How DIY Corrugated Garage Bars & Sheds Look & Function During Quarantine

Tin is so in right now, and homeowners across the US are remodeling with corrugated metal interest pieces inside and out. Take advantage of your free time during quarantine to start a new project or to finish up an old one. From showers to interiors to garage bars and sheds, corrugated metal elements bring texture and subtlety to interior and exterior design features. Corrugated metal can bring the softness of other elements into harmony with a more masculine feature.

Corrugated metal adds a lot of personality to a variety of areas of the home and makes them feel more welcoming and unassuming. That’s part of why we see it popping up everywhere from shed siding to alcoves to bars and shower stalls. Let’s examine a few design ideas for your next quarantine project.

Garage Bars and Sheds

One of the unfortunate realities of city living is looking out the window and seeing the same house repeatedly all the way down the block. Add some spice and individuality to your backyard and re-side your shed. Corrugated metal siding for sheds is an easy weekend project. 

All you need is a few tools and supplies and a helping hand to hold up each 36″ wide sheet. You can cut thicker corrugated metal with a circular saw or thinner sheets with tin snips.

Building a shed with corrugated metal is a lot cheaper than building one with wood. Building a shed with wood requires you to purchase expensive plywood sheets. Not only do you have to pay more for plywood, but you must also put siding over it or your shed will be ruined by the elements in a few years. 

It will also look terrible without siding. Siding is expensive. Corrugated metal sheets are quite literally half the price of plywood alone, and it doesn’t need to be covered. You put it up and that’s it. It’s an affordable, attractive and maintenance-free option for siding your shed.

You can coordinate the look of your backyard shed by building a corrugated metal garage bar or residing the bar you have now. Using corrugated metal to make bars is unique and eliminates some of the traditional challenges of building with wood. Bar frames are traditionally built with curved ends. If that’s how your bar frame looks, you’ll love using metal. 

Depending on the thickness of corrugated metal used, it’s easy to bend and form around a wood frame. There are fewer places to measure and cut because the metal comes in three-foot-wide sheets, making it a much faster and easier material to use.

Once the metal is up on the bar frame, that’s all you have to do. It doesn’t have to be sanded, varnished, waxed, painted or maintained other than giving it a good wipe-down occasionally. 

The best part is that stainless steel corrugated metal doesn’t rust. If you want the weathered, rusty look, just use corrugated tin. You can spray it with certain chemicals and give it an immediate rustic appeal, too.

Make Room for Metal

Not only is corrugated metal easier to build with than wood, using metal is more environmentally friendly, as it can be recycled or repurposed for other projects more easily. 

The opportunity cost of harvesting metal is lower than wood over the long-run, and in many cases, it lasts a lot longer than wood. It takes a hundred years to grow hardwood trees. Metal only has to be mined once. It takes hours to melt and mold metal.

Not only is corrugated metal more environmentally friendly than using all wood in projects, but it’s also more structurally sound. It doesn’t mold when it gets wet. It can withstand storms that wood can’t handle. 

It doesn’t have to be painted, though it can be if that’s what you want. It’s harder and stronger, it doesn’t warp from moisture, it’s easy to clean, and very durable. Wood has its place and certainly isn’t obsolete, but if it’s all you’re using in projects, it’s time to find other materials to incorporate into your projects.

The Protective Power of Metal

Corrugated metal is a unique material, especially if it’s made from stainless steel. It’s much stronger than plastic and won’t wear down from UV rays. Water won’t make it break down into micro-particles and pollute the environment. It’s naturally occurring, so if something does happen to it and it breaks down, it’s just a natural material going back into the earth.

Corrugated metal is very strong, especially in thicker sheets. The only thing that can really do much damage to it is extreme blunt force, very high wind or blistering heat. The same can’t be said for plastic or wood. Many builders are pushing corrugated metal roofing and siding because it means less warranty work for them later and fewer hassles for homeowners indefinitely.

Corrugated metal is easy to maintain. All you have to do is hose it down or brush it off if it gets dirty. If a metal roof is damaged or leaking, it’s easier to tell where the leak is coming from than it is with a traditional shingled roof. 

Making repairs is much faster too, as it’s just one large sheet to replace rather than hundreds or thousands of shingles to replace. Alternatively, the metal can be patched with a quick weld job. It’s also easier to install solar panels on metal roofs than on shingled roofs.

Many builders and homeowners strongly prefer using metal over other types of construction materials. It’s a lot harder to damage corrugated metal siding than it is to damage vinyl siding. Both look nice, but we know metal will last decades longer.

Quarantine time is the best time to finish projects around the house. Take advantage of the pandemic and use your free time to build sheds, re-side outbuildings, and build or refinish garage bars with corrugated metal. Find out more about pricing or sign up for great deals and tips about how to use corrugated metal in your projects.