lesleys

Has anyone had any experience of steel framed houses? We're considering one and tending to favour it over wood. Cost is not an issue. We're planning a fairly big lowset house on flattish acreage.

Any comments/recommendations/tales of woe please.

Lesley

Siren & Brian

Yeah very good idea.... no rot, termite problems, very cheap to build, go up damn quick.... I build them... not that I am looking for more work

mira4bai4

Have you seen what lightening can do to houses on a direct hit, electrical fittings and power points etc fare jump out of the wall in a great burst of smoke, that is a wooden house. Wonder what a steel framed one would do in a similar situation, maybe the walls would fly across the room. I would be inclined to have lights fitted to the frames so that when lightening struck everything would glow like a disco.

Wol

You'd at least be safe and snug in your Faraday Cage!

lesleys

Exactly!!!!

Lesley (physics graduate)

C.Owen

Lesley

Have found any websites or info on these steel framed houses ???

I have similar plans to yourself ...so i've been looking into them also, so i'm hoping to see feedback or comments from people with experience, to gauge the opinion " Steel V's Wooden framed "

try... http://www.nusteelhomes.com.au/

cadman

Presumably they have some kind of earthing system / lightning protection?

cresta57

What for?

lesleys

Steel frame embedded in earth = earthed

ABCDiamond

I had a carpenter in to do some work recently, and during talking he told me that he had a Steel Framed house, and he wouldn't have a timber framed one again !!
It got me thinking

lesleys

We're in Queensland - have found these

http://www.civicsteelhomes.com.au/ .....expensive
http://www.cavalierhomes.com.au/design.html .....cheap but poorer reputation
http://www.indigohomes.com.au/ ......good but no website
http://www.couragehomes.com.au/welcome.htm .....????

Lesley

Stormz

had a look at the sites... no info as to prices though (except 2 really expensive ones).

Any idea how much an average home is?

Wol

We had a mainly steel framed house in Florida and I wouldn't consider a wood one in a termitey country given the choice.

The steel construction is almost modular, the sections all lock in to each other and the services are routed through the preformed holes.

Termites can still get in of course and eat the card cover of the gyproc etc but the total effect should be minimal compared with that to a wooden frame.

Perthforme

My mate in sydney had one corner of his house eaten by termites and it cost some thing like A$20,000 to fix :scared:

markeh

Hiya,
Sort of a steel version of a huff house, with the benefit being that steel is termite resistant.
Well that would make it very nice, but expensive

Bye
Mark