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Steel is one of the most used building materials in the construction industry these days. This is mainly because of its affordability, durability, and versatility. Narrow scaffold tower rental also provides additional safety and support when working at greater heights.
Regardless of the type of project, you’re working on, odds are, you’ll be using steel in one form or another to complete the project. However, before you decide to use steel as your construction material and take advantage of its amazing benefits, there are various things you should know about building with steel. These include the following:
1. Robust And Ductile
In comparison to other known construction materials, one of the things you should know about steel is its robustness and ductility. Its shape and size can be modified to provide a certain level of structural robustness, which can’t be achievable with some brittle construction materials.
2. Versatile
Aside from being a sustainable building material, steel is known for its versatility which provides contractors and architects the freedom to achieve the impossible when it comes to designs. Combining function and form, steel can go great distances and provide refinement and slenderness to make a steel sculpture.
Architects appreciate the architectural expression opportunities offered by steel, and these are:
- Ability to design connections with refined detailing
- Easy forming of the curved members
- Clear expression of the functions enabled by an exposed steel structure
- Use of the tubular members to provide a great design with slender members
- Structural efficiency for long-span enclosures
- Visual effects enable through finish and color of coating steelwork, through different proprietary finishes like galvanizing and painting
3. Cost-Effective
Steel is a cost-effective material used in construction. Although it isn’t as cheap as other construction materials, the benefits that steel possesses are worth it.
One of the reasons that prove the cost-effectiveness of steel is that compared with some materials like concrete, establishing a steel structure creates less waste, dust, and noise on a worksite. It means fewer noise complaints and less clean-up. Other than that, steel is fire-resistant.
4. Different Types
steel frame workshop is under construction against a blue sky
There are different types of steel used for construction, and some of them include:
- Mild Steel – Also referred to as plain carbon steel, mild steel is a common type of steel used in the construction industry. It’s durable and strong, which ensures a sturdy built.
Because of the strength that carbon steel offers, it’s useful in buildings and advantageous in many ways. One of these is that mild steel doesn’t crack when bent. It’s flexible, has great plasticity, and is ductile.
- Structural Steel – It’s yet another type of steel used for constructing buildings, which is utilized primarily to provide a structure or base to the building. It’s also one of the popular kinds of steel available in the market used for developing structures and corrosion checks.
Structural steel comes in different shapes and specifications, such as rod-type, I-beam, T-shaped, plate type, channel sections, and so on.
- Rebar Steel – Often known as reinforcing steel, this type of steel is used as the tension device for reinforced masonry structure or reinforced concrete. Made from carbon steel, it comes with ridges for mechanical anchoring, which allows it to hold the concrete into compression.
Other than that, it’s available in different kinds of grades which are available in a variety of specifications including chemical composition, vital tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation percentage.
5. Environment-Friendly
Steel can help save trees. As it’s not made from any kind of wood, there are no trees used to manufacture this construction material. In fact, some people prefer metal beds
What also makes steel eco-friendly is its ability to be recycled. Steel can be repurposed and recycled continuously without compromising its quality. It makes steel compatible with long-term sustainable development, which is something that’s gaining more traction as more people want to protect nature.
6. Efficient
One of the best things you should know about steel is that it can be assembled efficiently and quickly, regardless of the season. This is because steel components are often pre-manufactured off-site and require minimal on-site labor. In fact, an entire frame can be constructed in just a few days, contributing to a reduction in construction time, regardless of how big or small the project is.
For a single dwelling, on a more challenging site, steel enables fewer points of contact with the earth, which lessens the required excavation. The lighter weight of structural steel relative to some framing materials, like concrete, allows a simpler and smaller foundation. Such efficiencies in execution translate to considerable resource efficiency and economic advantages, including early return on investment and accelerated project schedules.
Conclusion
With the above things to know about building with steel, there’s no doubt that it’s still one of the widely used construction materials in the market. Contractors and designers appreciate its aesthetic value alongside its dependability and durability. Also, it has proven to be an eco-friendly and sustainable material.
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