Post Falls-based construction contracting company Steel Structures America Inc., which now is involved in 500 to 700 projects annually, uses so much metal roofing and siding materials, that owners Justin and Shawn Sternberg have launched their own metal roll-forming company.

Brothers Shawn, 49, and Justin, 47, opened Metal America LLC earlier this month.

“Being the largest metal building contractor in the area, we happened to buy a lot of metal,” Shawn says of SSA. “So we decided that it was time for us to get into the manufacturing of all things metal siding and roofing.”

Over the last few years, the Journal’s reporting on the Sternbergs’ business operations has focused mainly on individual ministorage facilities erected by SSA in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area. The brothers’ jointly owned construction-related ventures, however, are much broader in scope.

Metal America required a multimillion-dollar investment in equipment, most of which was sourced in the Inland Northwest, including its largest machines, which were manufactured by Metal Rollforming Systems, of Spokane, Justin says.

The roll-forming machines cut and shape metal panels into several profiles for roofing and siding materials from massive coils of flat metal.

“All of our coil metal is American steel, and everything is Sherwin Williams coated,” Shawn says.

Coatings include options with realistic wood-grain prints, some of which SSA is the first in the country to offer, he says.

Shawn says it took 1 1/2 years to get the roll-forming equipment online.

“So we made this decision a long time ago,” he explains. “We’ve been roll-forming metal for SSA for the last six to eight months. We wanted to make sure Metal America was ready to go.”

SSA isn’t meant to be Metal America’s only customer.

“We’re now open to the public," Shawn says. “We sell to distributors, contractors, and homeowners.”

Metal America occupies one of seven steel structures that take up a total of 80,000 square feet on a 10-acre manufacturing and distribution complex it shares with SSA and related companies Garage Door Design Inc. and Perma-Column Precast Inc. at 7728 N. Corn Maze Way, in northwest Post Falls.

The brothers formed the Garage Door Design distributorship in 2018.

“Our garage door dealer couldn’t keep up, so we decided to take on that part of the business,” Shawn says. “We also sell this product retail to homeowners and contractors.”

They formed Perma-Column Precast 10 years ago to become the exclusive manufacturer within SSA's service area of a proprietary hybrid column system for wood-post-frame buildings.

The columns have a concrete lower section attached to a laminated-wood upper section, so no wood is in contact with the ground. “The concrete is insanely durable," Shawn says. "That’s a lifetime system.”

The Sternbergs also own and operate several self-storage facilities built by SSA for its separate Giant Storage brand. They currently have Giant Storage facilities located in Spokane Valley; Post Falls; Hauser; Sagle, Idaho; and Monument, Colorado.

Justin says Steel Structures is about to break ground on another Giant Storage facility in Yakima, Washington, and has another planned in Coeur d’Alene.

“When all of our new Giant Storage projects and expansions are completed, we’ll have over 1 million square feet of self-storage that we own and operate,” Justin says.

For the broader self-storage market, SSA’s services range beyond initial construction, Shawn adds.

“We know how to own and operate the facilities, so we help self-storage investors with their security systems or IT,” he says. “We could even train their staff, and we've been known to build their websites through our in-house marketing team."

Justin says SSA has produced about 14,000 projects in the 25 years the brothers have owned the company.

The company and its affiliates currently have over 100 employees. Including subcontractors, SSA currently has 40 crews of three to five people working on projects in six states. SSA regularly erects buildings that occupy a total of 500,000 to 1 million square feet annually, Justin says.

During the Great Recession, SSA expanded geographically, including into Colorado, which now accounts for about a third of SSA’s business, Shawn says. In addition to facilities in Idaho and Colorado, SSA now has offices in Washington, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming.

Shawn says annual revenue has trended steadily upward since the recession.

“Our revenues have increased due to the size and complexity of the structures,” he says. “These buildings are becoming bigger and more custom.”

Justin says post frame construction is the largest segment of business, followed by self storage, and the growing rigid iron-frame segment.

Shawn says SSA is gravitating toward a new category of commercial and high-end residential structures.

“We do hundreds of ‘barndominiums’ every year,” he says. “We’ll use a combination of building systems for storage and living space. This is becoming a lifestyle product.”