alt.building.construction

"Kevin Dovlat" wrote in message
news: $ @ ...
> Hello...
>
> I have vacant lot and would like to build my 1st starter house in the
> city of Glendale California. Recently i saw a steel contruction house
> build in the city of Malibu and I really got attracted to it. I would like
> to know some professional opinion regarding cost of the steel contruction
> versus traditional stacko frame ??? .
>
> My vacant lot has a conditional permits issued for 1700sq/f house and 500
> sq/f garage. hill side... I would greatly appreicate any suggestions...
>
> Regards
>
> Kevin
> Los Angeles

Steel will cost more. The steel frame can look quite attractive if expressed
/ exposed on the inside. Steel is far less sustainable and environmentally
friendly than timber from a sustainable source. The only real advantage of
steel over timber frame is to enable higher constructions than the usual
four storeys, not an issue for a house.

So there is no particular reason to go to a steel frame for a house really
as anything you can do in steel you can do in timber for low rise
developments - unless you want the aesthetics of exposed steel structure and
you will pay for that. And any exposed structure will need to be fire
protected as well with intumescent paint or similar. Stick to timber and
make the house bigger/more impressive through spacial design/form than other
more normal houses is my advice. And although concrete is pretty
unsustainable as well you can do far more interesting things with concrete
like cantilevers, domes, barrel roofs, etc than you can with steel. You
could go for steel external cladding panels which can look stunning when
curved.