Use Cold-formed Steel Rather Than Wood for Mid-rise Construction Durability, Sustainability, structural performance, fire resistance, and cost-effectiveness are some of the major reasons for using cold-formed steel framing in mid-rise building construction, rather than wood. Being a noncombustible, dependable material, steelframed structures offers a wise investment for builders.
Along with all the advantages of building with Cold-Formed Steel (CFS), the most important one is, it pretty much lasts forever. Apart from a mid-rise structure with a repeating floor plan, Dorms, offices, apartment buildings, assisted living facilities, and storage units are all good candidates. Because in these types of structures, the repeating floor plans reduce the need for large beams that are needed to cover long spans and absorb heavy loads. Hence we can say steel offers many key benefits over woods in mid-rise building construction. Still thinking, how? Let’s have a look at more benefits of using cold-formed steel rather than wood for mid-rise construction.
1. Resists Termites & Pests Termites and other pests represent a significant threat to the long-term resilience of buildings. Cold-formed Steel Stud Framing is one of the few materials that can resist carpenter ants, termites, flying ants, carpenter bees, and powder post beetles which unfortunately wood can’t. So, corrosion is the only potential weaknesses of steel. To fight that, all Cold-Formed Steel studs are coated with zinc. Before the level of corrosion resistance deteriorates this protective barrier will last nearly 700 years. Hence, when it comes to durability CFS is clearly a great option.