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Corbin Nei

Composition IV

Mr. Rudebusch

8 January 2018

The Framing Showdown: The Reigning Champ Wood vs. Newcomer Steel

The clash between wood and steel as the better material for the framing of a house has

been a hot topic over the past few years. There has been controversy over these two materials for

hundreds of years and there has never been a clear answer on which of the two are better. The

topic has been addressed more and more over the past few years, so the final answer needs to be

made public now. Both of the materials have their pros and cons when it comes to the framing of

a building. The real question is: Which of the two materials are better to use? With research done

by various professionals in different areas of construction and researchers dedicated on finding

which material is actually the preferred material to use on the type of building under

construction, I have come up with the material that is better of the two. Ultimately, there has to

be a better of the two materials: I have found that wood is the better fit for any buildings that

may soon be under construction. Wood is generally the best method for the framing of a

building, but it depends on the building that is being built; in a few instances, it may be best to

use a combination of both steel and wood.

Although steel boasts many great aspects, it can be much harder to work with and lacks

some physical properties that wood owns. It is much harder to find a saw or tools that can cut

and shape the steel, compared to how easily wood can be cut or shaped. According to an article
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from Brian Sebring, an award winning home remodeling contractor of kitchens, bathrooms,

basements, and additions, “It’s a lot more difficult to cut and shape steel than wood. There are

metal cutting saws available, but they have a high learning threshold and can be very dangerous

for the average person to use.” Since steel is a harder material to work with, the framing of a

building can take longer than the traditional method of wood framing. With the higher amount of

labor required to actually put together the framing of a building, labor costs can increase up to

65% at times. Steel is also much harder to access than wood may be. You will need to special

order any steel that you may need that wasn’t accounted for. The exact size and shape of the steel

part must be ordered. Wood framing requires just a quick trip to your local store and a quick

shaping of how you want the piece to be. A research article from the University of Central

Florida states, “A problem with using all steel framing is its high thermal conductivity, leading to

thermal bridging, "ghosting", and greater potential for water vapor condensation on interior wall

surfaces. "Ghosting" is when an unsightly streak of dust accumulates on the interior wallboard,

where the steel studs lie behind, due to an acceleration of dust particles toward the colder

surface.” Having this could cause a colder temperature in the building and even increase the

chance of mold forming on the walls, due to the higher amount of moisture on the inside of the

walls. According to Dan Imhoff, a researcher, author, and independent publisher whohas focused

his research on design for the past 20 years, tells us; “In terms of the embodied energy used to

manufacture a stud, steel out-consumes wood by twenty percent in a study cited by EBN:

fifty-three million BTUs for steel versus forty-two million BTUs for wood per 2,000-square-foot

house.” This means that it costs the steel stud manufacturing company more energy than it would

for another company to make a wooden stud. Although some may argue that steel is already
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pre-drilled and formed to your need, it doesn’t always work out that way. The world is not a

perfect place; there will be a time that you need to shorten or shape the stud to what fits. Another

point from the University of Central Florida explains to us that, “Metal used for exterior framing

members allows greater conduction heat transfer between the outside and inside surfaces of a

wall, roof or floor. In colder climates, this increased conduction can cause condensation in

interior surfaces, contributing to material degradation and mold and mildew growth. Metal

framing also decreases the effectiveness of insulation installed in the cavity between the metal

framing due to increased three dimensional thermal shorting effects.” Having this, you can see

another disadvantage to heating and thermal effects to the total structure of your house if you

were to use steel framing compared to wood. As you can tell, there are a lot of downsides to

using steel framing that may outweigh all the positives it has.

Steel framing may seem superior between wood and steel when it comes to the general

opinion on safety, but the structural strength of wood proves otherwise. The Steel Framing

Resource Center argues that steel is superior to wood when it comes to actual fire safety, due to

the fact steel does not burn. That’s not always the case, though, because The National Fire

Protection Association’s Fire Protection Handbook reports “that open-web joists can collapse

after five to ten minutes of exposure. The predictability of lightweight truss failure is not an

exact science; however, lightweight steel truss assemblies will most likely fail under the weight

of a firefighter.” Although steel is generally known as the safer choice when it comes to fire

safety, a little bit of heat and they will collapse faster than wood might burn. Wood obviously

will burn and steel won’t, but it was actually shown that wood will hold longer than before a

steel beam would hold. A wood stud can generally hold much more weight compared to the
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typical steel beam that may be used in the framing of a building. The thin beams forms a steel

stud are not known to hold as much weight as a typical wood stud. Having the wood able to hold

more weight than the typical steel beam, that helps us realize that wood has the advantage when

it comes to how much you trust your building from caving in. There is also another safety factor

when it comes to the electricity in your household when you compare the two different types of

materials. Electricians have a tough time wiring a building with a steel framing, possibly causing

harm to the electrician. As research from the University of Central Florida states, “Electricians

have more difficulty working with all steel framing when running holes for wiring since metal is

more difficult to drill than wood, and grommets or conduits must be used to protect the wire.”

Wood may actually be the better of the two when it comes to the safety of the overall building.

Physically, wood can outperform steel in a lot of physical aspects. Most construction

companies and contractors are much familiar with wood than steel. There are a few upcoming

contractors looking for newer and more efficient ways of doing things that may argue that, since

there are holes pre-drilled and the studs of steel are already prepped for you when you get the

steel studs, steel framing is much easier to do. Contrary to their argument, since the majority of

employees and construction workers are more comfortable with wood, they will more than likely

get the job done much more efficiently compared to what they would do with steel as the

material they are using. Wood is much easier to shape or cut compared to the struggle you will

have trying to shape and cut steel. There are specialized saws that are required for steel,

compared to the normal saw that can just be used when trying to shape and cut wood. A forensic

engineer, building investigator, building science consultant, author, speaker and widely known
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expert on building moisture control, indoor air quality, and retrofit of existing and historic

buildings, Joe Lstiburek stated, "Put an R-19 batt in a steel stud wall and you are lucky to get R-5

to R-6 in the real world. That’s equal thermal resistance wise to about 1 inch of rigid insulation

installed on the outside of the steel studs." He is basically telling us that the steel will cause the

temperature inside to be much colder, basically eliminating most of the insulation that is in the

wall. Having these wood studs will allow for a better insulation on the building. These steel studs

work against the insulation that you put into the walls. The thermal bridging that the steel studs

allow causes the room to be much cooler than the studs of the wood would cause. This will also

add a long term price increase of the building due to a higher cost of heating. A source from the

GBA Encyclopedia informs about the thermal conductivity in steel studs: "A steel stud conducts

10 times as much heat as a wood 2x. This thermal bridging drastically lowers the performance of

insulation in wall cavities. A study by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) found that

thermal bridging in a conventionally framed wood wall lowers the performance of cavity

insulation by 10%; in a steel-frame wall, performance drops by up to 55%." With this, we can

tell how much colder the building will end up being unless you want a high heating bill at the

end of the month. Many contractors and professionals may tell you that steel framing is the

better choice for a building that is underground, such as a basement, due to the moisture that

could cause damage to the wooden studs. I can’t say that they are wrong; this is, in fact,

recommended if you are in a location that may have a high water table and one of the instances

that steel may be a better choice for underground framing, like a basement.
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Since wood is the traditional method of framing in a building, you can find the materials

you need at a very cheap price while also saving on labor costs. A research paper from S. Abdol

Chini and Kita Gupta, both authors and researchers for the Associated Schools of Construction,

tells us that, “Material cost for the steel house is about 12% higher than the lumber houses.

However, as compared to the relatively stable price of steel, the constant fluctuations in lumber

prices may leave only a little edge for wood to be more cost effective in term of material cost.”

Generally having a lower cost is just another reason that wood should be the preferred of the two

materials. Steel must be custom ordered and is not as readily available, causing the final price to

be a bit higher than what wood would be. Wood is also a very easy and cheap fix if something

goes wrong or if you needed to replace a wood stud in a building. A steel replacement will cost

more. You also have to consider the labor costs that are included when building the frame of your

building. An article from Kompareit, a famous construction company known for its research on

efficiency for construction, informs us about the material costs when it comes to wood and steel,

“The materials costs[sic] are higher and the labor is more expensive because most contractors are

not as familiar with using steel. Plus, steel can be difficult to handle in the heat and sun.” Wood

is a material that pretty much everyone is familiar with. Since whoever is building your frame is

probably experienced with wood, they will be able to get the job done much more efficiently. An

article from Larry Randall Daudet, an inventor of steel joints used in framing, tells us that

“Because of their strength and versatility, structural framing systems having members fabricated

from metal have become prevalent in commercial and industrial building construction. High

manufacturing and labor costs, however, have inhibited their use in residential construction.

Consequently, by virtue of its comparatively low cost, wood has historically been and remains
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the structural framing material of preference in this considerable segment of the construction

industry.” The faster the framing job gets done, the lower the labor cost will end up being. Many

building companies and research centers such as the National Association of Home Building may

argue that the worth of your house will be higher due to the fact you are using steel studs instead

of wood, but it really isn’t worth the extra mile of the higher labor and heating costs to use steel

framing. It is more expensive to originate with steel framing, and the heating costs due to the use

of steel studs will eventually make up for the extra worth of your home.

When it comes down to it, I can see why some people may have questioned wood as the

superior material for a building; however, if you narrow it down to the facts of efficiency, wood

is still the superior of the two materials when it comes to the framing of a building. The positives

of wood outperform anything that steel can brag. If you would like to save money on whatever

building you may be planning to frame in the future, wood is easily the best choice. You would

also want to find the most reliable material for the framing of your building so that you won’t

have to put work or money into the framing of a building later in life, so wood would be the best

choice for you. Safety situations in your building are also a huge reason to choose wood as your

material of choice. Altogether, if you you would like a safe, cost effective, and reliable choice of

framing material to your building, choose wood. Wood is the superior of the two materials for

framing and has been for thousands of years, so why question it? Wood is generally the best

choice for the framing of a new building.

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Works Cited

Batto, Lisa. “Sustainable Elements - Steel vs. Wood.” Napa Valley, CA Patch, Patch, 1 Oct.

2012, patch.com/california/napavalley/bp--sustainable-elements-steel-vs-wood.

Accessed 17 December 2017

Chini, Abdul, and Kavita Gupta. “A Comparison Between Steel and Wood Residential Framing

Systems.” Construction Education, vol. 2, no. 2, ser. 1, 28 July 1999, pp. 133–145. 1,

doi:Associated Schools Education. Accessed 17 December 2017

“Compare Steel vs Wood House Framing Costs.” KompareIt.com, 1 Apr. 2014

https://www.kompareit.com/homeandgarden/construction-compare-steel-vs-wood.html

Accessed 11 December 2017

Daudet, Larry. “Structural Framing System.” Google Patents, Google, 25 Nov. 2004

https://www.google.com/patents/US5689922 Accessed 12 December 2017

Elhajj, Nader. “Steel vs. Wood Cost Comparison.” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban

Development, Jan. 2002, pp. 1–59. Accessed 12 December 2017

Gibson, Scott. “Building With Steel Framing.” GreenBuildingAdvisor, Taunton Press, Inc,

21 Jan. 2013 http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/qa-spotlight/ Accessed

17 December 2017

Imhoff, Dan. “Stud: Framing Houses with Steel or Wood.” Ebscohost, New Whole Earth, June

2006, web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail Accessed 3 January 2017

Rudd, Armin. “Patent US5875605 - Metal and Wood Composite Framing Members for

Residential and Light Commercial Construction.” Google Patents, Google, 3 Feb. 1999

https://www.google.com/patents/US5875605 Accessed 12 December 2017

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Sebring, Bryan. “The Big Debate: Metal Studs vs Wood Studs.” Home Remodeling Contractors |

Sebring Design Build, Sebring, 16 June 2016,

sebringdesignbuild.com/the-big-debate-metal-studs-vs-wood-studs/. Accessed 18

December 2017

“Wood vs Steel Framing.” Summit Livestock Buildings, Summit Livestock Facilities, 20 June

2017, www.summitlivestock.com/beef/wood-vs-steel/. Accessed 18 December 2017