Building Types
120x150 Clear-Span Steel Building
- Width
- 120 ft
- Length
- 150 ft
- Floor area
- 18,000 sq ft
- Perimeter
- 540 ft
Quick dimensions
At a Glance
Width
120 ft across the gable end.
Length
150 ft along the sidewall.
Floor area
18,000 sq ft of clear floor.
Eave height
14 ft at the sidewall on the stored profile.
Configuration
How This Building Is Configured
Configuration summary
| Building type | Clear-Span Steel Building |
|---|---|
| Footprint | 120 ft × 150 ft |
| Floor area | 18,000 sq ft |
| Eave height | 14 ft |
Planning
Footprint & Space Planning
Footprint
Width and length are chosen together: width is usually fixed by what has to fit side by side, length by how many bays are needed.
Height
Eave height affects door options, storage height and how open the interior feels.
Access
Where vehicles and people enter changes the whole interior layout, so access is settled before anything else.
Doors and openings
Opening width, height and position are specified with the supplier; they affect the frame and the wall bracing.
Site
Slope, drainage, access for delivery and erection, and the foundation are confirmed for the actual property.
Expansion
Extending along the length is usually simpler than changing the width later, which is worth deciding up front.
Use
How a 120×150 Clear-Span Steel Building May Be Used
Warehouse
Clear-span width determines how the main space can be arranged and seated.
Arena
Ancillary rooms are commonly placed along one side or at one end.
Manufacturing
Entrance and exit placement follows the occupancy requirements for the use.
Example
Example Configuration
Access
Doors & Access Considerations
Opening width
Across a 120 ft gable end, the practical opening width is limited by the frame and confirmed with the supplier.
Opening height
A 14 ft eave sets the ceiling on door height before any frame change.
Drive-through
Matching openings at both ends avoid reversing, at the cost of usable wall.
Similar sizes
Other Sizes for a Clear-Span Steel Building
120′ × 130′
15,600 sq ft
120′ × 170′
20,400 sq ft
110′ × 150′
16,500 sq ft
Related
Related Building Types
Example configuration — for planning purposes only.
FAQ
Common Questions
120 ft × 150 ft is 18,000 square feet of floor area before any interior partitions.
Length is usually adjusted in bay increments, and width is a larger design change. Both are confirmed with the supplier for the final design.
Site preparation, foundation and erection are commonly quoted separately from the building package. Confirm the scope of any quote you receive.
Compare nearby sizes
Related footprints for this building type
Each page works through one footprint for one building type.
Overview
A 120x150 clear-span steel building planned as a clear-span volume shaped by an overhead lifting path rather than by floor area
This page is ordered around turn, because that is the decision this footprint settles first and every later choice follows from it.
6 lift bays fit across the 120-foot width with only 0 feet left over, which is a tight fit: the width is fully committed and nothing can be widened later without moving a wall.
Read this footprint through its span. 120 feet across is the fixed constraint; 150 feet of length is the negotiable one, and at 1.25 to 1 the building is close to square, so movement runs in both directions. Ground conditions and drainage decide the floor before the frame does.
A 120 by 150 footprint is a mildly directional plan: 18,000 sq ft enclosed by 540 ft of wall, at a 1.3:1 length-to-width proportion. Along its 150 ft dimension it takes 5 runs of lift bays at 30 ft, leaving 0 ft over — the 0 ft is where the argument about this size actually happens. Here the clear span exists to keep columns out of a lifting path, so the building is planned from the crane down rather than from the floor up. The runway's reach, not the floor's area, is what determines whether a heavy or awkward load can be moved from receiving to its final position without an intermediate handling step. Door width and placement usually govern a clear-span building's usefulness more than its floor area does, because the door decides what can enter in the first place.
At 120x150 the operating question is a specific one: does the crane's runway actually reach every position a load needs to be set down, or only the middle of the floor? That is a different question from the one a clear-span steel building of another shape has to answer, and it is why this footprint is planned as a clear-span volume shaped by an overhead lifting path rather than by floor area rather than as generic covered area.
Areas, perimeter, roof area, ridge height, slab volume and the lift bay counts on this page are computed from the stored 120x150 record and this platform's planning module for the clear-span steel building category.
Configurations
Configuring 24 lift bays at 120x150
At 25-foot nominal bays the structure works with the layout instead of against it: one lift bay per bay line, walls free of awkward half-positions. A leftover strip earns its place only when something is deliberately put in it; otherwise it is circulation with a nicer name.
Depth here creates a hierarchy: 4 rows means front positions get used and rear positions get filled. Deciding which is which up front is what keeps 120x150 workable. The corner nobody plans for is the one that fills first, which is an argument for planning it.
Extension is cheapest along the 150 ft dimension, where each added bay repeats work already framed; widening past 120 ft is a different frame rather than a longer one. Growing to 120 by 180 adds a 6th run of lift bays — useful if the constraint is lift bays rather than the 0 ft already spare at the far end.
Configured as a clear-span volume shaped by an overhead lifting path rather than by floor area, 120x150 is judged on whether the 24 lift bays it holds match the operation, and on whether the 0 feet of spare width leaves the route this mode depends on.
- Does the work need an interior street with independent zones on both sides and turning room at each end, or does it need a second lane that this 120-foot span cannot give?
- Is the 150-foot length being bought for depth, or for the repeated bays — a long repeating bay sequence, so segment boundaries are set by bay lines rather than by walls?
- What dimension genuinely has to be crossed without a column?
- Is the clear height measured under the frame, or at the eave?
Bay division shown here is a planning module computed from the stored length. Actual bay spacing is set by the manufacturer's frame design for the building.
Height
Interior height for a 120x150 clear-span steel building
The stored configuration carries a 14-foot eave and computes to 29 feet at the ridge on a 3:12 pitch — a 15-foot rise across 120 feet. Height is therefore not uniform, and the sidewall is the constraint. What the building holds in its busiest week is the honest brief; the rest of the year is slack.
Under-hook clearance, not eave height, is the number that governs the building, and it has to account for the lifted load's height plus rigging, not just the empty hook.
Clear height below purlins, bracing and lighting is lower than the eave height. The usable figure comes from the manufacturer's framing for the selected building.
Openings
Openings for 6 lift bays across
Openings are the pinch point here. With 0 feet of spare width the gable cannot host 6 separate doors, so access is either shared or moved to the 150-foot sidewall. Plan the exit as carefully as the entrance; buildings are emptied under more time pressure than they are filled.
The 120 ft ends and the 150 ft sides offer very different opening budgets: 120 ft of end wall has room for one wide opening or two modest ones, while 150 ft of side wall can carry several without the openings competing. On this plan the deciding factor is whether overhead crane building layout or runway reach planning should be the first thing reached from the door.
Framed-opening sizes, headers and the structure around them are engineered for the specific building. Confirm every opening with the door supplier and the building manufacturer before ordering.
Allocation
Dividing the floor for a clear-span volume shaped by an overhead lifting path rather than by floor area
The use this column-free floor could equally be bought for is a column-free floor sized around turning and parking wheeled equipment, not fixed workstations: there is no turning apron, so every reposition becomes a multi-point manoeuvre around parked equipment. Floor area under the runway is reserved for lift and set-down positions, and anything that does not need to be lifted is pushed to the side bays outside the runway's reach. Mixing fixed benches into the runway path is the most common way this mode's plan gets undermined.
The 18-foot leftover depth is 2,160 square feet across the full width — deep enough to plan deliberately, and at this footprint it goes to a staging strip along the runway line where a load can be set down mid-lift without leaving the crane's reach. Neighbouring buildings, setbacks and the approach road often decide the orientation before the plan does.
Only 0 feet of width is spare, so there is no wall strip: anything set along a sidewall comes out of a lift bay's clearance. The plan should survive the day the largest item the operation owns has to come inside.
Spent as a square 134 by 134 instead, the same 18,000 sq ft would stand 6 lift bays across rather than 5, and would trade this plan's length for parallel access. That is the width-against-depth decision this footprint has already made. Compared with a 120 by 110 of the same width, the extra depth here adds run rather than reach: it buys about 5 lift bays in line, and every position past the second is retrieved by moving what stands in front of it. At this scale the building is infrastructure rather than a shed; scheduling, traffic direction and separation of activities matter more than any single dimension. The longest internal travel on a 120 by 150 plan is about 192 ft corner to corner, and the shortest useful one is the 120 ft cross-run. For a a clear-span volume shaped by an overhead lifting path rather than by floor area that matters where overhead crane building layout sits, because shortening the 120 ft run to serve it lengthens every trip along the 150 ft dimension. A load-out lane, turning apron or service margin that is planned as permanent floor, not leftover space, is what keeps a wide floor usable years after it is filled. That movement pattern, not the 18,000-square-foot total, is what decides whether the leftover 18 feet is useful here.
Usable area
How the 18,000 square feet divides at 120x150
Computed lift bay fit for a 120x150 clear-span steel building
| Measure | Computed at this footprint |
|---|---|
| Lift bays across the 120-foot width | 6 at a 20-foot module |
| Leftover width | 0 ft (0 sq ft as a full-length strip) |
| Rows along the 150-foot length | 4 at a 30-foot module after 12 ft of circulation |
| Leftover depth | 18 ft (2,160 sq ft across the width) |
| Total lift bays | 24 |
| Share of floor committed | 80% |
Module footprint used here is 20 by 30 feet, this platform's planning module for a clear-span steel building. It is not a code minimum or an engineered clearance.
Example allocation of the 150-foot length — planning model, not survey data
| Zone | Length along the building | Computed area |
|---|---|---|
| Production floor | 82.5 ft | 9,900 sq ft |
| Material handling and staging | 42 ft | 5,040 sq ft |
| Support, office and utility | 25.5 ft | 3,060 sq ft |
Shares applied to the stored 150-foot length; areas computed against the 120-foot width.
Module footprints and allocation shares come from this platform's use typology and are published as example planning models. They are not recommendations and do not describe a majority of projects.
Comparison
What changes at adjacent footprints
Computed comparison of nearby footprints for a clear-span steel building
| Footprint | Floor area | Lift bays |
|---|---|---|
| 60x120 | 7,200 sq ft | 6 (2 x 3) |
| 50x150 | 7,500 sq ft | 10 (2 x 5) |
| 80x100 | 8,000 sq ft | 9 (3 x 3) |
| 60x150 | 9,000 sq ft | 6 (2 x 3) |
| 80x120 | 9,600 sq ft | 4 (2 x 2) |
Areas computed from each stored size record; lift bay counts computed with the same 20 by 30 foot planning module.
- 60x120 moves the count from 24 to 6 lift bays (2 across by 3 deep), which is the reason to choose between them.
- 50x150 moves the count from 24 to 10 lift bays (2 across by 5 deep), which is the reason to choose between them.
- 80x100 moves the count from 24 to 9 lift bays (3 across by 3 deep), which is the reason to choose between them.
Nearby footprints read for a clear-span steel building: exact change in area and in planning lift bays
| Footprint | Area Δ | % Δ | Lift bays at that footprint | What changes for this use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100x200 | +2,000 sq ft | +11.1% | 30 (5 x 6) | +6 lift bays on the same planning module. |
| 80x200 | −2,000 sq ft | −11.1% | 8 (2 x 4) | −16 lift bays on the same planning module. |
| 100x150 | −3,000 sq ft | −16.7% | 20 (4 x 5) | −4 lift bays on the same planning module. |
| 120x200 | +6,000 sq ft | +33.3% | 16 (4 x 4) | −8 lift bays on the same planning module. |
Areas are arithmetic on two stored size records; lift bay counts use this platform's 20 by 30 foot planning module and are not a capacity statement.
Because this footprint is planned as a clear-span volume shaped by an overhead lifting path rather than by floor area, the useful next reads are different from the ones a differently shaped clear-span steel building suggests: overhead crane building layout, runway reach planning, under-hook clearance.
Visualization
Reading the 120x150 footprint as a clear-span steel building
FAQ
Questions about 120x150 clear-span steel building projects
It depends on the width the operation must cross without a column, which is the defining requirement of the type. The stored configuration computes to 29 feet at the ridge, but the eave is the number that governs anything standing near a wall.
Reserving 12 ft across the 120 ft dimension for movement leaves 108 ft of working width, which takes 5 lift bays at 20 ft. Along 150 ft it takes 5 runs at 30 ft. That is 25 positions out of 18,000 sq ft, and the remainder is circulation, walls and the margin every plan needs. Whether that count is enough depends on does the crane's runway actually reach every position a load needs to be set down, or only the middle of the floor. These are planning figures computed from the footprint, not a quoted layout.
6 lift bays fit across the 120-foot width with only 0 feet left over, which is a tight fit: the width is fully committed and nothing can be widened later without moving a wall. Those counts use a 20 by 30 foot planning module with 12 feet allowed for circulation, so a different module changes the answer.
No — only the positions where a lift actually needs to start or end. Areas outside the runway's reach can be used for fixed storage or work that never needs to move by crane.
A 4-inch slab across 18,000 square feet computes to 222.2 cubic yards before thickened edges, piers or waste. The final design comes from the foundation engineer.
Methodology
How this page was produced
Sources and methodology
Find Steel Buildings dimensional records
Find Steel Buildings · Primary platform dataset · Tier 1 — code authority, standards body, primary dataset or manufacturer engineering
Supports: Stored nominal width, length, eave height, roof pitch and slab thickness for this subject.
International Building Code and International Residential Code
International Code Council · Model code · Tier 1 — code authority, standards body, primary dataset or manufacturer engineering
Supports: The framework of adopted codes and local amendments that decides permitting, separation and opening requirements. Cited as the governing framework, never as a local requirement.
- Dimensional figures: Width, length, eave height, roof pitch and nominal slab thickness come from this platform's stored record for the subject. Floor area, perimeter, wall area, roof area, ridge height and slab volume are computed from those inputs rather than transcribed.
- Lift bay fit: Counts, leftover strips and per-module areas are computed from the stored 120x150 record against this platform's 20 by 30 foot planning module for the clear-span steel building category, with 12 feet allowed for circulation. The module is editorial planning typology, not a code minimum or an engineered clearance.
- Allocation model: Zone shares come from this platform's use typology for production and industrial operations and are applied arithmetically to the stored 150-foot length.
- Allocation and layout models: Layout splits are arithmetic on the stored footprint, published as example allocation models. They are not survey findings and do not describe what buyers most often choose.
- Clearance and opening guidance: Clearance and opening statements are planning guidance. Final dimensions depend on the selected door system, header detail and the manufacturer's engineering for the building.
Methodology notes
- Prices: No price figure appears on this page. Cost data is published on this platform only with a documented inclusion basis, a collection date and a named source.
Cost drivers
Quantities that move the estimate at 120x150
No price appears on this page. The quantities that scale an estimate at 120x150 are 18,000 square feet of slab, 222.2 cubic yards of nominal concrete, 7,560 square feet of wall cladding and 18,554 square feet of roof cladding. Interior divisions are the last decision that should be fixed, because they are the first one that usually changes.
Runway support and the crane system itself dominate the budget conversation far more than wall or door finishes, since the building's entire value proposition is the lifting envelope.
- the span itself, which sets the primary frame
- clear height maintained under a deeper frame
- bracing strategy in the walls and roof
- opening positions the span makes possible
Drawn to scale
Plans and dimensions
Every drawing below is generated from the exact dimensions for this building, so proportions and areas are accurate.
Compare 120x150 clear-span steel building configurations
Review the allocation models for this footprint side by side, then estimate the configuration you intend to build.