Materials
Custom welded carport vs. prefab kit: which should I buy?
Quick answer
It depends on what you need the carport to do. A prefab kit wins on upfront price and speed: basic single-car kits start around $1,100 to $1,600 on the open market and can be up in a day. A custom welded carport wins on everything structural: continuous welded joints instead of bolted connections, posts set in concrete instead of ground anchors, steel sized for North Texas wind, and a design that actually matches your house. For a basic flat lot on a tight budget, a kit is honestly a fine choice. For anything you want to look built-in and last decades, welded steel is the better buy.
What you get with a prefab kit
A prefab carport kit is a bolt-together package of light-gauge steel tubing and sheet-metal panels, usually delivered and installed by the seller's crew in a few hours. The standard national spec is 14-gauge galvanized tubing for the frame and 29-gauge panels for the roof, with 12-gauge tubing and 26-gauge panels offered as upgrades. Certified versions of the standard frame are commonly rated for winds up to about 140 mph in most states.
The price is the headline. Basic 12x21 single-car regular-roof kits currently start around $1,100 to $1,600 from the big national sellers before options, a double with a vertical roof commonly runs $3,500 to $6,000, and heavier-gauge, certified or oversized configurations can climb into the $8,000 to $12,000 range installed. Those are general market figures, not a CJM price, and they move with steel prices.
Here is the honest part: if you have a flat lot, standard vehicles, a tight budget, and you mainly need shade and hail protection, a prefab kit is a perfectly reasonable choice. Plenty of them are standing all over Tarrant County doing exactly what they were bought to do. We would rather tell you that plainly than pretend a kit can never make sense.
What you get with a custom welded carport
A custom carport is fabricated from structural steel and welded, not bolted. That difference runs through the whole structure. Welded joints are continuous metal, so the frame behaves as one rigid piece; bolted kit connections rely on screws through thin tubing, and they are the first thing to work loose and rattle after a few years of North Texas wind and thermal cycling.
The posts are the other big difference. A custom steel carport has its posts set in concrete footings, sized for the span and the soil, which matters in DFW's expansive clay. Kits typically sit on rebar pin anchors, screw-in mobile-home augers, or expansion bolts into an existing slab. Those anchors meet their ratings when installed right, but they are not the same thing as a post standing in two feet of concrete.
Custom also means the carport is designed for your property instead of picked from a size chart. We match the roofline, pitch, and color to the house, span widths and heights kits do not offer, work around trees and odd setbacks, attach to the house cleanly where that is the right call, and finish the steel with the same galvanizing and powder-coat options we use on gates. A kit shelters a car; a welded carport reads as part of the home.
Wind, hail and how each one ages
DFW weather is the real test. Spring storms bring straight-line winds and hail, and summer heat cycles metal daily. A kit's 29-gauge roof panels are thin sheet; hail can dent them and severe wind events are hardest on the ground-anchored, bolted structures. Certified kits carry legitimate engineering ratings, so this is a difference of margin, not a claim that kits blow away, but heavier welded framing on concrete footings simply has more structure to give.
Aging is where welded steel pulls ahead. Bolted connections loosen, panel screws back out and their washers weather, and thin galvanized tubing has less metal to lose before rust matters. A welded frame has no fasteners to loosen, and hot-dip galvanized or powder-coated structural steel is the same finish system we warranty on gates and fences that live outdoors for decades.
Either way, plan on a permit. Arlington treats a carport as a structure whether it is a kit or custom-built, and front-yard placement has its own rules; see our carport permit guide and confirm current requirements with the City of Arlington and your HOA before you buy anything.
So which should you buy?
Buy a prefab kit if: the budget is the deciding factor, the lot is flat, a standard size fits, you need it this month, and you are comfortable with a utilitarian look and a shorter service life. That is what kits are for, and a certified kit from a reputable seller is a fair product at its price.
Buy a custom welded carport if: you want it to match the house instead of standing next to it, you need a span, height, or attachment a size chart does not offer, your lot slopes or the soil is bad, you are also adding a gate or other steelwork and want one consistent finish, or you simply want to build it once and not think about it again. Custom costs more up front and takes longer, because it is designed, welded, and installed by hand for one property.
CJM Metals designs, welds, and installs custom steel carports across Arlington and the DFW metroplex, one project at a time. If you are weighing a kit against custom, call (214) 603-9142 or email support@cjmmetals.com and we will tell you straight which one fits your lot and your budget, and give you a free quote for the welded version so you can compare real numbers.
NoteDollar figures are general market estimates for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, not CJM prices, and they change with steel and labor costs; request a quote for an exact figure. Kit specifications, wind certifications, and warranties vary by manufacturer, so verify them with the seller. Arlington generally requires a building permit for a carport and restricts front-yard placement; confirm current permit, setback, and engineering requirements with the City of Arlington Planning and Development Services and your HOA before you build.