If you're designing a home with the help of a home builder, you have a lot of choices to make. One of the first things you need to consider is the "bones" of the house. In short, do you want a traditional wood frame or a steel frame house? From an environmental perspective, steel frames offer a lot of advantages. Here are the points to consider.
1. Steel Is Fully Recyclable
When you use steel for your frame or other parts of your home, you can ask the builders to source metal that has already been used. Steel is incredibly easy to recycle. It simply gets melted down and reshaped for its new life. It doesn't lose any strength in the process.
Of course, years in the future, when your home is at the end of its lifespan, the steel can be easily recycled.
2. Steel Frames Don't Need Chemical Treatments
Steel is naturally resistant to mould and termites. As a result, it doesn't need chemical treatments. In contrast, termites and mould can attack wood frames, and to minimise the risk, sawmills and timber processors add a treatment of chemicals to the wood. Steel is an effective way to reduce the amount of chemicals involved in your home's construction.
In addition, you don't have to worry about chemicals used in treating those issues down the road. To explain, let's say your wood frame gets infested by termites. The exterminators will have to use chemicals to get rid of the insects. With a steel frame, you can avoid that situation altogether.
3. Building With Steel Saves Trees
In addition, when you opt for steel, fewer trees are cut down for your home. If you are concerned about deforestation, this can be an important consideration to keep in mind.
4. Sturdiness Helps to Survive Storms
Durability is also important when you're trying to approach home building from an environmental perspective. If a storm rolls in and it destroys a home, there is a lot of rubble that gets hauled away to the landfill. Then, a bunch of new materials have to be sourced and brought in to build the new home.
If you have a sturdy steel home frame that resists the effects of storms, you don't have to worry about getting involved with this cycle.
5. Lightweight for Travel
Finally, steel frames are lighter and smaller than timber frames. That means less fuel is wasted in transport.
To learn more about the potential environmental benefits of steel frames or related concepts, contact a steel frame expert today.
