Steel vs timber framed houses - Opinions please

[wynw]

My buddy who works on lots of houses says that the electrics need to be done by a more experienced sparky who knows about steel framing, rather than one on a job cost sheet. Making your entire house a live electrical curcuit would be no fun at all.
.

Easy way to get central heating though

[SMOKEU]

Funny. I always thought you were the sort to... 'take wood' over pretty much anything

Wood doesn't conduct heat like steel. The wood may be on fire around the outsides, but the inner part is protected for a certain length of time due to the lack of heat conductivity. Steel, however, is a good conductor of heat, and therefore the integrity of the frame may be compromised due to this, and buckle under the pressure of other building materials.

[Pumba]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Please keep it coming. Would love tp hear from some mor people that have built steel frame and why.

[Swoop]

Wood.

Steel framed are a challenge to modify, whereas timber framed are simple to knock a door/window in(or out).
Then again, the DIY mentality, and ability, of this country is diminishing slowly.

Thermal abilities are great. Wiring is simple.

Just keep the bloody plumbers away from timber framing.

[BMWST?]

Now if you could do something cool, like portal frames and other commercial industrial construction techniques to achieve things like flexible space use, ease of alteration, really really good insulation, great glazing with really good insulation, and stuff like that, then we're talking.

Protip: visit the site not less than once a week. If it is a fucking tip, with rubbish everywhere, and no one obviously in charge, sack everyone on the site and start again. If they can't pick up after themselves they have no business being on your site. If they dont give a shit about their work environment, what sort of terrible job are they doing on your house? Every one I have ever had a problem with, the site has been a midden. The good ones are clean and tidy.

what you describe can be done with"timber" too.I agree with your summation of tidines on a site.I would prefer that we used a more naturally durable timber that didnt need treatment,then all the waste could be recycled as firewood or wood pellets.I would consider using untreated pine but with appropriate claddings and forms

[JimO]

nothing worse than a tidy site, your looking for a half a brick or a couple of bits of 4x2 for a prop and there aint nothing lying about

[BMWST?]

nothing worse than a tidy site, your looking for a half a brick or a couple of bits of 4x2 for a prop and there aint nothing lying about

yes there is and its probably easier to find and get the peice of timber you need than a untidy site

[flyingcrocodile46]

Funny. I always thought you were the sort to... 'take wood' over pretty much anything

Bit of a moving target

Wood doesn't conduct heat like steel. The wood may be on fire around the outsides, but the inner part is protected for a certain length of time due to the lack of heat conductivity. Steel, however, is a good conductor of heat, and therefore the integrity of the frame may be compromised due to this, and buckle under the pressure of other building materials.

Amazing! HenryDorsetCase you were on the money. It appears that I led the target by an inappropriate margin

[HenryDorsetCase]

nothing worse than a tidy site, your looking for a half a brick or a couple of bits of 4x2 for a prop and there aint nothing lying about

the worst one I have ever seen was a few years ago, and it happened to be one in which I had a one third share. So it was MY money on the line. This is in about 2000-2001. We were building a block of five flats and they'd started at one end of the site and were working toward the road (kind of: concrete block ground floor, (garage) prestressed concrete on top of that which was the middle level (lounge dining kitchen), then the top level was the bedrooms. Still standing too, even after the EQs.

I hadnt been to site for about three weeks and cruised down one Saturday morning in my top hat and morning coat, with my cane and my "neice" to lord it over the serfs working on the project, because I am a big time capitalist. Got to units 4 and 5 and their garages were completely full of construction crap: all the builders and all the subbies had been chucking their shit into there for weeks. Also we noticed that there were no light switches in the garage for U4 and 5. Turns out the sparky had gone broke two weeks before, no one had noticed and they'd all just carried on regardless. Hence the conduit surface mount lighs and power points in the garages in those units. Luckily the top two floors hadnt been lined out and it could be un-fucked pretty easily. Cue a couple of very tense meetings with the architect, the building company and various people. Basically the problem was no site foreman, no clerk of works and no supervision by the building company. And every one ever since then thats been a problem: go to the site and it is a tip.

[Berries]

Nobody has mentioned yet that steel is more shiny.

[JimO]

steel is more shiny

[BMWST?]

so with the steel framing,what do they do to to create a thermal break between inside and outside?

[flyingcrocodile46]

so with the steel framing,what do they do to to create a thermal break between inside and outside?

Heat loss through air voids between linings isn't great, particularly when effectively neutralised by way of wraps linings and air seals to prevent air movement and is almost eliminated by adding insulation materials to .... insulate. Solid materials such as the wall linings and framing absorb heat, creating a potential thermal bridge for heat transfer/loss through radiation. Plaster board and timber are lousy heat conductors (as are a few exterior claddings) as they store the heat and release it slowly, while steel releases it super effectively. The exterior cladding will radiate heat out into the cold exterior environment like a heat sink on a bike regulator or computer CPU/GPU if you don't break the bridge.

If you slap a timber batten (thermal break) between the steel framing and the exterior cladding (last part of the thermal bridge). You end up with a break/restriction in the bridge.

With brick veneer cladding the bridge is greatly reduced by a big reduction in contact points between the exterior cladding and the framing (through use of stand off brick ties) due to the fact that the bricks are largely self supporting. For the most part a thremal break wouldn't be required.

[Berries]

steel is more shiny

What he said.

[boman]

Whilst having no first hand experience, with owning a steel framed house. A very good mate of mine, built one approx 20 years ago. He only recently sold it.

He changed the paint scheme, in it a couple of times,and did the kitchen too. One thing I did notice, that the Gib had no cracks on joins at all, unlike my similar sort of aged wooden framed house. The house was quiet, and warm, and the the best of my knowledge,he had no problems with the electrics or anything else, in the 20 years I have known him.

He would build another again, tomorrow.