Designed, engineered, and installed near Ocala and Belleview, FL.
Sandalwood Shed’s and More designs and installs custom steel buildings near Ocala and Belleview, FL, built to the size, roof style, door layout, and color you choose. Every building is engineered for Florida wind loads and can be ordered turnkey with groundwork, concrete, and electrical. You get all-in pricing, honest sizing help, and a local team that picks up the phone before and after the build.
You already know what you want the building to do. Maybe it is a shop sized to your equipment, a tall barn for the tractor and the hay, a garage that matches the house, or a mixed space that is part workshop and part office. A custom steel building starts from your use, not from a fixed list on a screen. We help you lay it out, engineer it to Florida code, and build it your way, down to where the doors go and what color the trim is. Tell us what you are using it for and we will get you the right building.
Most folks who come to us for a custom steel building have already tried to make a stock size work. They found a building that was close, but the door was on the wrong wall, the sidewalls were too short for a lift, or the only way to get the length they needed was to pay for width they would never use. So they either squeezed their plans to fit the building, or they wrote a check for space that sits empty.
Here is the honest part. A building you settle for is a building you fight for years. Too short and you are storing things outside in the Florida sun and summer storms again. Too generic and it never quite does the job you bought it for. And a building that is not engineered and certified for our wind loads can fail a county inspection, which means you cannot legally use the thing you just paid for. That is the real cost of guessing.
You deserve a building shaped around your job, your site, and your weather, not the other way around. That is what made to order means here.
We get it. You have probably clicked through an online kit builder, picked from a short list of sizes, and ended up with a quote for a building that was not really yours. Then the kit shows up on a truck and the rest is your problem. That is not how we work. Sandalwood is a veteran-owned, female-owned, family-run business in Belleview, serving Marion, Sumter, Citrus, Lake, Alachua, and Levy counties.
Joe has built things for 30 years, starting in custom homes, so reading a site and laying out a building the right way is second nature. Since taking over we have delivered around 200 buildings with zero repossessions, because we size people into the building that actually fits and we stand behind it. When you design a custom building with us, you are working with one local team you can reach by phone, not a chat window and a tracking link.
A custom building still has to be built right where it counts. We frame on tube steel, with 14-gauge as the standard and heavier 12-gauge available for wide spans, tall legs, big doors, and open, exposed sites. You pay for the heavier steel where the stress actually is, not everywhere, so the building is strong without being overbuilt.
Roof and wall panels come in standard 29-gauge or thicker 26-gauge. In our area a vertical roof is usually the right call, because the panels run top to bottom so rain and debris shed fast and the roof holds up better in a hard gust. Anchoring matters just as much as the steel above it. A certified building gets engineered anchors rated for your surface, concrete, ground, or asphalt, instead of a one-size approach. We design the whole building as one piece, from the slab to the ridge, so every part is doing its job.
Want to see your building before you commit? Use our build-and-price tool to lay out the size, roof style, doors, windows, and color, and get a starting point in minutes. Then we take it from there: we confirm the engineering for your wind zone, check it against your site, and give you one honest all-in number. The tool gets you started, and a real person finishes it with you so nothing gets lost between the screen and the slab.
Florida has two kinds of metal buildings: certified and non-certified. A certified building is engineered and stamped to meet your local wind load, generally around 150 mph in our area with upgrades available for higher exposure, and it comes with the drawings the county wants. A non-certified building is cheaper up front, but if your parcel needs a permit, only a certified building with stamped plans will get you signed off.
We will tell you straight which one your project needs. If you are dropping a small building on open acreage where no permit is required, we will not sell you engineering you do not need. If the county requires a permit, we build it certified and help you get the engineered drawings so you can occupy and use the building without a fight. We would rather slow down and get it right than hand you a building you cannot stand up.
1. Tell us what it is for. We start with your use, your site, and your timeline.
2. We design and price it all-in. The right size, the right gauge, the right roof, engineered for your wind zone, in one clear number.
3. We build it and stand behind it. Delivery, setup, and turnkey groundwork if you want it, then real local support after.
Cost comes down to the size, the steel gauge, the roof style, the doors and windows, the add-ons, and whether you want it turnkey with concrete and electrical. We are mid-road on price, not the cheapest and not the most expensive, and we believe the all-in number matters more than a teaser rate. You get one honest, itemized quote so you can budget with no surprises. Ask about financing if you would rather keep your cash working.
Business owners who need a shop, warehouse, or fleet building sized to their operation. If that is you, our commercial steel page goes deeper. Link: /metal-buildings/commercial-steel/ Rural landowners who need a barn, equipment building, or shelter on acreage, including custom layouts for animals and hay. Link: /accessory-buildings/animal-corrals/ And homeowners who want a garage or workshop that matches the house and lasts for life. One custom building can serve more than one of these at once, and we will help you lay it out so it does.
Close to it. We build from compact shops up to wide commercial spans and any length you need, with sidewall heights tall enough for lifts, RVs, and equipment. Instead of making you pick off a fixed list, we size the building to your use and your site. Tell us the job and we will lay it out.
It depends on the size, the steel gauge, the roof style, the doors and windows, the add-ons, and whether you want it turnkey with concrete and electrical. A bare building costs less than a finished, slab-and-power build. We give you one all-in quote with no hidden fees so you can budget honestly.
For most Florida buildings we recommend a vertical roof. The panels run from the ridge down to the eave, so rain and debris shed fast and the roof stands up better in high wind. Regular and A-frame boxed eave roofs cost less and work for smaller or low-exposure buildings, and we will tell you when one of those is the right call.
If your parcel requires a permit, yes. A certified building is engineered and stamped to your local wind load and comes with the drawings the county needs to approve it. If you are placing a small building where no permit is required, a non-certified building may be fine, and we will tell you honestly which one your project needs.
Framing is typically 14-gauge as a standard, with heavier 12-gauge available for wide spans, tall legs, large roll-up doors, and open, exposed sites. Roof and wall panels come in standard 29-gauge or thicker 26-gauge. We recommend the right gauge for your loads instead of overbuilding every part of the building.
It depends on your surface. Certified buildings get engineered anchors rated for concrete, ground, or asphalt, which is part of what lets the building meet your wind load. We confirm the anchoring as part of the engineering so the building is rated end to end, not just strong on paper.
Yes. We can deliver your custom building turnkey, including site prep and groundwork, the concrete slab, the building erection, and electrical, so you get a finished building instead of a pile of homework. Prefer to handle part of it yourself? We will price it that way instead.
We serve Marion, Sumter, Citrus, Lake, Alachua, and Levy counties from our Belleview lot near Ocala. If you are in or near North Central Florida, give us a call and we will let you know what your project needs.
Tell us what you are using it for and we will get you the right custom steel building, engineered for Florida and priced all-in. No pressure, just honest help from a local team that answers the phone.
