Vehicle parking shelters

Purpose and building types

Parking shelters protect cars, buses and trucks from sun, rain, hail and, in hot climates, the interior heat build-up that damages vehicles and discomforts drivers. They are built in staff and visitor car parks, malls, airports, hospitals, depots and bus terminals, and increasingly as solar carports that generate electricity and host EV chargers. Being open structures with simple repeating bays, they are well suited to pre-engineered steel: frames are standardised, fabricated in long runs and erected quickly with light cranes.

Layout and dimensions

Bay spacing is set by the parking module: a car space is typically 2.4–2.7 m wide and 4.8–5.5 m deep, so frames are commonly placed every two or three spaces (about 5–8 m). Placing columns at the line between spaces, and toward the front of the vehicle, keeps doors free. Clear height under the lowest part of the roof is usually 2.3–2.7 m for cars, more for vans and service vehicles, and 4.5–5.0 m or more for buses and trucks. Roofs are usually single-slope at 3–10° toward a gutter on one side, or slope toward the column line in double cantilevers so that rainwater runs to downpipes inside or alongside the columns.

Structural design points

• Wind uplift governs – an open canopy has wind acting on both faces, and codes give separate net pressure coefficients for free-standing or canopy roofs (ASCE 7-22 open buildings, AS/NZS 1170.2 free roofs, EN 1991-1-4 canopy roofs). Cars parked underneath partly block the flow and can increase pressures in some cases.
• Cantilever stability – cantilever frames rely entirely on the column base moment, so base plates, anchor bolts and foundations are larger than for an enclosed building with the same span; pad footings or bored piers must resist overturning. See base plates and anchor bolts.
• Deflection and vibration – long cantilevers need deflection control for appearance and to keep gutters draining.
• Vehicle impact – columns in traffic areas need protection by raised concrete pedestals, bollards or kerbs, or must be designed for vehicle impact loads per the governing code.
• Solar PV – panels add 0.12–0.25 kPa of collateral load, change the wind coefficients and often require a tighter purlin layout matched to module sizes.

Roofing, drainage and finishes

Roofing is usually single-skin profiled sheet with a light-reflective colour; an anti-condensation membrane stops drips onto cars on cool mornings. Translucent sheets, tensile fabric or shade netting are alternatives in some markets. Frames in car parks are exposed to rain, splash and de-icing salts in cold regions, so hot-dip galvanizing or a durable paint system is recommended. Gutters and downpipes should be sized for the full roof area as covered in gutters and downspouts, and integrated LED lighting and cable routes for EV chargers are best planned before fabrication.

World Steel parking shelters

World Steel fabricates cantilever and portal parking shelters, including solar-ready structures, as steel frames with matching purlins, roofing and gutters, packed in bundles by bay for efficient export supply. Typical projects include car parks for commercial developments and transport depots in infrastructure projects.