The Steel Building Guide

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THE STEEL BUILDING GUIDE

A typical steel building

A typical steel building

The very first use of steel building dated back to the late 19th century, when the best constructors of Chicago, Paris and London are seeking a solution for severe cracking problems of brick, stone and terracotta buildings all over Europe and North America. Steel buildings were since then proved to be excellent alternatives for conventional building solutions, which became more and more expensive and disruptive.

The 20th century saw the development of the metal industry and brought an abundant availability of steel to the market, leading to the prevalence of steel buildings, especially after World War II. The use of steel buildings was then significantly expanded due to its flexibility and cost efficiency, and has become the trend in the mid-20th century’s construction.

Pre-fabricated buildings were first introduced in 1960s, when manufacturers got the ideas of pre-making all the components including roof, floor, frame walls, bracing, etc. Constructors just need to put these parts together to make a building stand, while the first computer aided design program for steel building was also created in the 1960s, allowing steel buildings to be made with a variety of designs, features, shapes and sizes and most importantly, safer& faster to construct.

Today, steel building is the most flexible solution in the modern world of construction, thanks to its proven significant benefits:

  • Produced , engineered and constructed faster than conventional building
  • Resistance to climate changes and natural disasters
  • Light in weight but have more tensile strength, and can be used together with other construction materials
  • More flexible in terms of designs and applications
  • Cost-saving
  • Environment-friendly and NO WASTE

Application

APPLICATIONS OF STEEL BUILDINGS

The applications of steel buildings have expanded over years with the development of the world’s engineering capabilities and the innovation of the steel industry. Today’s engineers can design steel buildings to suit various applications with the availability of computer aided design software packages.

Typically there are 3 common types of steel buildings: Arch, Straight Walled and Clear Span buildings

  • Arch Steel Building: mostly used in the Agricultural Industry for building storage units. The term “Arch” refers to the outside shape of the building. The structure of this building type is usually very strong and durable
  • Straight Walled Steel Building: less sturdy compared to Arch Steel Building, but providing more usable space inside. This building type is also easy to blend into the surrounding architecture, making it ideally used for commercial, industrial, and other occupancy types.
  • Clear Span Steel Building: using large overhead support beams in place of inside support columns. This offers a wide, open interior space, while you can easily rearrange floor plans according to your need. Clear Span Steel Building is a great choice for factories, warehouses, storage units and aircraft hangars.

Browse through the various applications of ZAMIL STEEL’s products.

How much is the cost?

HOW MUCH IS THE COST?

Calculating the cost of a steel building might be challenging, since you have to consider many involved factors.

As a matter of fact, there’s not only materials involved. Price of a steel building may vary according to size, design, availability of raw materials and other factors such as time-delivery, shipping location, etc.

In order to know how much a steel building costs, let us break down the big constituents

  • Main Factors
    • The size of your building space (Length x Width) and its location
    • The height: how many levels/ floors (High-rise ones are often more expensive)
    • What specifications of design? (e. g: Design codes, design load, etc.)
    • Erection method: to erect by yourself or having a general contractor to do the work?
    • Time delivery: do you want your buildings delivered quickly?
  • Other Factors
    • Your choice of materials (e.g: grades of steel?)
    • Site condition (for example, a steep surface may require more man-hour)
    • Weather (E.g: Heavy rain, high wind, snow or extreme heat can affect erection time)
    • Structural Complexity (the more structurally complicated, the more time, material &manpower needed)
    • Clear span width

Once you’re ready to consider all these factors, contact our team today to get an immediate quotation.

Is it SAFE?

The answer is YES.

The use of steel as a construction material is widely accepted thanks to its durability, strength and resilience.

  • Resistance to natural disasters

In some regions, natural disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones or hurricanes can strike anytime. While the use of concrete structure needs regular maintenance, it can also cause lots of causalities when damaged or collapsed. In such cases, steel buildings are more resilient.

  • Less fumigation required

Due to the fact that termites, rodents and insects cannot house in steel structure.

  • Steel is a GREEN PRODUCT

While concrete and wood cannot be reused, a steel building can be reinstalled, moved to other places or recycled many times. Components can be shifted from one place to the other without difficulties, with options to extend the structures as your needs.

STEEL BUILDINGS VS. CONCRETE BUILDINGS

Still wondering whether to opt for steel buildings?

  Concrete Buildings Steel Buildings
Construction time
  • Longer construction time
  • Reducing construction time with in-house design & fabrication, pre-made components & on-site erection of the steel frame.
Quality
  • Pouring on-site concrete is subject to weather condition and labor-intensive systems that may affect the quality of the buildings
  • Steel members can be assembled in factories, providing better quality control
Design
  • High flexibility & Functionality when using proper designing methods
  • Heavyweight
  • Structural steel frames can provide longer spans, thus offering column-free spaces and flexibility in space planning. Pipes and ducts can run easily through steel members and can also be inspected in the future
  • Very light in weight
Recycling

& Sustainability
  • Can be reused mostly in a downgraded form such as filling material.
  • Recycling rates for reinforcement bars used in reinforced concrete frames are negligible
  • Steel may be recycled in its original or near-original state.  Approximately 86% of the steel sections are recycled to create more steel products and 13% are reused in their existing forms.
  • The key to sustainability in steel construction lies in its design. It should be readily dismantled.  Bolted connections are preferable to welded connections.
Safety
  • Reinforced concrete is resistant to explosion and impact.  It resists high temperature from fire for a long time without loss of structural integrity.
  • Steel buildings are more resilient to natural disaster such as hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons or cyclones.
Cost -savings  

  • Concrete buildings are heavier in weight, only parts of the buildings are reusable; while construction needs more manpower and more time-consuming.

 
  • Cheap raw material

 

  • Steel buildings are lighter in weight, recyclable and need shorter erection time, making it more time-saving and cost-saving