Is Steel Framing Right for Your Next Home?

[Music] well it sounds like we're in a shooting range but we're not were you actually using a powder actuated fastener and if you look here what you see are a little like 22 shells in there there's no bullet inside but there is powder just the gun load it with another nail and you're ready to put the steel down on the ground we're actually out framing a house out of steel steel framing has always been popular in commercial buildings and it has a lot of benefits and is growing rapidly in residential one because lumber prices are going up but to some of the benefits like the steel studs are actually straight which means you'll have a flat smooth wall something you really can't do with lumber plus you never ever have a termite problem with the steel stud but I've got a steel specialist with me today ed horn it's good to have you here it Mike I know you build a lot of homes out of steel and it's got a lot more benefits than I just mentioned what are some of them well I think you mentioned some of the real primary ones which the consumers are interested in the fact that you know they have to worry about a termite bill but again you remember that steel doesn't burn so as far as your insurance probably should be less in price and the fact that these things don't move through our humidity is concerned so in the summer time you're not gonna have the doors closing shut and nothing able open them other windows and so forth if you've got a lot of benefits in that regard why no Steel's becoming a lot more affordable now for residential homes why is that a couple of reasons number one of course the price of wood is going way up because the demand is going way up and the course of quality and woods going down so with steel you've got a product that's man-made it's controllable so you get a product that's dimensionally stable and so for that regard you can keep the price basically the same and it's the price of a piece of steel that's 2 foot long is the same as the price of steel for a 24 foot long the per square foot price that makes a big difference because obviously when you're taking wood you got to get a big tree to get a long piece of wood yeah so that isn't true with steel now behind you you've got red iron instead of steel studs what's that for well in any house there are certain load demands that are placed on it by the design and there are some times when you can't use light gauge steel it's just not strong enough so you have the capability here to integrate with I earn and we use this here in this particular case of sealing area because the span was too great and the shape was such that we could not use conventional light gauge steel I built about a dozen homes out of Steel back about five or six years ago and it was still kind of new for residential framers and we had a lot of problems with tools and how to cut the steel and that type of thing but I hear a lot of that's been resolved now there's specialty tools for it well just there's a technology and all areas have been increasing the steel industry has been been actively working towards improving the quality and the types of tools we have available and we've just got a bunch of new tools out there that make make the labor cost lower and make the cost overall the house lower to plus I want to see him I as a matter of fact I actually want to try them okay I like to do that [Applause] well head it looks almost like an ordinary chop saw there yes it is another new chop so this is an abrasive blade to it there's a new kind out on the market now which has it's actually a steel blade the run to the slower rpm takes away all the sparks and all the fun out of it you know I want this part you want this parties ok here you go and it makes a lot of noise I like that too [Music] [Applause] it is a great job but you can't carry a this type of saw up onto a frame with you it's gonna be too heavy yeah what's your other options a lot of other options available one of the nicest I like is it's called a nibbler a nibbler nibbler and this can do just about anything you want it to do you can cut straight lines or curved lines so really anything you need you can cut right up on the house any shape right just about any size material and we have sheers and there are other tools out there but this is what's one of the nicest we have up there I like it let's go ahead and put this stud in a wall well it looks like our walls coming along nicely over here definitely does all those good work yeah we got our studs here we've got a bottom plate just like a normal wood wall we've got a top plate up there so all we need to do is just attach it put it together so we don't drive a nail down through the end okay simple screw it's the tech screw with a drilling point okay grating on both sides right all right now how long is this house gonna last ah probably not more than 100 hundred 50 years I think that'll be long enough long fella more you take it we pay it off many home builders are offering steel framing as an option on new homes the cost of using steel is very competitive when compared to using wood and in many areas it is already more cost effective to use steel as more homeowners - steel framing for their new homes the cost will continue to decrease [Music] you

Channel: Your New House

Views: 69,071

Rating: 4.9196429 out of 5

Keywords: Your New House, yournewhouse, Michael Holigan, Home improvement, remodeling, home builder, home building, homebuilding, home buying, YNH, Homebuilding, Home Building, Home Buying, Homebuyers, Saving money, Safer home, steel framing for home, is steel better than wood, steel framing vs wood, should i use steel or wood, can i get a home with steel framing, why choose steel framing, steel framing advantages, steel framing problems

Id: YrC-HaX3nUk

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020