High-Bay & AS/RS Steel Buildings for Maximum Efficiency

Why Steel Works for High-Bay & AS/RS Warehouses

High-bay and automated storage facilities depend on open, efficient floor space and predictable structural performance. Steel framing creates long spans with minimal interior columns, so you can maximize usable floor area, stack higher, run wider aisles, and integrate conveyors, catwalks, and platforms without constantly working around posts.

When you’re designing an AS/RS steel building, the structure must support tall racks and automated storage and retrieval systems while keeping deflection, vibration, and drift within comfortable limits for both equipment and people. Our engineering team looks at how your material handling equipment, rack systems, and automation plan come together and then designs a steel system that supports your operation instead of constraining it.

Price Your Building

High-Bay Clear Heights, Grids, and Structural Loads

In high-bay and automated storage steel buildings, storage capacity and day-to-day confidence at height depend on how rack layout, clear height, and structural loads come together. Maverick’s role is to align those technical pieces with what you actually need from the building—throughput, safety, and predictable performance over the life of the facility.

Clear heights, grids, and drift

We start with your operation: the racking systems you plan to use (selective, double-deep, drive-in, unit-load AS/RS), the aisle widths you need, and the forklifts or shuttle systems that will be moving product. From there, our engineers recommend clear heights that support your storage strategy and a column grid that fits your rack modules and traffic patterns instead of forcing you into awkward workarounds.

Behind the scenes, we design the lateral system—whether that’s braced frames, rigid frames, or a combination—to control story drift and support tall racks, while maintaining egress clearances and comfortable movement at height. We configure frame types, bracing locations, and member sizes to provide the stiffness your operation needs without wasting steel, so the building feels solid and efficient in everyday use.

Roof and platform loads

Automation and material handling equipment add significant overhead weight compared to a typical low-bay warehouse. When we design a high-bay or AS/RS-ready steel building, we account for conveyor platforms, monorails, catwalks, cable trays, rooftop units (RTUs), and even future solar when we size roof members and lay out framing.

Our drawings show how platforms and heavy equipment tie into the frame, where concentrated loads occur, and how roof penetrations are consolidated and flashed. We also preserve access along catwalks and roof edges so maintenance can be done safely and efficiently. If future solar is likely, we identify candidate zones and evaluate combined loading early, so future projects don’t turn into structural surprises.

Slab flatness and reinforcement

Tall racking and high-lift or narrow-aisle equipment demand a floor that performs consistently. Maverick treats the slab as a critical component of your high-bay or retrieval systems steel building, not an afterthought.

Our foundation drawings call out slab thickness, reinforcement, and FL/FF flatness targets that are appropriate for your equipment and rack layout. We show joint and dowel layouts that help reduce curl at rack posts and keep wheel paths smooth for AGVs, turret trucks, and other material handling equipment. For you, that translates into better travel speeds, fewer nuisance alarms, less wear on equipment, and a more predictable operating environment over time.

Price Your Building

MEP, Life-Safety, and Environmental Control at Height

Building systems in high-bay and AS/RS-ready warehouse steel buildings have to work just as well at the top of the racks as they do at the floor. Maverick designs the shell with MEP, life safety, and environmental performance in mind so your trades have a clear path and your building functions as a cohesive system.

MEP and life-safety integration

As we lay out your structure, we leave room for high-mount sprinklers (including ESFR systems where required), smoke vents if specified, and adequate lighting at elevation. We consider how electrical power will be routed—using overhead busways and carefully planned cable paths—to keep the floor clear and protect equipment.

Our designs also incorporate safe access for maintenance at height: stairs, ladders, and catwalks located where your team and vendors actually need them. By planning these access routes and support points into the steel building from the start, we help reduce retrofit work and keep maintenance activities safer and more efficient.

Thermal and condensation control at height

Tall spaces can stratify, and strategies that work well in low-bay warehouses may underperform in a high-bay environment. As part of the building design, we look at how insulation, RTU placement, and airflow will affect temperatures throughout the height of the space.

We can help position equipment, evaluate destratification fans, and recommend insulation R-values appropriate to your climate so racks, automated equipment, and personnel stay within their operating temperature range year-round. This focus on thermal and condensation control supports energy efficiency, protects sensitive systems, and helps reduce moisture-related issues at elevation.

Lighting and visibility

In a high-bay steel building, small choices in lighting design can make a big difference on the floor. We plan for high-efficiency fixtures placed to reduce rack shadows, task lighting at pick faces or work zones, and thoughtful emergency lighting to support safe egress without unnecessary energy waste.

Because maintenance at height is part of the reality of high-bay operations, we keep routes open for lifts and provide structural tie-off locations where needed so work at elevation can be done safely. The result is a building that feels bright, navigable, and safe, even in the highest aisles.

Price Your Building

Expansion, Scalability, and High-Bay Operations

High-bay and AS/RS steel building designs are often built with growth in mind. Maverick helps you plan a structure that supports your current operation while making future expansion and reconfiguration as straightforward as possible.

When your site and headroom allow, we can design the building so you can add bays at an end wall later, increasing storage capacity without starting over. We also consider how interiors might be subdivided with demising walls as tenants or uses change, and we design the first-phase frame with future connection points in mind to reduce cutting and rework when expansions happen.

People, training, and changeover

Even in highly automated facilities, people are at the center of operations. We keep personnel needs in focus by allowing for quiet rooms for supervisors, training spaces sized for vendor sessions, and safe pedestrian routes that are separated from forklift and AGV traffic.

A human-centric layout supports quality customer service and smoother changeovers. Clear sightlines, bright wayfinding, and well-placed eyewash stations and fire extinguishers help shorten onboarding time and increase confidence as teams adapt to new processes, equipment, or automation phases.

Price Your Building

Cost, Timelines, and What You Get with Maverick

High-bay steel building shell construction costs vary based on clear height, steel tonnage, bracing strategy, and local code loads. Part of Maverick’s value is helping you understand how these decisions affect both your upfront budget and long-term performance, so you can choose a cost-effective steel building solution that fits your goals.

When you bring us in early and share your rack types, platform loads, and key equipment, our team can move quickly to a structural concept. That clarity lets us issue drawings faster, which in turn helps your GC and subs price their work more accurately and keep the schedule on track. Included foundation drawings help finalize slab specifications, anchor locations, and joint layouts without guesswork, so you’re not waiting on critical information late in the process.

Why build high-bay with Maverick

Engineered to your location’s wind, snow, and seismic codes.
100% American-made steel for long-term strength, durability, and maximum storage capacity in automated storage steel buildings.

Foundation drawings included and fast drawing timelines to help move permitting and bids forward.

Price Your Building

Deliverable clarity

We know that clear, organized documents save time in the field. Our submittal sets are laid out for speed: framing plans with clear section cuts, anchor bolt plans your concrete team can build from, and schedules that call out member sizes and connection types.

That level of detail reduces rework, shortens RFI cycles, and helps keep the crane working instead of waiting for answers. It’s one more way our expertise shows up in the final outcome of your high-bay project.

Price Your Building

Metal columns for building construction on a white background

Metal frame of the new building against the sky

Start Your High-Bay & AS/RS Steel Building Design

When you’re ready to explore a new high-bay or AS/RS-ready steel building, Maverick can translate your operational requirements into a complete shell package that is built for growth.

Share your target clear height, rack type, and automation plans, and we’ll develop an efficient frame, roof, and slab concept for your automated storage steel building. Our goal is to provide a reliable, real-time storage solution that fits your current operation and leaves room for what’s next.

Interfaces with automation vendors

AS/RS suppliers and integrators often have unique clearance, vibration, and tolerance requirements. We work directly with your automation partners to coordinate tie-in points, catwalk supports, and roof penetrations for your retrieval systems steel building, using their models and data where available.

If your plan includes AGVs or AMRs, we look at where column bases, docks, and thresholds intersect with their paths and specify details that help prevent sensor faults and nuisance stops. By coordinating the building and the automation together, we help reduce field modifications and keep commissioning smoother.

Price Your Building

Get Started with Maverick Steel Buildings

If you’re planning a high-bay warehouse or AS/RS-ready facility, Maverick Steel Buildings can provide a custom steel building kit engineered around your clear heights, racking, and automation needs. We design and supply high-bay shells in a wide range of sizes, with options for platforms, mezzanines, and integrated support for conveyors and material-handling systems.

Our team has years of experience delivering steel structures for distribution, manufacturing, and industrial projects across the Southeast and beyond. Reach out today to price your building and see how a Maverick high-bay or AS/RS-ready steel building can support your operation now while leaving room for what’s next.

Price Your Building