A service company that repairs pumps, wellhead gear or heavy trailers needs a shop with tall doors, a floor that survives a loaded forklift and a roof that stays quiet in a hailstorm. That is the steel building we put up around Duncan. Most of our work here is a pre-engineered metal building of 6,000 to 40,000 square feet, with a crane runway or two if the process calls for it, and an office corner that is finished before the first truck backs in.
Duncan has an industrial base that buyers can see from the road. The city's Eastland, Northland and South industrial parks were reported in October 2022 to be sharing $1.4 million in federal ARPA money and $1 million in state PREP funds, which pays for the ground work that makes a lot buildable. When a park gets streets, water and drainage in order, the next question is the building, and that is where an owner needs numbers on frames, panels and slab thickness before a lender or a partner will sign off.
We price Duncan jobs as a complete package where the owner wants one: the foundation, the erected steel, the wall and roof panels, the doors and the insulation. We also erect for owners who bring their own concrete crew. Either way, the first conversation is about what rolls through the door, how heavy it is and how fast the business grows.
Oilfield service shops are the first building type people picture here, and they come in a few familiar shapes. A repair bay with two 16 by 16 foot overhead doors, a wash pad with a sump, a parts room and a small office is the workhorse. A fabrication shop usually wants more clear height for a bridge crane, plus a heavier slab and a bigger electrical service. We design both as clear-span buildings so a trailer or a rig component can be moved without dodging columns.
Halliburton Field (DUC) sits two miles south of town, is owned by the City of Duncan and has a concrete runway listed at 6,326 feet by 100 feet. The Oklahoma Aerospace Commission lists its role in the national airport plan as Regional. That kind of field supports corporate aircraft and charter operators, and those owners ask for a hangar with a wide door and room for a tug. Our aircraft hangar work covers the door opening, the frame and the slab, and the aviation page goes through the details a pilot cares about. We keep each building type honest about its limits. A hangar is not a shop, and a shop door is not a hangar door.
The National Weather Service Norman office lists an EF3 tornado on November 3, 2024 that ran from 5 miles south of Comanche to 7 miles northwest of Velma in Stephens County and injured 6 people. That date is a useful reminder that storm season is not only a spring problem. We tell every Duncan buyer the same thing: a code-rated metal building handles the design wind speed, and no building is rated for a direct hit from a strong tornado.
What we can do is lower the chance of damage in ordinary events and make the aftermath easier to manage. The frame is engineered for the wind load the local building department requires, the anchor bolts are sized to the engineer's drawing and the end walls carry bracing that is easy to inspect. Roof panels are fastened to a pattern that suits the exposure, and standing seam roofs hide the fasteners that hail and wind would otherwise work loose. Many owners also build a small interior room for staff, with block or poured walls, for shelter. That is a separate design item and we price it as one.
Duncan is served by U.S. Route 81 and State Highway 7, and the junction gives a shop owner reach north toward the interstate and east and west across the region. For a business that sends service trucks out in every direction, a lot within a few minutes of those two roads can save an hour a day. We look at the truck turning radius at the entrance before we choose the building footprint, because a good apron is worth more than the extra bay.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture records that in the mid-1950s Halliburton employed 1,750 people in Duncan, equal to 25 percent of the city's working population. We read that as history, not as a guarantee of demand today, but it explains why this town has skilled welders, mechanics and machine operators looking for space of their own. Owners who spin out from a larger employer often start in a rented bay and then buy ground. Our manufacturing page lays out how we plan for that kind of shop, and the Chickasha page covers the market to the north, and Ardmore sits down the road to the southeast.
Steel weight sets the base price, and weight follows the wind load, the snow load and the span. After that, four items swing the number. Clear height is the first: moving the eave from 14 to 20 feet adds frame weight and wall panel, but gives a crane or a tall rack room to work. Insulation is the second, because a shop with a welding bay and an office needs a vapor barrier and a conditioned zone. Doors are third, since each large insulated door can cost more than a small room. The slab is fourth, with thickness, reinforcement and sawcut joints all depending on the heaviest axle load.
We separate those lines in the estimate so an owner can see the choice and its cost. We also point out where the site changes the price, such as fill for a low lot, a drainage swale or a long electrical run. Our anchor bolt and foundation page explains how a footing is sized.
A typical Duncan shop goes through five steps: site and soil review, engineered drawings, permit, steel fabrication and delivery, then erection and finish. Drawings and permit take the most calendar time, and owners can trim that by choosing doors, insulation and mezzanine questions early. Steel fabrication has its own lead time, so we ask the owner to lock the frame size before ordering and not to change the width after the order is released.
Once the slab has cured, the frame goes up in days, not weeks, for a building of this size. Roof and wall panels follow, then doors, trim and insulation. Industrial park lots in Duncan may have platting, utility easement and setback rules that the city or the park manager can explain, and we ask for those documents at the start. When the schedule slips, it is usually because of a late utility response, not because the steel is slow. If your next shop needs an expansion plan, our building expansions page shows how we leave an end wall ready to move.
Send us the heaviest machine, the tallest door you need and the lot you have in mind. We will return a priced package for your Duncan shop with the slab, steel, panels and doors broken out.
Most repair bays work at an eave height of 16 to 20 feet. Go higher if you plan a bridge crane or tall racks. Measure your tallest piece of equipment with the door open and its lift in the air, then add a safety margin. We would rather build the right height once than add a mezzanine fix later.
Yes, because the slab does that work, not the steel. We design the slab for the heaviest axle or the highest point load, and we use thicker edges and sawcut joints. Tell us the weight of your largest machine so the concrete can be sized for it.
We build hangar shells for private and business aircraft, with wide door openings and clear spans. The field and the city control the lease or lot terms, so confirm those first. We then fit the building to the wingspan and tail height of your aircraft.
Plan on a framed room with insulation, drywall, flooring, restroom plumbing and a separate heating and cooling unit. It often costs more per square foot than the shell. We price it as its own line so you can phase it if cash is tight.
We do not pick parks for owners. Ask each park about lot size, utilities, covenants and truck access, and compare them against your site plan. We can sketch the same building on two lots so you can see the difference.
Tell us about the site, the building and the schedule, and we will set up a review of scope, schedule and permitting.
See the services, building types and industries we plan and manage across Oklahoma.