Bottom line up front: The Industrial Series uses bigger steel, a heavier cover, and tighter truss spacing. Installation is offered as a separate service and quoted on inquiry. The price reflects the engineering, not a markup. The Commercial Series is roughly flat at ~$5.50/sq ft across all 18 sizes; the Industrial Series isn’t on that curve, and this page explains why.
Why this page exists
MAX publishes every price — Commercial and Industrial. Most of our competitors hide Industrial pricing behind quote forms because the per-square-foot number looks different from what a buyer expects after pricing a Commercial-class building. We don’t hide it. We explain it.
If you’ve priced an 80-foot fabric building somewhere else and gotten a number that surprised you, this page is the reason. If you’re a procurement officer evaluating a MAX Industrial quote against another supplier, this is the rationale for the spec we ship and the price it carries. Five-minute read. No marketing.
1. The span problem
When you make a clear-span fabric building wider, the structural demand on the truss grows faster than the size step. A 14% wider span doesn’t ask the steel for 14% more strength — it asks for substantially more, because the load has farther to travel before reaching the foundation, and the truss has more length to flex over.
That’s why the Industrial truss isn’t 14% beefier than the Commercial truss. It’s substantially beefier. The diameter and wall thickness change is what’s in Section 3 below — both measurable with a tape measure on a delivered building.
2. The peak problem
Going from a 28-foot Commercial peak to a 37-foot Industrial peak adds two compounding effects at once.
First: more vertical surface for wind to push against — a taller building is a bigger sail. Second: a longer lever arm between that surface and the foundation. The frame has to be stiffer to hold its shape under wind cycling, not just stronger to resist the load.
Snow loading at the peak adds a similar effect. Snow accumulates on the higher portion of the truss and the structural path to ground is longer. The frame needs the stiffness to stay within deflection limits at the larger peak — and the visible flex of a building that’s deflecting too much is bad for cover life and bad for the buyer’s confidence in the structure.
The geometric upside: the same steeper peak that asks more of the steel also sheds Canadian snow aggressively before it can stack at the apex. The 21-foot peak zone above the 16-foot sidewall is doing the snow-shedding work that flatter, lower-peak buildings can’t.
The Commercial Series solves these problems for spans up to 70 feet and peaks up to 28 feet. Beyond that, the engineering changes character. The Industrial Series is what changes character looks like in steel.
3. What changes in the steel
Two specific dimensions on the main frame tube step up between the Commercial and Industrial Series — diameter and wall thickness. Both are measurable, both are on the spec sheet, and both are what you’re paying for at the larger sizes.
| Spec | Commercial Series | Industrial Series |
|---|---|---|
| Frame tube diameter | 48 mm | 76 mm (oval cross-section) |
| Frame tube wall thickness | 1.5 mm | 2.5 mm |
| Purlin spec | 48 mm × 1.5 mm | 60 mm × 1.5 mm · 17 groups |
| Cross-bracing within each truss | Double-truss standard | 45-degree solid-tube cross-bracing |
| Truss spacing on centre | 10 ft (3.05 m) | 8 ft (2.44 m) · 8.33 ft (2.54 m) on the 80×100 by design |
| Frame finish | Hot-dipped galvanized steel | Hot-dipped galvanized steel |
| Truss design | Double-Trussed Standard | Double-Trussed Standard |
What this means in plain English
The Industrial truss is a meaningfully larger pipe with meaningfully thicker walls. If you imagine pushing on the centre of a horizontal pipe, a thicker, larger pipe bends less under the same load. The Industrial truss resists bending and buckling much better than the Commercial truss — which is what allows it to span 80 feet at 37 feet of peak without flexing in ways the cover or foundation wouldn’t tolerate.
We don’t quote a precise multiplier on the structural improvement here. The exact number depends on tube alloy, end conditions, and the specific load case being analyzed — and the buyer doesn’t need a multiplier. The buyer needs the actual measured specs, which are in the table above and on every Industrial product page.
The 45-degree solid-tube cross-bracing
Every truss on the Industrial Series is two parallel oval tubes joined by 45-degree solid-tube cross-bracing. That triangulated geometry is what makes a truss stronger than the same amount of steel laid out as separate parallel tubes. Plain-language version: the cross-bracing turns local bending forces (which steel doesn’t handle as well) into axial tension and compression forces (which steel handles best). Triangles don’t flex; rectangles do. The 45-degree pattern is what keeps the truss honest under load.
Why truss spacing also tightens
On the Commercial Series, trusses sit 10 feet apart. On the Industrial, they sit 8 feet apart on most sizes — and 8.33 feet apart on the 80×100 by design (100′ ÷ 12 truss spaces). Closer spacing distributes roof loads (wind, snow, cover tension) across more frames per foot of building length. Each truss carries less load. That’s part of how the structural engineering balances out at the larger span.
4. Why the cover steps up to 900 g/m²
750 g/m² PVC is the heaviest standard cover in the fabric building category and is the right answer for the vast majority of applications. We move to 900 g/m² on the Industrial Series for three specific reasons:
- Surface area. A larger building has more cover, which means more area exposed to UV, abrasion, and weathering. Heavier fabric extends time-to-failure on a larger exposed surface.
- Tear initiation. Industrial environments — oilfield dust, mining particulates, chemical exposure, fertilizer abrasion — initiate tears at the fabric surface. Heavier fabric resists tear initiation longer.
- High-cycle wind. Taller buildings flutter more under wind cycling. Heavier fabric has a longer fatigue life under repeated loading.
For a farm, a fleet yard, or a contractor’s storage building, 750g is the right answer and 900g would be money spent on protection the application doesn’t need. For industrial use, the application punishes the cover enough that the heavier fabric earns its weight back in service life.
5. Why the price-per-square-foot looks different
The MAX Commercial Series is roughly flat per square foot across all 18 sizes. From the smallest at $5,888 to the largest at $79,888, the per-square-foot cost stays in a tight band. That flatness is itself a feature of the Commercial design — the engineering scales linearly with size up to 70 feet of span and 28 feet of peak, so the price scales linearly too.
The Industrial Series isn’t on that curve. The steel is a different class of engineering (see Section 3), and the cover is heavier. Neither of those step-ups is a linear extension of the Commercial pricing curve.
What that means in practice: if you compute a Commercial per-square-foot price and extend it linearly to 80×120 or 80×200, you’ll arrive at a number that’s lower than the Industrial price. That difference is real, and it’s the engineering doing its work. We publish the Industrial price openly so that the math, the engineering, and the value of the buy line up where the buyer can see them.
What you’re paying for
- Substantially heavier frame steel — 76mm × 2.5mm-wall oval tubing vs 48mm × 1.5mm round on Commercial
- 45-degree solid-tube cross-bracing within every truss assembly
- Tighter truss spacing — more frames per linear foot
- Stepped-up purlin spec with 17 purlin groups
- 20% heavier cover (900g vs 750g)
- 18′ × 18′ doors at front and back (larger than Commercial standard)
- Installation available through MAX-vetted crews — offered as a separate service, quoted on inquiry
- 12-year fabric warranty / 2-year manufacturing warranty (same as Commercial)
What is and isn’t in the published Industrial price
Included on the published price: cover, frame, hardware, anchoring, and delivery — the building itself. There are no upgrade fees and no surprise add-ons for what makes up the building.
Quoted separately: installation. The Industrial Series is not sold as a DIY kit — install at this scale is a crew job, and crew cost varies materially by site location, access, and conditions. We provide installation through MAX-vetted crews and quote it on inquiry.
What the price does not include — same transparency, both directions
- Site preparation (concrete pad, grading, excavation, drainage). Site-specific.
- Building permits. Jurisdiction-specific.
- Site-specific engineering letters where required by jurisdiction. Not currently bundled.
- Custom modifications or non-standard configurations. Quoted separately.
6. How to think about the value
If you’re comparing an Industrial Series price against a metal-building or conventional-build alternative, the right comparison is total cost of ownership over the service life of the building, not initial-build cost.
Build cost
- MAX Industrial: building price published openly. Installation available as a separate service, quoted on inquiry.
- Conventional steel building (equivalent footprint): typically substantially higher initial cost, longer build time, requires licensed contractor, permanent foundation.
Service life
- MAX cover: 750g standard, 900g Industrial — both designed for long service life in Canadian conditions.
- Frame: galvanized steel, designed to outlast multiple cover cycles. One Frame. Decades of Use.
- Cover replacement when needed: published cover-only pricing on our replacement covers page, factory-direct.
Operational flexibility
- Fabric building: relocatable if operations move. Often classified as a temporary structure for property-tax purposes (jurisdiction-dependent — verify locally).
- Conventional steel building: permanent. Cannot be moved. Higher property-tax exposure.
7. What we don’t sell on the Industrial Series — and why
Honest scope helps procurement evaluate against other suppliers. Here’s what MAX Industrial does not currently include:
- Site-specific engineering stamps / PE letters. We do not currently provide these. If your jurisdiction requires one, you’ll engage a local engineer to review the supplied design package against site conditions. Many jurisdictions accept the manufacturer’s standard design for the wind and snow loads we publish; some require additional review.
- DIY-priced Industrial kits without crew support. Anchor engineering and install rigging at this scale are crew jobs. MAX-vetted install crews are available and quoted on inquiry.
- Below-80-foot Industrial. The Industrial Series is exactly four standard sizes — all 80 feet wide. If your equipment fits comfortably under a 28-foot peak, the Commercial Series is the right answer.
- Above-80-foot clear-span. Beyond 80, you trade peak height, snow load, or both. We don’t ship Industrial in widths greater than 80 because the structural compromise isn’t worth it.
8. The bottom line
We publish prices on every building in our catalogue — Commercial and Industrial. We tell you what’s included, what isn’t, what we sell, and what we don’t.
The Industrial Series price is higher per square foot than the Commercial line because the steel, the cover, and the install are all stepped up. Bigger pipe, thicker walls, 45-degree cross-bracing, tighter spacing, heavier fabric, crew install. The price is the receipt for that engineering, not a markup.
If you’re comparing MAX against a competitor whose Industrial pricing is hidden behind a quote form, ask them to publish what they’re shipping. If they can’t, that’s information.
Heavier as standard. Engineered to span. Priced openly.
Pick the size that fits your operation:
80′ × 80′ — $79,888 80′ × 100′ — $89,888 80′ × 120′ — $119,888 80′ × 200′ — $159,888
Get Your Industrial Quote Back to Industrial SeriesSpecifications above describe MAX Storage Buildings standard product specifications. Site-specific design loads, foundation requirements, and structural review obligations should be verified against your jurisdiction’s adopted code edition. Engineering details based on the 808037DP-M reference drawing and equivalent specs across the four Industrial sizes (80×80, 80×100, 80×120, 80×200).