Garage made of concrete, steel, or wood?

If you want to buy a prefabricated garage, you have several material options to choose from. In fact, the vast majority of prefabricated garages in Central Europe are apparently made from concrete or reinforced concrete, which have been tried and tested building materials for many years. However, some potential buyers are currently also noticing very aggressive advertising for prefabricated garages made of sheet steel wood or for garages in timber frame construction.

This raises the question: Which of these materials offers the most advantages?

For laypeople, choosing the ideal prefabricated garage material is often not that easy!

Especially as not every supplier makes it clear what the garage on offer is actually made of (tip: be sure to ask!). In fact, the choice of material for the new prefabricated garage is a critical decision that has far-reaching effects on running costs, durability, maintenance, and safety, among other things.

This is why it is so important, especially for laypeople interested in buying, to know the advantages and disadvantages of the various materials used for prefabricated garages.

We have therefore compiled some particularly important differences below.

• Wood: Wood is flexible and can therefore (intelligently installed) also be quite robust. However, the following also applies here: robustness depends above all on good maintenance!
• (Steel) sheet: Steel sheet can certainly withstand the vast majority of natural forces and many man-made attempts at destruction. However, pictures from countries with extreme weather events indicate where the material could reach its limits in terms of robustness. If the material has started to rust, its robustness will decrease relatively quickly in any case.

Maintenance and ongoing maintenance costs

• Concrete: Prefabricated concrete garages are virtually maintenance-free. Occasional cleaning and infrequent repainting (actually for purely visual reasons!) are usually sufficient for many years. The ongoing maintenance costs are close to zero for many years!

• Wood: Wooden garages require regular (some experts recommend annual) inspections and treatments to protect the material from the weather and pests.
• (Sheet steel garages must be regularly inspected for rust and treated accordingly if necessary. (Damaged) paintwork must be renewed to prevent corrosion. If rust has occurred, it must be treated immediately.

Indoor climate

• Concrete: The walls of a concrete garage can buffer temperature fluctuations upwards or downwards quite well due to their solidity. Moisture brought into the garage via the car can also be temporarily absorbed by the walls. For safety reasons, prefabricated concrete garages are usually equipped with sufficiently large ventilation elements. In addition, special ventilation systems – e.g., a so-called eco-garage ventilator or a sectional door that can be partially opened – can be installed by renowned manufacturers.

• Wood: Wood insulates quite well in principle but can be susceptible to moisture if it is poorly ventilated (due to the construction), in that permanently damp wood can start to “stagnate” (mold) or modernize, which is logically not excellent for the indoor climate.
• (Steel) sheet metal: Anyone who has ever had to sit in a car made of sheet steel for a long time at very high or extremely low temperatures knows about the rather limited insulating properties of the material. Also important to know: Any condensation moisture that occurs cannot be buffered in the sheet steel walls or ceiling, which is why it can always happen in sheet steel garages that water condenses on the ceiling and drips down!

Fire protection

• Concrete: According to DIN EN 13501-1, concrete is classified as “non-combustible” and therefore offers the highest fire protection (class A1) of the three materials compared.
• Wood: Logically, wooden garages are combustible (even classified as such!) and therefore require special fire protection measures (additional fire-retardant cladding or similar) if they are attached directly to residential buildings.
• (Steel) sheet: Like concrete, sheet steel is non-combustible, but unlike solid concrete walls, it has only a minimal heat protection effect in the event of a fire.

Assembly speed and complexity

• Concrete: Prefabricated concrete garages are practically ready-made, i.e., completely prefabricated in the factory (usually with a floor!) and delivered to the installation site, and can therefore be erected on the prepared foundations within a few hours and then used immediately.

• Timber: Timber garages often arrive at the installation site in prefabricated parts and therefore require cautious assembly on site, which can vary depending on the complexity of the structure. Timber garages also require foundation elements on which the structure is built. Wooden garages generally do not have a floor. (This must be prepared or built separately).
• (Steel) sheet metal: Steel garages are generally also delivered in parts and must be assembled on-site, which requires the utmost care and can take some time. Like wooden garages, sheet metal garages require foundation elements on which they are built. As a rule, they also have no floor. (This must also be prepared or built separately).

Price

• Concrete: Although sometimes somewhat more expensive in terms of cost price, prefabricated concrete garages offer an excellent cost-benefit ratio, especially in the long term, due to their durability and minimal maintenance costs (virtually none to begin with!).
• Wood: Depending on the type of wood and size, wooden garages can be cheaper to purchase than those made of concrete but require higher ongoing maintenance costs.
• (Steel) sheet metal: Steel garages are also often somewhat cheaper to purchase than prefabricated concrete garages, but any corrosion problems that may occur can lead to higher long-term costs.

As you can see, the choice of material for a prefabricated garage should be carefully considered!

For many potential buyers, the matter appears to be clear (otherwise we at ZAPF would not have sold 440,000 concrete garages recently!). Prefabricated concrete garages apparently offer a particularly convincing combination of durability, low maintenance, safety, and cost-effectiveness from the perspective of these many buyers. Concrete garages are also a particularly safe investment that protects and increases the value of the entire property in the long term.