How Safe is Your Family Home from Natural Disasters?
Steel framing systems
provide homeowners additional security and safety for their investment,
and
more importantly, their family.
Steel's inherent strength and noncombustible
qualities enable a steel framed home
to resist such devastating events as
fires, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes.
• In conventional wood
framed structures, the framing material is the third most commonly ignited
material.
• Steel framing will not
burn or add fuel to the spread of a fire.
• Because of this, many
insurance companies offer lower rates for steel framed homes.
• Termites cause over $2
billion in damage every year in the United States alone.
• Steel is impervious to
termites and other wood boring insects.
• Structural damage caused
by termites is NOT covered by insurance.
• The high strength of steel
and the positive connections provide greater protection for the life of your
home.
• Steel Framed Homes can
achieve the highest earthquake rating available in the world.
• Steel Framed Homes can be
engineered to withstand winds of 150 MPH.
• Steel Framed Homes have
proven their strength by surviving hurricanes and high winds time and time
again since 1976.
• The strength of steel also
provides greater protection from heavy snow and ice.
Experts in many fields are
looking for new building strategies and technologies that
will help sustain
affordable growth into the next century.
By selecting steel framing for the
structures built today,
we can answer the demand for environmentally
responsible products.
Steel is the most commonly
recycled material in the world, with over 67% of all steel used today coming
from recycled material.
It takes one-fourth of an acre to produce the framing for a typical wood
framed home,
the same house can be framed with
steel from the recycled metal of just three to four junk cars!
Increasingly,
steel framing is being recognized as the logical, environmentally
responsible choice for home buyers and builders today.
How does Steel Compare To
Wood?
This is easily the most
commonly asked question.
First of all, wood is an organic material. It was a
living organism. When wood is cut, the wood dies.
From that time forward,
wood has one objective: that is to become dirt.
Any organic organisms final
state is to decompose, rot, become mulch - dirt.
Steel, on the other hand, is
a Mineral. It's strength and dimensions are absolutely consistent.
Steel
will stay where you put it, for as long as you leave it there.
To fairly compare Wood
Framing to Steel Framing,
you would have to compare a Wood Frame that was
built to the same standards as a Steel Framed Home .
That means engineered to a Zone 4 Seismic, 8" exterior walls, R-30
Insulation,
Fireproof, Termite Proof, Dry Rot Proof, and without any
warping, twisting, or splitting. Simply, Steel is much better than Wood !
Does the Steel interfere
with Radio & TV Reception?
The short answer is NO!
If
you understand the electronic properties of Radio and TV waves, you know
that they pass through just about anything.
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Is Steel Energy Efficient?
A good testimony to the
energy efficiency of our homes is the Centennial home built in Utah in 1996.
It has 7,000 sq. ft., three gas fireplaces, and industrial gas fired water
boiler that not only does the culinary water, but the entire hot water snow
melt system around the perimeter of the home and in the driveway. It also
has all gas appliances including restaurant grade ovens, and stoves, as well
as all gas fired fireplaces, and gas powered clothes dryers. For one of the
coldest months of the year, the owner recently said their total gas bill for
the month was $185.00.
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Does the Steel Transfer Heat
& Cold?
We're sure it does. We've had several different tests run by independent
laboratories with insulation companies.
What we've found is, "When you
insulate the steel home properly, there are certain kinds of insulation that
actually draw out the heat and the cold into the insulation, it just
disperses it before it ever gets all the way through."
We've had tests run
where they put probes/sensors along an 8" stud and took temperature
variances on either side and
the report we've received back is that any heat
or cold distribution dissipates into the insulation within 2 to 3 inches
into the stud,
so it never really goes all the way through.
