Get a Quote
Home / Hotchkiss, Colorado
Steel Building Erection in Hotchkiss, Colorado
Photos from a GDL Steel barn job near Hotchkiss, in the North Fork Valley, and what Delta County publishes on building permits.
Get a Quote
The Hotchkiss job
A steel barn with cupolas and lean-tos
GDL Steel’s Hotchkiss job is a cream steel barn with a green roof and wainscot, cupolas along the ridge and open-sided lean-to sheds, near Hotchkiss in Delta County. The photos run from the frame in February snow to the finished barn below the mountains.
GDL Steel is based in Colorado Springs. For a steel barn or farm building on the Western Slope, send us a note about the site.
- The frame and girts in winter
- Open-sided lean-tos on both sides
- Cupolas along the ridge
- A tall end-wall door for equipment
Get a Quote
Job photos
Photos from the Hotchkiss job
The frame and girts in the snow, the lean-tos and cupolas, and the tall end-wall door.
Building in the North Fork Valley
Before a steel building goes up near Hotchkiss
In Delta County the town line decides which rules apply: a barn a few miles out of Hotchkiss falls under a different set of rules than one inside town. Here’s what the county and the Town of Hotchkiss publish; confirm the details with the office that covers your site.
- The county issues no building permits. Delta County says it plainly: generally no building permits are required and no certificates of occupancy are issued in the unincorporated area. The county adopted a land use code, not building codes, so there is no county building official and no county inspection of the structure. That is not a lighter standard. It means nobody at the county checks the engineering, so the stamped drawings the building is made to and the crew that puts it up are the only review it gets. Delta County permit information
- Check the exceptions before you count on that. Land inside the Highway 92 or Highway 50 overlay districts does require a building permit, under the 2003 International Building Code, inspected by an ICC-certified inspector registered with a Colorado municipality or county. Land inside an intergovernmental agreement or urban growth area near a town may require one too. Ask the county where your parcel sits before you plan around it. County building and land use
- Setbacks still apply. Permit or no permit, a structure has to meet the land use code: 25 feet from the edge of any ditch, 25 feet from a road right-of-way whether public or private, and 50 feet from the top of a river, stream or creek bank. An accessory structure not used for living, sleeping, eating or cooking may sit 5 feet from an interior property line. County setbacks
- The permits that do still exist. A septic permit from the county health department, a well or spring permit from the state Division of Water Resources, a floodplain permit from county environmental health if the site is in one, and an access permit for work in a county right-of-way. None of them looks at the frame. Land use application FAQ sheet (PDF)
- No published design loads, by the county’s own account. Delta County publishes no snow load, wind speed, frost depth or seismic value, and its guidance is that questions about snow loads go to a registered professional engineer. Your engineer of record sets the numbers for the site, and the steel is ordered to them. County construction guidance
- Electrical and plumbing come from the state. In unincorporated Delta County, Colorado’s Division of Professions and Occupations issues the electrical and plumbing permits and does the inspections, and each detached structure on a property needs its own permit. State electrical and plumbing permits
- Inside town limits the answer flips. The Town of Hotchkiss has a building official and takes applications at Town Hall on West Main Street. The town says it follows the 2018 International Code Council books and amendments, accessory structures larger than 120 square feet need a permit, and the inspection list runs from footer and foundation through framing, roof covering and final. Town of Hotchkiss building permits
Questions
Hotchkiss steel building questions
Does GDL Steel take barn jobs on the Western Slope?
Yes. GDL Steel is based in Colorado Springs and travels for farm and ranch work, and the barn in these photos is a GDL job near Hotchkiss. For a building in the North Fork Valley, call (719) 820-5298 or send the form below with the site address, the building’s size and your timeline.
Do I need a building permit for a barn outside Hotchkiss?
Generally no. Delta County issues no building permits and no certificates of occupancy in the unincorporated area, and it has adopted no building code. Three things still apply. The land use code’s setbacks apply everywhere. Septic, well, floodplain and access permits still come from other agencies. And there are exceptions: land in the Highway 92 or Highway 50 overlay districts does need a building permit, and so may land inside an intergovernmental agreement or urban growth area. Ask the county which of those your parcel is in.
What snow load should the barn be designed for?
Delta County publishes none, and its own guidance sends snow load questions to a registered professional engineer. The Town of Hotchkiss publishes no numbers either. So the design loads come from your engineer of record, not from a county table, and the steel should arrive with drawings stamped for those loads. Ask for them before the building is ordered.
Get a quote
Planning a steel barn on the Western Slope?
Tell us where the building is going, its size and whether the site is in town or outside it, and we’ll talk through next steps.
Phone: (719) 820-5298
Email: sales@gdlsteelllc.com
Service area: Colorado Springs and the Front Range, with a past job near Hotchkiss, Delta County. We travel for larger jobs.
Other job areas
Where else GDL has worked
- Littleton, Colorado
- Glade Park, Colorado
- Byers, Colorado
- Golden, Colorado
- Westcliffe, Colorado
- Longmont, Colorado
- Delta, Utah
- Pahrump, Nevada
- Mullen, Nebraska
- All service areas
- Agricultural steel buildings
GDL Steel
Planning a steel building?
Tell us what you’re building and where, and we’ll get back to you about next steps.
Get a Quote
GDL Steel erects pre-engineered steel buildings for commercial and residential projects in Colorado Springs and along the Front Range, and travels farther for larger jobs. Licensed and insured.
Quick links
Contact us
- (719) 820-5298
- sales@gdlsteelllc.com
- Mon–Fri, 9 am–7 pm
- Colorado Springs and the Front Range, and we travel for larger jobs (service areas).
- General contractors: send a bid invitation.
Recent jobs: Byers, Glade Park, Golden, Hotchkiss, Littleton, Longmont and Westcliffe, CO; Delta, UT; Pahrump, NV; Mullen, NE
© 2026 GDL Steel Erectors LLC. All rights reserved. · Terms & Conditions · Privacy Policy
Website by Colorado Springs Revenue · Powered by Prayer