Interior of a Rhodes Building Systems industrial building with twin overhead cranes on a clear-span steel frame

Commercial Buildings

Buildings that have to pass inspection, open on a date, and work for a business.

What we build

Rhodes has completed commercial, light industrial, community and specialty steel projects across Central Texas. The building types below are the ones people ask for most. If yours is not listed, call — fifty years in, it is rarely something new.

Commercial buildings

Retail, office and service buildings where the front has to look right from the road and the back has to work. Single slope framing is often the answer on a tight site.

Warehouses

Clear span means racking, aisles and dock doors go where the operation needs them, not where a column allows. Height and door placement are the two decisions worth getting right early.

Industrial and manufacturing

Longer spans, heavier loads, and frames engineered for crane rails or equipment loads rather than just roof and wind.

Maintenance and equipment buildings

Wide doors, durable finishes and a slab designed for what gets parked on it.

Community and church buildings

Assembly space wants a clear span and a roof line that does not look industrial. Both are a design decision, not a limit of the material.

Storage and office/warehouse

Combination buildings where part of the square footage is finished space and the rest is not. The split is worth planning before the slab is poured.

Specialty steel structures

Since the mid 1990s Rhodes has built water and sewer treatment plant structures — too small for the large manufacturers, too engineering-intensive for the small ones.

What makes a commercial job different

The steel is the same steel. What changes is everything around it. A commercial building answers to the code, to accessibility requirements, to a fire marshal and to an inspector, and those requirements drive real decisions about the structure long before anybody orders material.

That is work, and it is work we would rather do than hand to you. Permits and inspections are part of our scope, including the jurisdictions that take a while.

Code, accessibility and inspection requirements designed in, not discovered late
Permits pulled and inspections scheduled as part of the contract
In-house design and AutoCAD drafting, so a change is a drawing, not a delay
Insured crews and a small group of subcontractors we use repeatedly
Clear span where the operation needs open floor

One contract, one phone number

On a commercial project the expensive problems are rarely structural. They are the gaps between trades — the slab poured before somebody checked the underground, the building up before the electrical layout was settled.

We take the whole job so those gaps are ours instead of yours. Design through final finish-out, one contract, and one person accountable for the budget, the schedule and every subcontractor on site. See general contracting for exactly what that covers, and metal buildings for the steel itself.

Common questions

Does Rhodes do general contracting, or just sell buildings?

Both, but general contracting is the larger part of what we do. We can supply and erect a building, or take the entire project — site work, foundation, steel, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and interior finish — under one contract.

Does Rhodes handle concrete and foundations?

Yes. Every building we put up sits on a slab we poured. Site work and foundations are part of a complete project rather than something you arrange separately.

Can Rhodes add onto an existing metal building?

Yes. Additions and renovations are work we take on, and metal buildings are more straightforward to expand than conventional construction.

Does Rhodes work with architects and engineers?

Yes. We design in house, and we also build from drawings an owner already has. Either way the coordination is our job rather than yours.

What do you need from me to put together a quote?

What the building is for, roughly how big, where the site is, and when you need to be in it. Plans help if you have them. We can work from much less than people expect.

How long does a project take?

It depends on size, site and permitting — call and we will give you a real answer for your project rather than a number that sounds good on a website.

Ask us about your project →