Dear Jim: I am planning a new house and I have seen many ads for steel-framed houses. The pictures look great, but I was wondering if metal framing is efficient and comfortable. What are your thoughts? — Kris W.
Dear Kris: The pictures look great because steel framing is a great way to build a house. Once a steel-framed house is completed, you cannot tell it from a standard lumber house except for the perfectly true walls, no squeaks, less outdoor noise, lower utility bills, no air leaks, etc.
With the superior strength of steel, you have much more design flexibility for unique and interesting house styles. For example, steel frames allow longer spans without interior load bearing walls for contemporary open floor plans. Basic models range from 1,200 square feet to more than 5,000 square feet.
You will realize huge savings on your utility bills and maintenance with a steel-framed house. There is no settling, so the house remains airtight. The walls often have thick R-30 insulation and the ceilings have R-38 insulation. The exterior can be finished with any traditional materials.
Other advantages of steel framing are its strength during storms, easy and rapid assembly, fire and lightning safety. You can order a steel-framed house designed to withstand 180-mph winds. The framing never burns, and the steel provides a ground path for lightning strikes to avoid damage or fire.
Steel framing manufacturers use computers to design the framing per your local codes. You can give them your building plans based on lumber framing, and their computers produce full drawings and part lists to replace the lumber.
There are several framing design options depending on whether or not you plan to do some of the work yourself. Since these houses assemble like a huge Erector Set, they are ideal for a budget-minded do-it-yourselfer.
Light-gauge galvanized framing is an easy steel frame to build, and it allows for the most design flexibility. All of the pre-engineered framing pieces (predrilled, numbered and color-coded) are delivered to your site.
Another option is preassembled wall panels that are delivered by truck to your building site. If you plan to have a builder do the work, consider a "steel for stick" frame package that assembles like a lumber frame. Using strong steel framing adds only 1 percent to 2 percent to the overall house cost.
One of the strongest steel frames uses red iron (red oxide painted), heavy gauge steel. Each frame member runs up from the foundation, across the roof and down to the other side. They are placed on eight-foot centers and attached together by horizontal purlins. This creates a super-insulated, efficient, strong house.
Write for (instantly download — www.dulley.com) Update Bulletin No. 965 — list of 21 steel-framed (red iron and light-gauge) house manufacturers, material/construction specifications, six floor plan layouts, exterior and framing illustrations. Please include $3 and a business-size SASE. Send it to James Dulley, Deseret News, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45244.
Dear Jim: I have to make a parabolic solar collector for my senior physics class at college, but I have no clue as to where to start.
Please help because these are the last credits that I need to graduate? — Meg O.
Dear Meg: A parabolic shape is unique in that all the light rays from the sun are focused on to one focal point. It's a spotlight in reverse.
The light source is at the focal point, and all the light beams reflect out parallel.
Get some heavy paper, cardboard and a geometry book. The book will show you how to draw a parabola. Cut several cardboard parabolas. Cover the heavy paper with aluminum foil. Bend and tape it over the cardboard parabolas.