A metal frame for a house will help you build inexpensive and reliable housing in a short time. These structures were mainly used for the construction of industrial and commercial buildings, due to the high thermal conductivity of the material. With the advent of thermal profiles and various types of insulation, metal-frame houses have become significant competitors to wooden ones.
A metal frame house can be built in either a classic, modern or high-tech style Source buscarfoto.com
Features of frame houses made of metal profiles
The profile house consists entirely of metal structures. They are the basis of walls, ceilings and roofs. The thickness of the profiles used depends on the load-bearing loads.
Features of such buildings:
- due to the light frame, the weight of the entire house is reduced;
- a house made of a straight steel profile can be erected quickly and does not require the use of many construction tools.
Despite the emergence of new technologies in construction, a metal house requires additional thermal insulation, since this material has high thermal conductivity. The choice of one or another insulation depends on the climatic conditions in which the house will be located
The metal used in the construction of such houses is durable, does not rot or burn, and does not require additional processing. The material can be completely recycled without harming the environment.
Construction work is carried out in any season, regardless of the weather. The steel frame is suitable for the construction of low one-, two-, three-, and four-story buildings.
Frame of a two-story house, ready for cladding Source domsireni.ru
Safety regulations
When performing installation work on installing I-beams, they must initially be secured using temporary elements, which are then replaced with permanent stationary fasteners. Due to safety precautions, it is strictly forbidden to start using the beams until the craftsmen provide them with strapping and the temporary holders are removed.
Dismantling can be carried out only after the craftsmen verify the presence of strapping on the beams. Fixed exclusively with temporary clamps, I-beams can only support the weight of workers and installation equipment. It is very important to know that defective or deformed beams cannot be repaired with your own hands or in production and cannot be installed in their seats under any circumstances.
Advantages and disadvantages of houses made of metal profiles
The technology of building frame houses made of metal is becoming increasingly popular. This is facilitated by a number of advantages of this material.
A metal frame house is much lighter than a wooden or brick one. When performing work, less material is used, which makes it possible to build a lighter and less solid foundation. The most commonly used are strip and pile types. Installation work is carried out faster. Their cost is significantly lower than when working with a wooden base of the house.
Since a house made of metal profiles is much colder than a house made of wood or brick, the technology of lightweight thin-walled steel structures is used in its construction. In this case, the profile is protected from heat transfer by additional insulation, which fills the entire space between the frame racks. Mineral wool, polystyrene foam, ecowool, and expanded polystyrene are used as thermal insulation materials. These materials are not expensive and also have good soundproofing qualities.
Insulation plays an important part in creating a warm and environmentally safe home Source pinterest.fr
By correctly making the so-called “pie” for insulating the walls of the house, in compliance with the technology of protection from wind outside and from steam inside, you can achieve maximum insulation of the house.
A frame house made of metal profiles, despite the lightness of steel structures, is quite durable. Its service life reaches 100 years. Reliability is achieved by using galvanized profiles equipped with stiffeners. The coating of the material protects it from corrosion. The frame of a metal house does not shrink over time, does not crack, has good fire safety and is not affected by pests.
To reduce the electrical conductivity of the material, metal frame buildings are equipped with proper grounding. To decorate the house outside and inside, materials that are themselves dielectrics are used. This complex of works ensures complete insulation of metal parts.
An important advantage of a steel frame is its ability to withstand heavy roofing materials.
The disadvantage of using a metal frame is its rapid destruction during a fire. Due to high temperature, the metal loses its rigidity and becomes deformed. In this case, the house collapses much faster than a wooden one.
To attach cabinets and shelves, you will need additional reinforcement of the attachment point with a profile Source infomebli.ru
In such a house it is difficult to install built-in furniture and household appliances. To install massive cabinets and other devices, additional reinforcement of the installation site with profiles is necessary. It is difficult to combine a steel profile with materials such as cement or brick. This is especially inconvenient when constructing a fireplace or other structural elements of the house.
Technical characteristics of ordinary timber and wooden I-beam
In frame house construction, four-edged timber is used, with sides of at least 100 mm. The smaller size is called a bar, which is used to make racks, rafters, sheathing and other elements of a frame house.
The dimensions of the timber are standardized by GOST and TU. The most popular size is a beam with a cross-section of 150x150 mm and a length of 3 or 6 meters from coniferous trees. The market sells timber of 1, 2, 3 and 4 grades. For frame construction, timber of grades 1 and 2 is used.
The technical characteristics of the timber depend on the type of wood, its age and humidity. Timber with natural humidity has lower thermal protection and is less resistant to fungal infections of wood. Dried timber has higher compressive strength along the fibers and exceeds the level of 450 kg/cm², density reaches 900 kg/m³, the elastic moment E of timber 150x150 mm is 6000-7000 MPa. Thanks to these indicators, timber is used in frame house construction for the manufacture of frames and floors.
Glued laminated timber has much better characteristics; it is made from thin slices of coniferous wood (lamellas).
When making such timber, the lamellas, pre-impregnated with antiseptics and fire retardants, are glued together and cut to the required size. Such timber can have a length of up to 12 meters with excellent characteristics for creating floors for buildings with large spans.
An I-beam wooden beam is not subject to deflection, twisting and shrinkage. Its length can reach 12-13 meters with a standard deflection value, and the elastic moment E of an I-beam is on average 12,000 MPa with its weight being half that of a beam.
Types of steel profiles
For the manufacture of elements of lightweight thin-walled steel structures, durable structural steel is used. The product itself is made using the cold stamping method. To protect against corrosion, a zinc coating is applied to the metal sheet.
Metal structures are also made from hot-dip galvanized sheets. They are used less frequently due to their high cost, but are much more durable in use.
To produce the profile, a sheet of steel from 0.7 to 2 mm is taken. The choice of thickness is influenced by the required load-bearing capacity of the structural element.
The following types of profiles are used:
- guides,
- rack-mounted,
- hats
Types and types of profiles for constructing a house frame Source nastroike.com
Special beams are also used to cover the floor and shelf. The rafter system of the building consists of the same elements. All elements of the metal frame structure are connected using bolts, rivets, and self-tapping screws. In some cases, resistance welding is used.
Scope of application of I-beam
I-beams of wood are usually used in frame construction and in the construction of stone buildings.
With their help you can carry out the following work:
- create a silent floor;
- manufacture all types of floors;
- equip the roof truss structure;
- install interior partitions;
- create monolithic formwork;
- carry out reconstruction (raise the floor level, change floor beams, build terraces, gazebos, attics).
It is advisable to use an I-beam when creating concrete structures. This increases strength parameters and extends service life.
Stages of building a house from a metal profile
The stages of construction of a metal frame house are the construction:
- foundation;
- frame;
- roofs;
- insulation of the structure;
- home decoration.
Foundation
The frame made of metal profiles is lightweight and does not require the construction of a permanent foundation. Before choosing the type of foundation, you should study the nature of the soil on the construction site.
A shallow strip foundation is quite suitable for such a house. It can be small in width, since the load from the lightweight steel structure will be small. The base is made as a rigid horizontal frame, which allows you to redistribute the load in case of deformation of the base.
When using a columnar foundation, the frame is made of beams rigidly connected to each other and mounted on supports.
The pile-screw foundation with 200x200 timber frame is ready for fastening the metal frame Source narashvat.ru
Brick, reinforced concrete and monolithic blocks are used for the foundation. The construction of shallow foundations allows you to save concrete consumption and reduce labor costs, which in turn reduces the cost of the house.
Hemming the ceiling
The next stage is extremely simple: a hemming board of arbitrary thickness is placed on the lower shelves of the wooden I-beam, which is fixed in any way. Boards can also be laid with a gap, using the rough backing as a support for thermal insulation, especially when it comes to dense materials like stone wool or EPS. This will slightly reduce the dead weight of the ceiling.
The boards should not be fitted too tightly; leave a gap of 3–5 mm for deformation during drying. If you want to immediately lay the lining under varnish, leaving the beams open, take the trouble to insulate the insulation from spillage and weathering, leave a gap at the ends of the slats of at least 2-3 mm.
You can also refuse to lay boards like this and hem the ceiling with, say, chipboard. However, the described approach allows you to avoid downtime: after all, the finished ceiling is not installed quickly, and the ceiling must be used.
Projects and cost of houses
The cost of a metal frame house includes the cost of:
- materials;
- project;
- installation work.
You can slightly reduce the cost of a finished house by ordering a standard building assembly. The price of housing itself is not much different from a similar one made of wood or brick. A two-story cottage made of sandwich panels, with dimensions of 7x10 meters, will cost about 1.7 million rubles. However, the price depends on the configuration of the house. If you order only a warm circuit, then the cost of the “box” will be about 1.32 million rubles. A house with rough finishing costs about 1.75 million rubles.
Projects of houses made of metal frames are diverse:
Metal frame house in half-timbered style
A small house made of a metal frame with an attic floor, with a total area of 72 square meters, is intended for a family with children. The house is convenient to use, with a sufficient number of living rooms. In construction, ferrous metal is used for the manufacture of load-bearing structures and galvanized thermal profiles for wall panels. The structural elements of the house are connected using self-tapping screws.
The cottage is being built without the use of special equipment.
House made of metal frame "under half-timbered" Source makebestphoto.ru
Layout of a cottage made of metal frame “under half-timbered” Source www.cottage.ru
Construction of a wooden I-beam
In low-rise construction, metal I-beams are rarely used. They were replaced by wooden I-beams. They successfully replace classic wooden floors made of timber, timber in frame posts and in flooring, and timber rafters in the roof of a frame house.
An I-beam made of wood consists of two wooden shelves connected to each other by a stand made of OSB, LVL or plywood.
LVL is lumber made by gluing together several layers of softwood sheets.
In Russia, OSB and plywood are more widely used as racks, since LVL is currently produced by only two factories in the cities of Torzhok and Nyagan.
What is good about the Canadian method of floor construction?
Let's look at all the advantages of I-beams as a material for floor construction:
Advantage No. 1. Amazing strength
Thanks to this ingeniously thought-out design, rather fragile-looking beams turn out to be many times stronger and more reliable than ordinary ones. The upper part of the beam works in bending, and the lower part in tension. Those. here we are no longer talking about one monolithic element that has to take on both types of load at the same time:
Advantage No. 2. Precise geometry
The second very important point: the ideal geometry of the beams themselves. Even over time, they do not sag, do not twist, do not dry out and do not change their parameters. According to manufacturers, even after 100 years, such beams will behave the same as a year after construction.
What does this give? To begin with, an impeccably even floor, on which it is easy to install any flooring, especially parquet and laminate. The fact is that when you are dealing with beams and ordinary wooden beams, you should know that according to standards, their deflection can reach 3 cm! And, believe me, even this is already noticeable: the floor will simply “walk” under your feet. And this will definitely not have a good effect on any floor covering (except for cheap linoleum, perhaps).
And this is normal: natural wood is a living material, and it tends to shrink, dry out, or, conversely, absorb moisture. But I-beams are already made from laminated wood, using a particularly strong connecting composition, and they do not change their dimensions.
Advantage No. 3. Comfortable weight
The next important aspect: I-beams are light enough to lift one of them yourself, and therefore two ordinary workers can handle such work without any problems. What does this give?
Firstly, you will not need heavy equipment that will have to lift ordinary wooden or metal beams.
Secondly, working at height will become safer, because a beam that is too heavy will not fall on anyone’s head.
Thirdly, the use of I-beams will allow you to save a lot on the foundation, because the load on it will already be an order of magnitude less. And, if we take into account that up to 50% of the construction budget usually goes to a reliable, strong foundation that will support not only walls, but also equally heavy beams, then the savings are significant.
Advantage #4. Making at home
You can make I-beams yourself if you know what their parameters and connection points should be. And as a result, you will not only have confidence in the quality of the ceiling, but also save a lot of money on your budget.
