Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 Jun 04, 2013 4:01 pm Hi all, long time lurker and finally made the decision to join. Great community here. To all the owner builders out there; Anyone using steel frames for their build? Opinions? Dos? Don'ts? Things to watch out for? Any thoughts much appreciated cheers Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 2Jun 05, 2013 8:43 am Hello and welcome.....and good luck with your build We have recently finished building a steel framed PAAL home - I would recommend building a steel frame if you are doing it yourself. The PAAL design is geared towards the handyman - everything comes pri-drilled and the detailed plan was easy enough to follow. Everything fitted and the trusses lined up perfectly with the holes in the frame. It was labor intensive with lots of bolting, screwing and riveting but it was achievable for my husband and I to assemble. There is also the added benefit of termite protection too. We do get a bit of noise in the roof area now its completed - the odd muffled clang or bang, but not too often for it to be a worry. One thing I would change if building again would be to put in some sound proofing in the internal walls. We insulated external walls and the ceiling, as well as used a blanket insulation under the colorbond roof.....but neglected to see the benefit of internal soundproofing. Oh well....what can you do LOL ?? Hope this helps and have fun with your build Lyndall Owner Building on 1800sqm Sanity Intact so far Locked up March 2012 Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 3Jun 05, 2013 10:57 am I don't know a huge amount about steel frames, but I imagine the main benefit would be termite and rot resistance. Plus, you can span much greater distances with steel, letting you have wider openings without complicated lintels and supports. Thermally, you might have to watch thermal bridging. It's fine to put batts between timber studs, as the studs themselves don't transmit a huge amount of heat (wood is full of air pockets). But steel studs would be terrible at keeping heat from being transferred, and may require something else to avoid that thermal bridge effect. I'd be interested to hear the results of your research... My storybook home build: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=57987 Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 4Jun 07, 2013 1:19 pm I agree with Johnson, you need to have a thermal break between the steel and the outside cladding. I believe it would be bet to have a wall made up of: internal: plasterboard, R2.5 insulation in a 90mm steel frame, reflective insulation/moisture barrier like kingspan permishield then a batten on top of the reflective insulation to provide a 20mm airgap before the cladding to get a good performing wall profile. The reflective insulation only works where there is an air gap This is what we did on our steel framed owner built home. Partly due to the construction but also orientation we use very little heating and cooling. we did insulate our internal walls for sound proofing which was a good idea the only sounds we get are from our kliplock roof sheeting on a small part of the house due to steel klips and kliplock sheeting (no screws holding it down and fixing tightly) and only when it changes from full sun to shade or vice versa. it is great knowing that termites will not eat us out of house and home. Hope this helps Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 5Jun 08, 2013 6:50 am How many carpenters specialise in steel versus wood? I would imagine much harder to find those skills, always difficult when you are an owner building and you are stepping out of the 'norm.' Just something to consider. Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 6Jun 10, 2013 3:46 pm I built our second storey out of steel frame with my friend who is a carpenter the steel frames are prefabricated offsite and delivered with numbers and a layout of where those numbers go. it is a matter of standing the frames, tek screwing them together (the more the merrier) and then bolting them to the floor, all things done very easily and proficiently by myself and a carpenter. We had to alter one section as it didn't work out as planned the carpenter whinged a bit about this but was pretty easy to angle grind a small section off and alter as required and rivet it back together in new configuration. I had done some T/A work for a carpenter before but my skills were pretty basic when attempting this. The steel is very quick and easy as long as the steel comes in the right sizes. My carpenter said that he could have done a timber frame quicker but I am not so sure. As long as you pay them a carpenter should be happy to do the work Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 7Jun 11, 2013 12:43 am I can see the advantages of using a steel frame, but how difficult would it be to modify the frame? Like most custom designed houses, the actual house needs to be tweaked slightly as sometimes it's not possible to to build it to plan. God knows I changed many things affecting the walls of my house due to it not being feasible to build and also because I wanted to make some changes. Easy with a timber frame. What about a steel? Re: Owner Builder using Steel Frames 8Jun 11, 2013 4:03 pm We had to alter a few frames as our rammed earth guys measured off the plan, duh....and of course some openings were out so we had to move and shorten some frames and extend others. it is not the most fun but it is achievable if you have the right pieces to work with. Shortening a frame is very easy, lengthening can be harder, adding a doorway was pretty easy. Hardest one was moving a wall to 45deg of others with a skillion roof where we had to cut an angle accross the top of the frame and get the angle right. There are special flat screws that can be used but i preffered to put more rivets in to give the plasterboard a flatter profiile to work with. Definitely wear PPE, Protective glasses, ear muffs etc steel is not much fun for ears and eyes, a needle in the eye is worse than the effort of putting some glasses on. trust me! my build: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=62345&p=968369#p968369 http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_darlington/ That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17774 Hi I am wanting some opinions about the build of a steel shed I am going to get one about 4.5 x 2.5 m steel shed and the height will be about 2.3-2.4m high The one I am… 0 14434 |