Your opinion about metal framed houses? Why isn’t it popular in Cyprus?

11 comments

1. Have you run the spreadsheet to see what that will cost you?

2. weather

3. I guess they don’t use timber for frames in Cyprus like in the USA and Australia?

4. Metal structures have pros and cons. Concrete structures have pros and cons. You can debate metal vs concrete all day. To answer your question on why isn’t it popular in Cyprus, it simply because it’s a fairly new construction method that a handful of companies are able to deliver, so people are naturally hesitant to choose over the tried and true method of concrete and brick.

5. I think it is not worth it. Also, we are in an earthquake area. I am sure there are ways of making them strong, but concrete gives me better feeling of safety 🙂 900 Euro per m2 does not seem cheap to me. Maybe faster.

6. I prefer to be the most metal thing in my house.

7. Studied civil engineering and this was always my question. With how susceptible Cyprus is to earthquake, structures like you mentioned are a lot more flexible and weigh a lot less than concrete structures. Unfortunately it’s fairly new in Cyprus.

8. This just popped up in my feed, which is kinda creepy… Big brother is watching…

   I’m in Spain looking at steel frame right now for our new house. It’s not cheaper for the materials but labour is much less, so overall its the same price more or less. It’s really quick to erect the ‘skeleton’ like 1 or 2 days with a small crane as its all cut and made in the factory. The company I found is in Belgium. They just deliver a giant mechano set, basically. Everything labelled according to their drawings. They convert architect plans to their product..

   So, order to delivery takes about 5 weeks. This gives the builder time to dig the reduced foundations, (as its much lighter than traditional building) and pour the concrete etc. That takes about a month to fully harden.

   So once the frame is delivered it can go straight up. Then a week or so to board the exterior (insulation, membranes, more insulation etc) and a month for the roof if you want pitched/angled + tile. Once the exterior work is done or during, the windows and doors go in. Depends how organised the builder is. 🤷‍♂️

   So from ordering the frame to having a sealed house, is about 8-10 weeks. For bricks and concrete uprights and floors, its about 4 months minimum, as each floor and upright has to harden fully to move up a level then brick/block up in between.

   Metal frame doesn’t leave room for ‘that’ll do’ during construction as it will all line up and there’s no real area where the builder can slop up crappy work that’ll be covered up later, which to them doesn’t matter, I.e shit brick work, badly mixed concrete (as it’s cheaper) or weather affecting curing times.

   The metal frames also inside the building are all pre holed between uprights for plumbing and electrical stuff, so it’s easier for the tradesman. You’ve seen frame and board interior walls? It’s like that everywhere but its recycled steel, not aluminium. Its folded and box frame so it’s very strong. The big stuff are usually I beams. They also sometimes dimple the metal to make it even stronger.

   Advantage over wooden frame, insects won’t eat it when the treatment wears off in 10 years, it won’t creak (nails/screws in wood creak) it’s lighter and you can have much larger open areas as steel is much stronger than wood (no huge beams to create a span). It can move, like wood but obviously won’t split. We have mini earthquakes here, pretty much daily. You may not feel it but the house will.

   Price I got for top quality frame delivered but not erected was 350sqm for €65,000 net. But that was a ball park as I didn’t supply a design.

   Builders are quoting €2000 per sqm + land + taxes + permissions/more taxes/architect costs etc, so I’m trying to do a comparison. I think it’ll be cheaper overall to use steel and give a better finish. But we shall see…

   If you want to go that route, DM me so we can keep in touch, you’ll probably start and finish before me, as Spain is slow as fuck for even just the permissions to build!

   Metal frame is not popular in spain and I imagine in Cyprus too, because most builders don’t like new things, they learnt one way and that’s that. They also can’t rip you off as much with a house that arrives ready to be erected, that is price agreed first. ‘Sorry, concrete doubled in price this month’ etc.

   Efficiency wise, its recycled steel, all the exterior walls are made from basically insulation, membranes and board, so the thermo efficiency is very high. Bricks/concrete etc absorb heat and cold. Its basically a house made from insulation with a steel frame. Get a heat pump, underfloor heating everywhere, ducted a/c for summer and a solar panel array, you’ll pay pretty much €0 in utility bills. 🙂

   The question you may have, like I did, was how do I hang pictures etc if the whole house is frame and board?! Those plasterboard screws are crap. Metal stud finder tool. The uprights are like every few hundred mm, so you screw through the board straight into the metal. For tvs etc, if they’re big and super heavy, you can get them to throw up some blockwork within the cavity wall. Or you can tell the metal frame supplier and they’ll throw in some horizontal frame on the TV wall within the design.

9. A lot of different reasons.

   Many of these types of houses aren’t designed for Cyprus weather. For example cladding that is designed for UK weather probably won’t fare well in Cyprus sunshine, UV and heat. Additionally if they are prefabbed designs, they may not be designed to Cyprus standards (eg. earthquake resistance), or specific weather.

   Also the inside can feel quite cheap (gyp board walls compared to brick walls).

   Additionally, you need to consider the design life of various components and their cost effectiveness over the entire expected life (eg, it’s pointless if the structure has a 50 year design life but the walls, plumbing etc. are 15 or 25 year design life).

   It’s not a matter if they are better or not than concrete and brick, just that there are different considerations to take into account depending on the specifics of what is built.

10. Metal is conductive and Cyprus is hot. Not a good combo. Construction is expensive and not as durable as concrete.

11. If I recall, I expanded the floor upstairs and they used metal framing, filled with insulation and then sheetrock. Ive got told is the new thing here and its a standard due to to energy efficiency, concrete production pollution, energy usage etc etc

    only downside I saw was the insurance premium on the flat but mostly because metal buildings are not as fire resistant as concrete