Pre-Engineered Buildings

Steel warehouses and stores in Qatar

A steel warehouse is a large open building made from a row of identical steel frames, covered with metal roof and wall sheeting. Masas designs, fabricates and erects them for storage and distribution.

Drawings or a written scope is enough to price it.

A warehouse and labour accommodation for a cleaning services company — photograph 2

Warehouses in the Masas record

The projects below range from single stores to sites that combine warehouses with labour accommodation or a showroom. What they share is a regular, repeating frame, which is the condition a pre-engineered building is designed for.

A warehouse and labour accommodation for a cleaning services company — photograph 3

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Warehouse projects on this page

Named, or described by scope where the client asked

A warehouse and labour accommodation for a cleaning services company — photograph 4

2 + 2

Warehouses and accommodation blocks on one site

Dar Al-Anwar Trading Co., under way

A warehouse and labour accommodation for a cleaning services company — photograph 5
A warehouse and labour accommodation for a cleaning services company — photograph 6

Pre-Engineered Warehouses & Stores

What is a pre-engineered warehouse?

It is a steel building designed as a system rather than as a one-off structure. Identical steel frames, called portal frames, stand at regular intervals along the building. Lighter steel members run between them to carry the roof and wall sheeting that keeps the weather out.

Because every frame is the same, the workshop makes the same parts and joints many times over, and the site crew repeats the same erection sequence. That repetition, more than the size of the building, is what saves cost and time.

It suits a rectangular building with its load spread evenly across the roof. A building that carries heavy equipment, changes shape along its length or has an irregular plan is usually better in conventional structural steel. Masas builds both, so the advice follows the building.

  • Storage and distribution warehouses

  • Stores with a mezzanine floor inside

  • Warehouses beside accommodation or a showroom

  • Roof and wall cladding in the same package

Plain terms

Terms you will see on the drawings

A few technical words decide what you are actually buying. This is what they mean.

Bay

The space between two neighbouring frames. It sets how far apart the columns stand along the side walls, and therefore where doors and racking can go.

Clear span

The width a frame crosses with no column in the way. A wider clear span gives a more open floor, but every frame needs heavier steel to achieve it.

A warehouse and showroom for a national newspaper group — photograph 2

Clear height

The usable height inside, measured to the lowest point of the steel rather than to the top of the roof. It decides how high racking can go and which vehicles fit.

Purlins and girts

The lighter steel pieces running between the main frames. Purlins hold the roof sheeting and girts hold the wall sheeting. If they are not straight, the cladding will not sit straight.

Before you decide

What shapes the design and the price

Four decisions set most of a warehouse design. Settling them before the drawings start gives a firmer price and fewer changes on site.

A warehouse and showroom for a national newspaper group — photograph 3

How a warehouse project runs

Each stage is documented and checked by your consultant before the next one starts.

  1. 01

    Scope agreed

    You send drawings and requirements. Masas confirms the scope in writing, including what is and is not in the price, before it issues a quotation.

  2. 02

    Drawings approved

    Shop drawings, which show every piece of steel, go to your consultant with a method statement, an inspection and test plan and a risk assessment, for approval against QCS 2014, Qatar’s construction specification.

  3. 03

    Made in the workshop

    Steel is cut, welded to AWS standards and given its protective coating in the Masas workshop in Al Wukair, and checked against the approved plan before it leaves.

  4. 04

    Erected and handed over

    Frames and cladding go up in the sequence agreed with the main contractor. The job closes with snagging, as-built drawings and the certificates your consultant needs.

For a quotation

What to send for an accurate quotation

  1. A plan and the site location

    The building footprint and where it sits on the plot. Access for delivery trucks and cranes affects how the steel is erected.

  2. Clear height and door sizes

    The height you need under the steel and the size of each door, based on your tallest racking and largest vehicle.

  3. What the building will carry

    Racking, a mezzanine, a crane or hoist, solar panels or equipment hanging from the roof. These loads decide the size of the frame.

  4. What the package includes

    Whether you need design, supply, erection or all three, and whether the roof and wall cladding are part of it.

A warehouse and labour accommodation complex for a stationery and educational supplies distributor — photograph 3

Record

Where we have delivered this

Contract values are not published. Scale is stated in area and clear span.

Store for Educational & Stationery Materials

Design, fabrication, supply and installation of the steel building for two warehouses and two labour accommodation buildings. Prequalification was approved by the consultant against QCS 2014, subject to shop drawings, method statement, ITP and risk assessment.

View project

Store & Labour Accommodation

Engineering, fabrication and erection of a warehouse alongside labour accommodation — two different occupancies, and two different sets of fire and life-safety requirements, on one site.

View project

Warehouse & Showroom

Design, fabrication and erection supervision of a combined warehouse and showroom — the largest single design-and-build package in the completed record.

View project

Common questions

Is a pre-engineered warehouse cheaper than conventional steel?
Usually, when the building repeats, because identical frames are quicker to fabricate and erect. The saving shrinks when the frame has to carry heavy point loads such as a crane, or when the plan is irregular. Masas builds both systems and can say from the drawings which one suits the building.
Can Masas build a warehouse with labour accommodation on the same site?
Yes. Masas built a warehouse and labour accommodation for Kobra Cleaning in Al Wakrah, and is building two warehouses and two accommodation buildings for Dar Al-Anwar Trading Co. Each building type has its own fire and life-safety requirements, and each is designed to meet them.
Can a pre-engineered store include a mezzanine floor?
Yes. The Masas record includes a ground-plus-mezzanine store for a state office, where the mezzanine has its own framing and access steel. A mezzanine should be part of the design from the start, because adding one after the frame is fabricated usually means reworking it.
Does Masas only erect warehouses, or design them too?
Both. Masas prices a warehouse as a full package of design, fabrication and erection, or as any part of it: design only, supply only, or erection of steel that another company fabricated.
Who approves the steel drawings for a warehouse?
The consultant appointed on your project. Before fabrication starts, Masas submits shop drawings, a method statement, an inspection and test plan and a risk assessment for approval against QCS 2014, the Qatar Construction Specifications.

Need a quotation for this?

Send drawings or a scope and we will come back with a quotation.

A warehouse and labour accommodation complex for a stationery and educational supplies distributor — photograph 4