Whirlwind Steel's Blog

Thinking of a steel structure may put you in mind of a shed with a corrugated roof. Today’s steel buildings are nothing like that. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that many of the buildings you visit have a steel frame beneath the bricks – places like school buildings, churches, and grocery stores. Some homes are being built with a steel frame.

Happy Father's Day from all of us at Whirlwind Steel.

One of the most desirable qualities about metal buildings is their resistance to fire. Interestingly, fire resistance is the reason engineers began building with metal in the first place. The earliest record of metal as a building component, replacing timber, was back in 1796. British cotton mills were notorious for their flammability, causing devastating results. So, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Ditherington Flax Mill was constructed using cast-iron columns and framework. 

As business owners began to understand the cost-saving advantages of using flame-resistant building materials, the demand for wrought- and cast-iron steadily increased.

The 19th Century: The Era of Metal Building Innovation

Throughout the nineteenth century, architects and builders used iron predominantly for framing. Due to the product's cost and labor intensive nature there was very little innovation in its production, which limited its application in the field. That all changed in the middle of the nineteenth century. Firstly, rolled iron beams were experimented with and perfected. Rolled iron beams were used in 1859 to construct the Cooper Union Building in New York City. Their popularity grew from there. The second major advancement in metal building construction occurred when Henry Bessemer found a way to burn carbon and silicon out of pig iron, transforming it into steel. Each inventive step in iron and steel manufacturing paved the way for more innovative and durable designs. 

A building is only as good as the planning that goes into it. This includes knowing safety guidelines and designing a structure that can meet your usage needs. Knowing how to determine floor load for multi-level metal self-storage buildings is imperative for setting your business up for success. You can rely on a quality builder to help you with this process or tackle it yourself.

In our last post, we recapped the importance of structural loads and the most common types of structural loads, including dead loads, collateral loads, equipment loads, live loads and environmental loads. We also explained the two most common ways to determine structural loads: ultimate, or strength, design and allowable stress design. In this post, we will cover the ways these methods work and how to determine which method to use when calculating your building’s structural load.

Structural load, or the weight your building must bear upon completion and during use, drives structural design. This includes not only the weight of the frame and its members but any other permanent or variable weight from additional components as well as variable loads, such as people and furniture, supported by the building. It also includes loads created by the environment.

It's impossible to read anything about energy efficient homes or commercial buildings without seeing the words ENERGY STAR. The ENERGY STAR program was started by the Environmental Protection Agency back in 1992. Its goal was two-fold: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in order to protect the health of our planet, and to help consumers purchase high-quality appliances and weatherization products that would reduce their monthly utility bills.

Steel has some amazing properties. Constructed appropriately, it can be highly resistant to fire, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other delights nature throws its way. Unfortunately, using an inexperienced company during the initial building stages can lead to instability. In order to make sure your steel building stands up to natural disasters, follow these tips on preparation and installation:

Insulation is a great way to increase the value of any building without spending a lot of money. Typically, insulation is less than 0.2% of the total building cost yet can save you money, year over year, in utility and maintenance costs.

It is possible to use masonry or concrete walls in place of metal wall panels in your building -- and in certain cases, it may even be more desirable to do so. The ability to use other materials than metal expands the range of textures, colors, and designs you can use for the building exterior. And hard materials can increase wall strength and be used for creating load bearing and non-load bearing walls, shear walls, or simply for enclosure.