If you are thinking about constructing a new building, or adding an extension to an existing one, the materials you are going to use are probably at the forefront of your decision making. Not only will your chosen building materials affect the finished look of your building, but the materials you use for the structure of the build will also affect its design.
Finding a material that can offer you both the strength a building needs, as well as offering you aesthetic design options is very difficult. Steel buildings are very popular for this reason. There are very few construction materials that are as good in both form and function as construction grade steel. Using steel creates options for an architect, as it is incredibly strong considering the small amount of space it uses, and can be shaped and formed into a number of eye pleasing designs and geometric shapes. Here are three reasons you should consider steel as the main construction material for your next building.
Versatility
A product like steel has a number of uses. It leaves the furnace as a molten liquid with the consistency of a thick syrup or pancake mix. From this state, it can be shaped into pretty much anything using molds or worked by hand. Steel can even be molded under pressure into complex shapes and designs; car doors are made this way. If you want an eye-catching aesthetic design on the exterior of a building, or in an internal space, functional steelwork can provide something both beautiful and purposeful.
Strength
One of the strongest materials man has ever made, steel is a great material for a building’s core construction. It has a high strength to density ratio, meaning a small amount of steel can bear a large weight relative to other materials like wood or iron. Using steel as your primary building material will give you more internal space in your building than if you used other materials, and more square feet will give your building a higher sale value, making steel a worthy investment.
Standardized Construction
Steel is easy to mold and shape, and is strong enough and tough enough to stand on its own, without any brick or stone work. Whole buildings can be made from steel, and companies like Armstrong Steel have steel building designs that can be prefabricated and delivered to your door. The use of steel in construction has meant that a lot of standardized steel construction elements, such as ‘I beams’ and re-enforcement grids for concrete, can be mass produced as general steel building materials, reducing costs of production and making them cost-effective components for any size of build.
Construction grade steel is one of man’s best inventions, and one of our strongest. It is the basic building material of so much of our world, from cars and ships and trains, to containers big enough to fit a truck. Steel’s versatility, strength and ubiquity make it the material of choice for all sorts of applications.