Light steel frame - shaping the city skylines

"Residential apartments, as part of mixed use schemes, are an important market for the light steel framing industry. The speed of construction, delivered by light steel frame, offers a rapid return on investment and when combined with enhanced quality and high levels of sustainability is an attractive proposition for housing developers, particularly in medium-rise buildings.

Private rental sector

Recent research published by the Resolution Foundation finds that home ownership is falling in cities, with Manchester experiencing one of the sharpest falls since the peak in the early 2000s. The proportion of home owners dropped from 72% in April 2003 to 58% this year in Greater Manchester - the emerging Private Rental Sector (PRS) is capitalising on this trend.

The UK private rental sector is on an upward trajectory with Knight Frank Residential Research predicting that PRS units will increase from 2m in 2004 to over 5m units by 2018. As interest rates fall, investors and pension funds are seeing the build to rent or private rental sector as a sound investment proposition and this represents an opportunity for the light steel frame sector.

Mixed-use developments

Mixed-use developments generally comprise commercial or retail space at the lower levels and residential units available to purchase on a lease hold basis above. The combined nature of the project may be required for planning reasons or to maximise the return from the land use - as is often the case with build to rent developments.

The key requirement is the light weight nature of the super-structure, minimising the loading on the underground infrastructure - important when building over tunnels or brown field sites. This, combined with light steel frame's ability to span between the transfer beams and to be sufficiently robust to not be affected by the differential deflections of the supports - offers multiple benefits to developers of mixed-use schemes.

Shaping the future with steel framing solutions

The benefits of offsite manufacture and of light steel framing in particular come to the fore in urban residential projects that often involve a mixture of apartments and commercial buildings. As a rapid, reliable and predictable form of offsite construction, the advantages that are sought by the client and contractor are delivered in one structural solution.

As a versatile construction solution that is viable up to ten storeys - the geometrical accuracy and rigidity offered by the use of light steel frame, eliminates cracking and shrinkages, reducing the need for ‘call backs' after the apartments are occupied.

Light steel framing comprises galvanised cold rolled C-sections of 70-100mm depth in the wall panels, and 150-300mm deep C-sections or lattice joists in the floors. Spans of up to 6m can be achieved which can eliminate internal load-bearing walls and therefore leads to flexibility in internal space planning.

Sections can be supplied in ‘loose' bundles to make up in-situ or as walling, base or roof elements, and manufactured offsite as prefabricated cassettes. The prefabricated elements can also be fitted with insulation, lining boards and decking boards or even assembled in to volumetric modular space frames if required.

Our entire section range provides unique swaging technology and dimpling characteristics as standard. Panels and cassettes requiring boarding are presented with completely flush faces, negating the requirement for packers and shims. Tight tolerances can be provided as the stud and track sections effectively self-align, thereby ensuring that dimensional parameters are achieved without the need for complex jigging or clamping.

As an advanced high performance offsite solution, steel is not susceptible to shrinkage, warping, cracking, rot infestation or moisture absorption. Steel is a robust, rigid and dimensionally stable material that does not suffer from movement created by moisture related issues. In my opinion, light gauge steel is perfectly positioned to meet housing industry demands - it is future-proof and future-ready."