Single-Story Self-Storage Construction
Drive-Up Storage, Built for Direct Ground-Level Access.
- Drive-up, ground-level access
- Single and multi-building developments
- Steel, roofing, siding, and trim
- Roll-up doors and interior partitions
Single-story self-storage construction organizes ground-level units along paved drive aisles for direct tenant access. The format supports efficient operations, straightforward maintenance, and durable pre-engineered steel buildings. Since 1998, Johnson Construction has delivered single-story self-storage facilities across the Mountain West and nationwide.
What Single-Story Construction Involves
A single-story facility combines pre-engineered steel buildings with a site plan designed around vehicle access. Johnson Construction erects the structural system and installs roofing, siding, trim, gutters, flashing, and roll-up doors for individual buildings and full multi-building developments.
The format carries fewer structural and mechanical systems than a multi-level building, which generally lowers construction cost and supports a shorter schedule. Its long-term performance depends on accurate steel erection, a weather-tight envelope, and properly installed roll-up doors.
Where Single-Story Makes Sense
Single-story drive-up storage fits sites where land is available and a horizontal layout pencils: secondary markets, highway corridors, resort valleys, and the edges of growing towns. It serves tenants who want to back a truck or trailer to the door, which is most of them outside of dense urban cores.
Johnson has built this format up and down the Wasatch Front and beyond, from My Storage Charleston in the Heber Valley to Point of the Mountain in Bluffdale, where ground-level rows and wide drive aisles carry household storage and oversized vehicles on the same site.
Cost and Construction Speed
Single-story drive-up is the least expensive self-storage format to build per square foot and among the fastest to put up, because there is no floor structure, no elevators, and no conditioned envelope to coordinate. The pre-engineered steel goes up quickly, the roll-up doors, trim, and flashing follow, and a straightforward site can be turned over on a compressed schedule. The cost-to-build guide covers how the per-foot number compares across formats.
The trade-off is land. A single-story campus spreads horizontally, so it needs more acreage than a multi-story building of the same rentable area. On inexpensive land in a growing secondary market, that is exactly the right trade, which is why single-story drive-up storage remains the workhorse format across Utah, Idaho, and Arizona.
The Johnson Scope
On a single-story project, Johnson Construction handles the building itself: structural steel erection, standing-seam or screw-down roofing, metal wall panels, roll-up doors, interior partitions where the plan calls for them, and the trim, flashing, and gutters that make the envelope last. Whether the job is one building or a phased multi-building development, the field scope is the same set of connected systems, installed in sequence.
Common Questions
Is single-story cheaper to build than multi-story self-storage?
Generally, yes. A single-story facility has no floor structure, elevators, or vertical circulation to build, so the cost per square foot is lower and construction is faster. The trade-off is land: single-story needs more of it, which is why multi-story wins on tight or expensive parcels.
How long does it take to build a single-story storage facility?
Single-story is one of the faster storage builds, since it skips the floor structure, elevators, and conditioning of a multi-level building. The real schedule depends on the site, the permitting, the number of buildings, and the weather, but the pre-engineered steel and roll-up door scope moves quickly once the slab is down.
Where does Johnson Construction build self-storage?
Johnson Construction builds self-storage across Utah and the Mountain West, from the Wasatch Front to Arizona and Idaho, and works nationwide for storage developers and operators. Established in 1998, it is a dedicated self-storage general contractor rather than a locally limited builder.
Can Johnson build a multi-building development in phases?
Yes. Johnson Construction builds both single buildings and phased multi-building developments, sequencing new rows around the parts of the site that are already open and leasing.