What is Light Steel Frame Building? Click here for picture gallery.

Light steel frame building consists of structural wall frames and roof trusses, manufactured from cold-formed light gauge galvanised steel sections. Exterior cladding can consist of a single skin brick wall or fibre cement board, fixed to the wall frames. Services – electricity and plumbing – are installed in the wall cavity created by the light steel frames, as is the insulation material. Gypsum board, fixed to the light steel frame, is typically used for internal wall cladding and ceilings.

Advantages of Light Steel Frame Building

Light steel frame building offers a wide range of benefits when compared with conventional building or other framing materials, in terms of quality, cost, durability and speed. Reduced wastage, lower logistical costs and reduced time of construction could offer cost savings of 20% or more, compared with conventional building.

Quality

• Complies with the rational design requirements of the National Building Regulations.
• Tried and tested – has been in use in Australia, Europe and America for decades.
• Each structure is signed off by a structural engineer.
• Only quality certified materials are used.
• Frames are assembled under controlled factory conditions.
• In the case of poor foundation conditions, steel framed buildings can accommodate some movement in foundations without cracking.
• Thermal insulation can be specified to be superior to conventional brick and mortar buildings.
• Professional finishes are readily achievable.
• SASFA, the industry association, will act as a quality watchdog, and system-competent frame erectors and builders will be accredited.

Cost Efficiency

• Speed: time saving is estimated to be more than 30%, compared with conventional building.
• Accuracy: the steel frame dictates a high degree of accuracy of building dimensions.
• Light weight: a steel framed wall clad with fibre cement / plaster board offers a mass saving of 90% compared with a double skin brick wall.
• Lighter foundations are made possible due to the low mass of walls.
• Sloping sites: the building method lends itself to column foundations and suspended floors, reducing the cost of building on uneven sites.
• Minimal wastage.
• Energy efficient.
• Flexibility: horizontal and vertical additions can be effected easily, in stages.
• Extra floor space (some 4%) due to reduced thickness of external walls compared with a double skin brick wall.
• Services are installed in wall cavities without chasing of walls.
• Earlier beneficial occupation of buildings.
• Accurate cost budgets.

Sustainability

Light Steel Frame Building offers designers and building owners the opportunity to minimise energy wastage during building operations as well as during the life of the building.

The primary steel industry worldwide has in recent times vastly improved production processes to minimise energy consumption and pollution. Furthermore, a large percentage of all scrap generated is re-used in electric arc furnaces to produce new steel, resulting in significant energy savings and a reduction of pollution.

As Light Steel Frame Building is an engineered building method, use of materials is optimised offering savings in energy used to produce the materials.

The mass of a wall in a Light Steel Frame Building is less than 10% of that of a double skin plastered brick wall. It follows that significant energy savings are achieved merely in the transport of the materials to the building site. Furthermore, wastage of materials on site is minimised, again reducing energy wastage by obviating the need to remove truck loads of building rubble after completion of the building process.

However, the most significant energy saving is achieved over the life of the building. Light Steel Frame Buildings can be optimally insulated for each type of building, in the different geographic regions in Southern Africa, resulting in reduced energy wastage for heating and cooling.

All the above factors combine to render Light Steel Frame Buildings energy efficient, and sustainable.

Steel Framing can be used for :

• Residential Units
• Complexes/Estates
• Apartments
• Garages/Storage Units
• Floor Trusses

Steel Framing is cost efficient, easily constructed and produces quality homes.

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