for more information, see the section on roof pitch).

Among the more popular options available for metal buildings are roof lights (skylights) and wall lights. These translucent panels, which are available in all the standard profiles, simply replace regular panels. They allow a great deal of light to pass through and are often the only source of illumination necessary for daytime work in a building. They are especially useful in buildings that do not have electricity. The most common configuration is to place one translucent panel on either side of each bay.