Insulation and structural steel

BobMcBob

In the middle of designing a house, drawings almost finished. The current plan is for a structural steel building, for 2 reasons.

Firstly this allows for a large open plan area which we wanted and also is allowing a large void to let in more light to the ground floor (the garden is about 8 foot below street level)

Secondly due to family contacts, we will be getting the steel structure at around cost so hopefully it will make some sense financially

The steel will be erected by people used to small commercial projects rather than domestic, so the big concerns are how to insulate and also how to avoid cold bridging. Initially a wide cavity was my original plan before meeting the architect, but now the we don't need the structural strength from that.

I am still waiting some solutions from the architect, but would like to hear any suggestions from the people here as had been geeting lots of invaluable information from this forum


Thanks

BmcB

gctest50

Steel framed house -



"Kevin revisits Alan and Judith, who in 2009 began constructing their prototype prefab home in Cumbria. Was Alan able to create a unique place to live but also save his steel business?
As well as creating a unique place to live, Alan was out to prove that the building system he'd spent 22 years developing actually worked. If he succeeded, the ambition was always to build more of them and save his recession-hit steelwork company.
Alan and Judith thought they could put together the quickest house possible, taking just 15 days from start to finish, and all for £300,000. It was an adventure that saw giant pieces of house driven down country roads, then craned and bolted together onsite.
But with so much attention given to the speed of construction, there was little time to think how the house might be to live in. Has Alan's building system had a life beyond the very bespoke and beautiful home he engineered for himself and his wife"



http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/4od#3288527


http://www.adaptahaus.co.uk/environment1.php

beyondpassive

If designing with steel, you have to make sure the steel is at least 2/3 inside the thermal layer and thermally isolated where it passes through the insulation and airtight layer or you will get condensation

steel thermal break.jpg

sinnerboy

BobMcBob wrote: »

I am still waiting some solutions from the architect, but would like to hear any suggestions from the people here as had been geeting lots of invaluable information from this forum

What you seem to be asking for is detailed working drawings and the forum will not permit that.

What we can allow is discussion and pointers. Start here
noting a simple rule. The steel must always stay on the warm side of the insulation.

BobMcBob

Sinnerboy
I wasn't looking for detailed working drawings, I intend to get professional input for that (have seen many a post giving that advice ). I just wanted any pointers / advice etc from people here as I do think it is good to have a bit of knowledge when discussing these things with professionals

My asking this question is based entirely on reading posts on this forum over the last few months. Thermal bridging / airtightness / HRV etc are all now concerns of mine which I wish I had known about when I refurbished and extended a previous house a few years ago:(

Thanks everybody for the links provided above, much appreciated

BmcB

BryanF

perhaps SIPS might be the way to go - prefabricated & off-site then easily fixed outside the steel

working with steel: you'll need a good design team and experienced project manager!

BobMcBob

BryanF wrote: »

perhaps SIPS might be the away to go - prefabricated & off-site then easily fixed outside the steel

working with steel: you'll need a good design team and experienced project manager!

SIPS looks like it could be a good , hadn't looked at that before. The option that I had thought of was just block work walls with external insulation, which would give thermal mass to the building, with the steel being inside the building and plasterboarded up - which would leave plenty of space for services etc.

BmcB

A fella called fish

beyondpassive wrote: »

If designing with steel, you have to make sure the steel is at least 2/3 inside the thermal layer and thermally isolated where it passes through the insulation and airtight layer or you will get condensation

steel thermal break.jpg

Just curious - are the column loads transferred through this insulation material (i.e it must have serious compression resistance) or is the baseplate somehow suspended above the concrete foundation meaning that the insulation layer is just a void filler?

BryanF

A fella called fish wrote: »

Just curious - are the column loads transferred through this insulation material (i.e it must have serious compression resistance) or is the baseplate somehow suspended above the concrete foundation meaning that the insulation layer is just a void filler?

Do a search maybe with 'thermally broken balconies' and you'll get more results from there. several product manufacturers are set up for this sort of detail.

BryanF

BobMcBob wrote: »

SIPS looks like it could be a good , hadn't looked at that before. The option that I had thought of was just block work walls with external insulation, which would give thermal mass to the building, with the steel being inside the building and plasterboarded up - which would leave plenty of space for services etc.

BmcB

Why use steel structure an ten block structure... Thermal mass can be achieved with internal walls and floor slabs if required. The benifits of thermal mass are not worth doubling up on structure IMO

BobMcBob

BryanF wrote: »

Why use steel structure an ten block structure... Thermal mass can be achieved with internal walls and floor slabs if required. The benifits of thermal mass are not worth doubling up on structure IMO

Wasn't sure if there would be enough mass, Agree that I don't want to be doubling up if I can avoid it.

BmcB