We are gearing up for a move and the wife is sold on the idea of building a steel frame house because of its indestructibility. I'm not sure what to think of it, except that it sounds a little absurd. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions about these type of houses?
TIA

Not sure what kind of "steel framed" she's thinking of, but I wouldn't call any steel framed structure indestructible. I've seen plenty with wind and fire damage.

In a commercial sense, steel framed means a thin guage steel stud framing inside a more permanent super structure of steel, concrete, block or other construction. In barndominium terms, it's a metal building, sometimes with heavy steel framing. But high impact storms, not even tornados, can cause damage to them. They usually have large surfaces to catch wind and don't withstand the winds well.

Again, those are just general terms. I don't know what examples she's seen or talking about using for construction.

Steel studs are used in commercial construction. They're more predictable than wood because they're refined iron instead of organic cellulose. They also don't burn, but steel weakens much faster than wood when exposed to heat. At the thickness of studs though, that's probably irrelevant.

Another thing is that steel conducts heat better than wood, so an exterior wall built with steel studs will not insulate as well.

Steel studs for residential are also more expensive because you need specialized equipment to cut them and fasten them. You would need to find a steel stud framer to frame the house.

Steel is stronger though, ave is expansion and contraction is uniform. No need to worry about warping or rotting. Mold is also less of an issue, though drywall paper and subfloor can still mold.

You can frame a house the same way with light gauge steel studs that you do with 2x's. It's just not done often because not many people install it. You need a chopsaw to cut it and have to screw it together, which most framers don't have or want to do.

Yes, I realize that, I am in construction. But it's not a common practice. And my point was more in pointing out in general terms where steel framed construction is found, as well as pointing out that it's not "indestructible " as noted or question posed by the OP.

Thanks for all the info. These were a few of my concerns, but just verified now.

There is/used to be a company on I-35W south of Ft. Worth that did the steel framed houses. They have the framing of a house with a truck sitting on the roof beams.

I didn't pay attention last time I went that way months ago.

Yeah, nothing is indestructible. They're stronger frames than wood though. You can find them, you just have to do a lot of looking.

I'll add, I'm in warehouse construction and we build warehouses that are anywhere from 20-32' clear heights, and they can frame demising walls and such with single studs, floor to ceiling. You can't get a 30' wood stud.

a 2x10 steel stud is also much lighter than its wood counterpart.

I would say a drawback to steel is they are very flimsy. They rely on drywall or osb to strengthen the structure. I don't know that you could frame a whole house in steel studs, and not have it collapse before adding drywall hah.

And I don't know if you can run electrical in steel studs without conduit? That adds a lot of cost.

I'm pretty sure you'd have to use conduit per code. Don't think its allowable to use romex with a metal stud building.

If you're wanting something that goes toward indestructibility, you need to look into concrete homes.

Indestructible:

http://www.monolithic.org/domes

http://images.monolithic.org/img/2011/06/03/4de9284ec29e06c87c000011/medium/img_1572.jpg

ICF would be the strongest and most efficient. Would be hard to add in and modify though

So OP, I'm guessing your wife.. she's pretty destructive or what?

I have to say, it's quite an interesting take on why you'd want a specific home. I've never house hunted with destructibility in mind!

LSL beams headers and studs

There's a company in Arkansas that does prefab steel houses.

http://m.kodiaksteelhomes.com

Haha, if pushed to the point I very well imagine she could be... On a serious note, we are looking to move to the metroplex and she was concerned about the amount of tornados that come through that area.

LRB38 said:

---

Haha, if pushed to the point I very well imagine she could be... On a serious note, we are looking to move to the metroplex and she was concerned about the amount of tornados that come through that area.

---

I don't think a steel framed house is gonna be any safer than a wooden one when it comes to tornados.

62strat said:

---

LRB38 said:

---

Haha, if pushed to the point I very well imagine she could be... On a serious note, we are looking to move to the metroplex and she was concerned about the amount of tornados that come through that area.

---

I don't think a steel framed house is gonna be any safer than a wooden one when it comes to tornados.

---

It may be marginally safer, but not enough to get too excited about.

If tornadoes are a true concern, look at reinforced and grouted CMU or styrofoam framed concrete. Outside of that, you are nowhere near even the fringes of normal home construction materials and methods.

If you go the concrete wall route....Make sure you like where your outlets and switches are because it's not like you can just punch through the drywall and out in a box. Just sayin'.

If you use ICF the outlets, etc are run in the styrofoam after the concrete is poured. So you can reroute and add outlets after the fact but it's definitely not ideal.

Storm Cellar

Golfing buddy of mine had his home in the side of a hill. Once a week he had to mow his roof.

Is the gauge of standard steel studs strong enough to support mounting a tv?

62strat said:

---

I'll add, I'm in warehouse construction and we build warehouses that are anywhere from 20-32' clear heights, and they can frame demising walls and such with single studs, floor to ceiling. You can't get a 30' wood stud.

a 2x10 steel stud is also much lighter than its wood counterpart.

I would say a drawback to steel is they are very flimsy. They rely on drywall or osb to strengthen the structure. I don't know that you could frame a whole house in steel studs, and not have it collapse before adding drywall hah.

And I don't know if you can run electrical in steel studs without conduit? That adds a lot of cost.

---

Wood is flimsy too. Both construction types need sheathing for support because the framing forms rectangles, not triangles. This allows the framing to twist or collapse. Being nailed/screwed to plywood or OSB adds the resistance to prevent that. When houses are being framed, temporary bracing is often nailed diagonally across frames before the structural sheathing is added to keep walls straight.

I believe you can run without hard conduit, but you'll need some kind of metal sheathing over the wire. TBH, I'd love a house wired with hard conduit. If I ever had problems, I could just pull a new line...

Whoop04 said:

---

Is the gauge of standard steel studs strong enough to support mounting a tv?

---

We have 70" TV's mounted in our office, and it's steel framed. TTFWIW

Doesn't always happen, but we typically add plywood blocking for possible tv locations. Otherwise, yes, steel studs will definitely support a tv.

Aggietaco said:

---

Doesn't always happen, but we typically add plywood blocking for possible tv locations. Otherwise, yes, steel studs will definitely support a tv.

---

We do too. We've just added TV's to locations that we didn't originally intend to have them. In one particular case, an office got turned into a conference room, so a TV got mounted. We weren't about to pull the drywall off to add blocking, so we just made sure to hit the studs.

A Tomball builder was really into that - he could take wood stud plans and convert all that to suit. They had the special tools and the market that would pay extra for all the nuances that comes with. Fireproof? Maybe against some things but more prone to electrical fires. Rodents/termites/rot? Treated wood studs. Which is easier to frame and nail to? Wood? Stronger in storms? It's the steel hurricane ties both systems employ that counts. Lightning? Now we're talking some advantage but not if steel costs more than wood + lightning rods. Cell phones don't like metal anything. Stronger? Wood studs are already overkill, even 2x4@16"oc, spaced mainly to keep gyp.bd straight. They do make steel sheets for "hurricane rooms" one might sheath the whole house ... yikes.

Now we begin a tangent conversation about barndominiums ... sigh. That's a whole new barrel of monkeys and we do participate some in all that as well.