Lightweight Steel Framing: How Sceptical Architects Turned into Raving Fans

Most people in the construction industry have  heard about the use of lightweight steel framing in house, unit and townhouse construction.

The builders, developers and architects who work with it are finishing projects weeks and even months sooner and saving big money on construction costs.

And while more and more industry professionals are embracing steel framing,  some architectural firms are still skeptical because they don’t know how to design with it or get it through council.

The truth is, they don’t need to know.

As with many things that people don’t know about, they put it in the too hard basket. And in doing that, through their lack of knowledge of steel, they’re missing a big opportunity to help their developer clients save money and cut construction times.

Here’s an example.

Developers are interested in maintaining timeframes to avoid funding catastrophes which can create cost blow outs or even tank their projects.

They know that anything that gets held up in council causes delays so while they’re open to new solutions that can reduce construction delays, they also want to be sure that that new solution will pass through council easily.

So when developers hear about lightweight steel framing dramatically reduces construction time frames the next thing they do is consult with their architect to discuss the council approval process.

If the architectural firm hasn’t worked with steel before, their immediate responses is that they don’t know how to design with it so it will delay the process.

The truth is it doesn’t and they don’t need to know.

JasMax had a 250 house project in Auckland. The client wanted to use steel framing and said that if the developer and architect would agree they were happy to proceed.

So we approached the architect.

They told us they didn’t like steel framing, but they granted us 20 minutes to show them what we could do.

Three hours later we were still there and that look of skepticism soon turned to excitement.

Here’s what we told them …

We have a team of NZ’s most experienced architectural and steel frame detailers to assist their architect to get the detail right so their architects don’t need to know how to work with steel.

In fact, we set up the Clickworks Steel Framing to support other architectural firms (behind the scenes) in producing beautiful and cost-effective designs using steel framing and to get plans through council.

They were thrilled.

At the end of the meeting, we agreed that if they send us the architectural details, or anything they’re unsure of, we’d red pen mark them,  or if they sent them in a file we can access, we could make the alterations and send them back.

So – we did that and they put it through their technical team, their tech team were happy so they signed off on it.

It was turned around in a week and everyone was happy.

This is just one example.

Once architects know that they have the expert detailing support they need to work with steel framing and liaise with council for approval, they’re over the moon.

Steel gives them more design flexibility, it saves their clients money, and most importantly, for the builder there are no wet weather delays so construction finishes way sooner.

Not only that, unlike timber, lightweight steel framing is recyclable, it also holds up better in earthquakes, and frames are way easier to erect.

So – for any architectural firms who are skeptical about working with steel, it’s worth spending an hour doing a little more research.  The ones that do, don’t look back.

For more information visit www.clickworks.co.nz