“Farm buildings Penicuik” should not land on a London landing page with a Scottish stock photo. Forge & Frame fabricates at Unit 2B, Eastfield Industrial Estate, Penicuik. The same desk answers 0131 496 0777. If you run a holding in Midlothian — Penicuik, Howgate, Nine Mile Burn, Auchendinny, Loanhead, Dalkeith, Pathhead — the steel does not travel far before it comes back as a portal.
East Lothian and West Lothian sit in the same erection conversation. A grain store toward Haddington or a machinery shed on the Bathgate fringe is still Central Belt work for our crews. Edinburgh itself is mostly trade steel; the farm jobs sit on the city’s edge and in the counties. We will not pretend a New Town basement is a cattle court.
Why local steel matters on a Lothian site
The Pentland edge and the Lammermuirs do not share a wind story. A shed sited on an exposed ridge above West Linton is a different frame from a sheltered steading in a Midlothian valley. We ask for a phone photo and a postcode because those two facts change eaves bracing and cladding more than a mood board does.
Access is the other Lothian tell. Narrow farm roads, overhead lines, and a neighbour’s listed cottage on the approach all show up in a photograph. We do not need a measured survey to start a price. We do need honesty about the last wagon that got down the track.
What a Lothian farm building usually is
On this patch the brief is often a 15 × 24 m machinery shed with 5.5 m eaves and a roller door — enough for a modern tractor and a wrapper, not a cathedral. Next most common is a livestock lean-to against an older masonry steading, or a hay shed that has to clear a round-bale stack. Grain and crop stores appear where arable still pays. We fabricate the portal. Drying kit and floors belong to other trades.
Midlothian Council, East Lothian Council and West Lothian Council each run their own prior-notification desks. Class 18 is the Scottish heading, not English Class 6. We issue drawings your agent can lodge. We do not sit in the council meeting for you. Limits on size, height and distance from roads or houses belong to the current Order and your holding — check them, do not treat this paragraph as a warrant.
Kit versus a local lift
Most Lothian jobs should be supply-and-fit. The workshop is close; the crews already run this geography. Kit still makes sense if you have a contractor on the ground or you are adding a lean-to your own men will stand. Either route, the steel is cut in Penicuik. Either route, we do not pour the slab.
If the holding sits just over the border into the Borders or Fife, say so. Those pages and this one share a crew list; they do not share copy. Steel portal frame sheds in the Borders get the same EXC2 members and a longer wagon.
Start without a drawing
Walk the site. Measure width, length and eaves with a tape or a wheel. Take one photo toward the proposed gable and one that shows access. Send them with the form or WhatsApp. A 24-hour price is a number you can take to the bank or the agent — not a downloadable price list.
For Scotland-wide language see agricultural sheds Scotland. For the full spec and indicative table see the sheds money page. Builders looking for RSJs should leave this page and use the trade door.