Smorgon Steel LiteSteel beam (LSB) made a marked difference in the design and installation in constructing the garage for a new luxury home at Hope Island on Queensland’s Gold Coast in November 2005.
The project involved building a garage with a concrete tiled roof. Despite its spectacular location overlooking a canal, the garage’s situation within a gated estate with obstructing power lines presented the construction team with a range of access challenges.
After discussing the features and benefits of LSB with the Smorgon Steel sales team, the builder and the engineer were keen to specify LSB into the project.
Project engineer, Barry Klimister found designing the garage with Smorgon Steel’s LSB design tools was easy. LSB had the competitive edge over alternative products for the project with its long span capabilities and high strength to weight ratio. LSB could achieve single spans of five metres for garage beams at 12 kg/m.
Over 100 metres of LSB was used in the project, including 300 x 75 x 2.5 LSB for a five metre (60 kg) garage lintel to support the concrete tiled roof. LSB also was used for floor beams and window lintels.
When it came to installation, LSB’s benefits came to the forefront. The builders were impressed by LSB’s usability on-site. The site workers, used to working with timber, were not initially keen to use LSB in the project. However, once they realised how light it was and how easy it was to install, they would have no hesitation in using LSB on future projects.
Not having used LSB before is no barrier to a project – despite being a relatively new product to the construction industry, it doesn’t require any new training, tools or alternative building methods.
Topline Home Improvements Pty Ltd discovered the full advantages of LSB as a lighter structural beam with the strength of steel that is practically as easy to use as timber. The site workers found that LSB can be lifted and carried like a timber beam. With the ability to be cut, nailed, screwed and drilled on-site using professional power tools, LSB offered on-site flexibility – which is important in an environment where time literally is money.
A standard professional hand-held circular saw fitted with a ferrous metal cutting blade makes cutting LSB on-site as easy as cutting timber. Similarly, using a professional hand-held power drill, site workers can easily drill through structural steel beams, making it easy to attach brackets, bolts and other components. With LSB, all connections can be bolted on-site, avoiding off-site fabrication and allowing more control over the project schedule.
Cutting service holes into LSB on-site is simple using a standard power pack drill fitted with a carbide tipped hole cutter. This can be done after the beams have been installed so services can be passed through exactly where they need to be.
Using a pneumatic nail gun, workers are able to nail flooring (up to 22 mm thick) directly to LSB. Previously, connecting steel sections to other parts of a building structure was only possible through welding. However, connecting LSB is convenient and efficient – readily available galvanised steel brackets, such as ‘Pryda’ brackets for structural timber, can be used. In constructing the garage, LSB was strapped to timber wall members as per standard timber installations.
Alternatively, if required, LSB is easy to weld using Manual Metal, Gas Metal or Flux Cored Arc Welding. The LSB sections arrived on-site pre-primed and ready for painting once installed. The environmentally-friendly EnviroKote water-based primer paint protective coating system applied to LSB during manufacturing provides more durability, scratch resistance and up to twice the level of corrosion protection of traditional steel tube primers.
The advantages of using LSB as garage lintels can be easily applied to similar residential construction applications, including roof purlins in car ports, outdoor decks, house lintels, parameter beams, hanging/strutting beams, floor joists and floor/roof bearers. Both the project engineer and builder were impressed with LSB from design through to installation and the savings it achieved, and will consider it for use in future projects.
LiteSteel Technologies is a division of Smorgon Steel.