Steel: Sound building material or noisy substitution?

A lot of noise has been made recently about the benefits of using steel frames for building homes. As South Australia's oldest and most experienced transportable home builder, and one constantly searching for the most effective and durable building materials, we have listened carefully to all of the argument. Our conclusion? We believe timber frame construction has numerous benefits over steel frame including greater strength, reliability, energy efficiently and of course, it is less noisy.

At Atlas, we use timber frame construction exclusively because of these reasons, and because of the problems associated with steel frame construction.

• Steel frames creak with load and temperature changes
• Steel is a heat conductor, which creates undesirable transfer of heat - from roof, to walls, to sub-floor….and eventually to you!
• In the same way, steel frames lose their heat quickly in winter and so does your home…not a cool idea!
• Steel conducts noise in much the same way, (it's no accident that telephone lines are made from steel) transferring mechanical noise and vibration through the structure.
• Steel frames are thin and flimsy

Think of your home environment, and the home for
all of us… Earth?

These days when we think about where we live, we also think of the earth. And for good reason! With the earth's future riding on decisions we all make today, perhaps the following facts are worth thinking about.

• Timber production uses only 10-30% of the energy needed to manufacture steel
• Timber used in housing construction is from renewable plantations
• During active growth, trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) - this removes CO2 from the atmosphere helping to reduce global warming.
• Conversely, steel only adds more carbon to our atmosphere during production