Resources / Company reviews

General Steel Barndominium Kits Review: Read This Before You Deposit

Updated July 2026 · Barndo Finder research

General Steel sells engineered steel building kits, not finished barndominiums. The kit is the frame and skin of the building, which usually runs 10 to 20 percent of a finished home budget, and the company does not publish prices. The reviews are mixed and the legal history is long, so read this before you wire a deposit.

Key takeaways

• General Steel sells steel building kits with PE-stamped engineering. It does not build your foundation, erect the steel, or finish the interior.
• Pricing is not published. One third-party review estimates a 30x40 kit at $18,000 to $24,000, and notes final prices often run 20 to 35 percent above the first quote.
• Court records from a Colorado case state the company does not fabricate buildings itself. Forum posters call it a broker. Ask in writing who fabricates your steel.
• BBB complaints mention delivery delays, gaps between the first quote and the final purchase agreement, and poor communication during fulfillment.
• The Colorado Attorney General sued the company over sales practices. A court ordered a $200,000 fine and refund oversight.
• A kit is a fine way to buy a shell. It is not a barndominium. Budget for the other 80 to 90 percent before you deposit anything.

What does General Steel actually sell?

General Steel sells prefabricated steel building kits: the engineered frame, roof and wall panels, and the components you configure onto them, like doors, windows, and insulation packages. The company markets barndominiums as one use case among many, alongside garages, warehouses, barns, hangars, and churches. Its barndominium page lists 30x40, 40x60, 60x60, and 60x70 as recommended sizes and advertises a 50-year structural warranty on American-made steel.

Photo: Steel Structures America

Here is what the kit is not. It is not a foundation, not erection labor, not plumbing, not electrical, not HVAC, not drywall, not cabinets, not a septic system. General Steel's own site pushes you toward a 3D design tool and a phone quote, then you take delivery of steel on a truck. Everything after the truck leaves is your problem, or your general contractor's.

That model works. Plenty of good barndominiums start as bought shells. But you are buying a product, not a home, and the budget math has to reflect that. Our cost tables break down what the rest of the build runs, and our shell versus turnkey guide walks through which route fits which budget.

Is General Steel a manufacturer or a broker?

The honest answer is contested, and that alone tells you something. Federal court filings from a District of Colorado case state that General Steel does not manufacture or fabricate steel buildings or other steel products, in a dispute over the company's advertising claims. Longtime posters on Garage Journal and TractorByNet describe the company as a broker that sources fabrication from partner plants. Meanwhile, at least one review site describes it as a direct manufacturer based in Colorado.

Why it matters: with a broker model, your quality depends on whichever fabricator gets your order, and your recourse runs through a middleman. That is not automatically bad. Brokers can negotiate well and handle engineering coordination. But you should ask two questions in writing before signing: who fabricates my building, and who is responsible if the steel arrives wrong. If the sales rep will not answer plainly, that is your answer. Our kit manufacturer rankings flag which suppliers run their own plants and which broker the work out.

How much does a General Steel barndominium kit cost?

General Steel does not publish pricing. The site offers a quote calculator and a phone number, and that is it. So any number you see online is either a quote someone received or a third-party estimate.

For a rough anchor, the review site steelbuildingkit.com estimates a 30x40 kit at $18,000 to $24,000 and a 50x100 kit at $32,000 to $48,000, and reports that final installed prices typically land 20 to 35 percent above the initial quote once add-ons are in. Those are their numbers, not ours, and not quotes. BBB complaints echo the gap between first quote and final purchase agreement, so whatever number you hear on the phone, assume it grows. To see how those figures stack up against other suppliers, check our kit price comparison.

Now put the kit in context of a finished home. Here is the kit estimate against our directory's full-build estimates for four states where barndominium demand is strongest. Directory figures are Barndo Finder estimates pending verified quotes.

The 40x60 kit figure is our interpolation from the published 30x40 and 50x100 estimates, so treat it as a ballpark. The point stands at any size: the kit is a small slice. If a salesman's pitch makes the kit sound like most of the journey, the pitch is wrong.

What do public reviews say about General Steel?

Reviews split hard, which is common for kit sellers with aggressive sales floors. On the positive side, buyers who push for itemized pricing and hire a certified erection crew report solid buildings, and the company has held BBB accreditation since 2012. The 50-year structural warranty, 40-year paint warranty, and included PE-stamped engineering are real strengths. Aggregate ratings hover around 3.6 out of 5 in the small BBB review pool.

The complaints repeat the same themes. BBB complaints mention delivery timeline delays, pricing discrepancies between the initial quote and the final purchase agreement, and communication gaps after the order is placed. ComplaintsBoard entries include a customer who reported losing a $14,000 deposit, a nonprofit that reported undisclosed term changes and storage fees after purchase, and buyers reporting five-figure charges above their contract. We did not verify these individual accounts, but the pattern matches the BBB categories: the pain shows up between deposit and delivery, not in the steel itself.

Third-party reviews cite lead times of 8 to 14 weeks in 2026, longer for complex configurations. Plan your erection crew and financing around the slow end. If you are borrowing for the build, our construction loan guide explains how draw schedules interact with kit deposits.

What legal history should you know about?

The Colorado Attorney General sued General Steel over its sales practices, and a court ordered a $200,000 fine, changes to company practices, and a special master to oversee customer refunds. Separate federal litigation in Colorado dealt with the company's claims about being a manufacturer. Forum threads in the metal building world reference a longer trail of state actions.

Companies can clean up, and this history is old. But it tells you where the historical risk sat: the sales process, not the product. Your protection is boring paperwork. Get the full itemized spec before any money moves. Get the refund terms in writing. Never treat a phone quote as a contract.

What will a General Steel kit not cover?

The kit covers the shell components only, and the shell is the cheap part. A real barndominium budget needs lines for land, site work, foundation, erection labor, well or water hookup, septic or sewer, electrical service, HVAC, insulation, and full interior finish. In our directory estimates, finished barndominiums run $125 to $320 per square foot turnkey nationally, while shell-only work runs about $35 to $120 depending on state.

This is where we get opinionated. Kit marketing across this industry, not just General Steel, leans on the fraction-of-traditional-cost story. General Steel's barndominium page claims savings up to 50 percent versus traditional construction. Maybe on the shell. On the finished home, the savings are real but much smaller, because plumbing, HVAC, and kitchens cost the same inside steel as inside sticks. We ran the full math in our piece on whether barndominiums are actually cheaper. And any turnkey quote under $100 per square foot is usually a shell quote wearing a costume. Check the line items against our cost data before you believe it.

Who is a General Steel kit right for?

A General Steel kit fits an owner-builder or a buyer with a GC already lined up. If you own land, you have a contractor who has erected red-iron steel before, and you want to control every sub yourself, buying the shell as a product can work fine. It also fits people in states with thin barndominium builder coverage, where shipping a kit beats importing a crew.

You need three things going in: a real total budget with the kit as one line among fifteen, patience for a sales process that reviewers say pushes hard, and the discipline to get every promise in writing.

Who should look elsewhere?

Skip the kit route if you want one company responsible for the finished home. A kit seller in Colorado cannot manage your foundation pour in Georgia. If you want a turnkey barndominium, hire a barndominium builder in your state who contracts the whole job, from dirt to doorknobs, under one agreement. Our directory tracks 335 barndominium-specific builders across 40 states, including strong benches in Texas and Georgia.

Photo: 1845 Barndominiums

Also look elsewhere if you are deposit-shy for good reason. The complaint history here concentrates in the gap between deposit and delivery. If reading that history makes your stomach tight, a local builder with a progress-payment schedule you can verify on site will sleep better than a wire transfer to a distant sales office.

Our take

General Steel is a legitimate way to buy a steel shell, with real engineering and a long warranty, wrapped in a sales process you should treat with your guard up. The product complaints are rare. The process complaints, quote creep, delays, and communication gaps, are common enough that we would only buy with an itemized written spec, written refund terms, and a competing quote from at least two other kit suppliers on the table.

And whatever you do, price the whole build first. The kit is maybe 15 percent of your finished barndominium. Getting a great deal on 15 percent while flying blind on the other 85 is how projects stall at the shell stage.

Get competing quotes before you deposit

The single best defense against quote creep is a second quote. Tell us your state, size, and whether you want a shell or a finished home, and we will match you with builders and suppliers who quote against each other. Request your quotes here. It costs nothing, and it turns you from a lead into a buyer with leverage.