Over the years, it’s said that structural steel has evolved into the preferred building material for many infrastructures – from tiny residential dwellings to towering skyscrapers.
Steel is a lightweight material that comes in various forms, sizes, and shapes. The vast array of choices ensures that you can find the perfect match for your next building project. While concrete is necessary for building, a structural steel frame offers significant value to the structure’s foundation and the like.
In addition, the use of structural steel is an excellent choice due to its design flexibility, structural stability, and ease of maintenance. The following are some of the advantages of steel building use for your next construction.
1. Its Design Enables Builders to Explore Almost Limitless Building Possibilities
One of the most obvious advantages of steel in buildings is the ability of steel ceiling joists to span greater distances while keeping their strength and integrity. As a result, it enhances engineers’ capabilities.
This allows them to develop novel and large spaces using steel products that were previously impossible with the use of other materials. Steel structures are highly suggested for a long span and heavy constructions such as those found in industrial buildings of all types.
You can quickly achieve lower floor-to-floor heights with staggered trusses, girder slabs, and castellated beams. A steel building uses an excellent design that creates long open spans that would be impossible with concrete or wood support.
The most cost-effective and ubiquitous shape for a prefabricated steel construction is a plain rectangle. But you may utilize steel to construct more intricate buildings.
Perhaps steel’s most unique architectural quality is its ability to span great distances without interfering with adjacent internal columns. For this reason, steel framing is used in the construction of aviation hangars.
A unique opening on the inside allows for more excellent floor layout flexibility.
Additionally, it provides you with additional possibilities for future upgrades and adjustments like simple steel cantilevers and the like.
2. Steel Structures Are an Economical Choice
Due to standardization and regulatory criteria, the dependability, and convenience of assembling structural steel components after manufacturing is said to have increased. They are also used as custom event structure design in most cases too.
Efficiency gains translate into time and money savings, a faster investment return, and lower interest rates. In addition, shorter building periods bring less interruption to the area. By utilizing structural steel, the developer can save money and other limited resources.
Furthermore, the current market outlook and technological advances are said to benefit fuel the rise of the use of accessible steel structures. With steel prices believed to continue a decline and the metallurgy and steel fabrication industries’ continued quest for innovation, developers now have unrestricted access to low-cost, high-quality structural steel.
3. Reliability You Can Depend On
Steel buildings are said to be very resistant to corrosion. This reliability is enhanced by the consistency and homogeneity of the features. This means that a higher and more rigid quality control process is associated with its industrial production. High elasticity and flexibility of the material are expected after undergoing various checks.
When various specimens of a given type of steel are subjected to laboratory tests for yield stress, ultimate strength, and elongation, there is significantly less variation between each one than other materials such as concrete and wood.
To boot, steel is a genuinely homogenous and elastic material. It satisfies the bulk of the assumptions used to develop the analysis and design formulas, resulting in sound conclusions. It may not be the case with concrete structures due to the heterogeneous nature of the material, cracking, and non-linearity of their stress-strain relationship.
4. Structures Made Out of Steel Are Easily Modifiable
In ways that conventional frame systems cannot, you can modify structural steel structures in the future to accommodate new uses, loading conditions, vertical expansions, and changes in owner want. A steel plate can reinforce and increase the load capacity of existing steel columns and beams by attaching it to their flanges or webs.
You can convert existing steel-framed structures to include new stairways by removing a part of the floor decking, bracing a single bay, and constructing the appropriate stair structure. These types of alterations can be carried out with minimal interruption to the occupants of the office building. It’s not uncommon for a structural steel structure to gain additional levels years after completion.
5. Faster Construction Time
Time is critical in the construction industry, even more so when working on a time-sensitive project. In any event, most clients will want their projects to be completed on time and under budget. Contractors and their employees face real nightmares while working on high-stakes and time-sensitive projects where cutting corners isn’t an option.
However, a steel frame provides features that make it very easy to work with. By adding steel frames into their structures, contractors can shorten their working schedules. Contractors can, for example, request pre-engineered structural plans for the facility from steel suppliers. Soon after, they can be sent out and readied for a speedy erection.
With the aid of pre-engineered steel frames, construction companies will be able to complete a large-scale project quickly. Besides, the chances for human error are reduced because the entire steel manufacturing process is monitored and undergoes strict quality surveys. This helps in minimizing the time required for re-measuring, cutting, and installation.
6. Utilizing Steel Promotes Safety
The first priority of any structure is its overall safety. Steel supplies most of the safety features that many expect from a structurally-sound building.
Building steel is an inflammable material which makes it a good quality fire retardant. When suitably coated, it’s resistant to rust, corrosion, mold, and mildew too. Steel isn’t prone to splintering and fracturing during rapid movement.
When built following the local construction code, a steel structure protects its occupants from fire, high winds, and heavy snow and ice. On the contrary, these elements would cause a concrete or wood structure to burn, shatter, or collapse.
One can also benefit from the safety of utilizing steel early in the construction process. When prefabricated building solutions are used, on-site cutting, reshaping, and many more are eliminated that reduce the danger of workers suffering cuts, burns, and other injuries.
7. Steel Is a Sustainable Choice
Structural steel’s middle name is sustainability. Modern structural steel is primarily composed of recycled materials and may be reused in the future without too much processing. When structural steel and vehicles approach the end of their useful lives, most of them are recycled.
Takeaway
Steel has various economic and environmental advantages over other construction materials. Unsurprisingly, it’s believed to be gaining most of the favor in the construction industry. Steel is an excellent material for long-lasting, visually beautiful, and energy-efficient construction. By considering the list of advantages above, steel can be a perfect material option for your next construction project.
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