Easy hillside handing with LSB^®

Steel-Tek Solutions Pty Ltd, a major player in the South Australian residential construction market, was given the task of building a new hillside residence in Hallet Cove, a district just south of Adelaide known for its dramatic coastal cliffs.

The site’s very steep slope called for manual handling of beams, which presented potential occupational health and safety risks and
additional costs.

When searching for the best building product to meet the project brief, the builders found the benefits of LiteSteel^® beam (LSB^®) were hard to top.

By adopting LSB bearers for the home’s steel framing solution, Steel-Tek Solutions Pty Ltd took advantage of LSB’s high strength to weight ratio for lighter on-site handling, without compromising
on quality.

Using LSB made moving and positioning the beams on-site easy and safe, eliminating the need for a crane, which would have been difficult to use considering the site’s steep gradient.

Additionally, the large spanning capacity of LSB bearers in this project resulted in fewer columns and footings, less excavation and spoil, a reduced environmental impact – and importantly – a
decrease in overall site costs and construction time.

Steel-Tek Solutions Pty Ltd found integrating LSB into the project simple – their current engineering design systems readily adapted to introducing LSB.

The ability to order LSB cut to exact lengths proved very useful when designing the home in AutoCAD.

Over 90 m of LSB was used in the floor system of this project including bearers of 300 × 75 × 3.0 and 300 × 75 × 2.5.

The project took advantage of using LSB in a ‘back-to-back’ configuration for better handling where higher loads or spans are encountered.

Two 300 × 75 × 3.0 LSBs (2 x 14.4 kg/m) were connected back-to-back to provide greater bending capacity and less deflection than a
250UB31.4 (31.4 kg/m), and were lifted into position one at a time then bolted together in position to form a single beam.

Splitting the weight into lighter components, where each LSB beam weighed less than half the weight of a 250UB31.4 section, resulted in tangible on-site handling advantages, which was integral on this
remote construction site.

For this application, Steel-Tek Solutions Pty Ltd designed special bracketry to support the beams.

LSB can also be conveniently and efficiently connected using either readily available galvanised steel brackets, such as ‘Pryda’ brackets for structural timber, or Manual Metal, Gas Metal or Flux Cored Arc Welding.

As a building solution, LSB’s cross-section dimensions proved very accurate throughout the length of the beam, and delivered less deflection over long spans than timber and hot-rolled steel.

The builders found that the design of the section afforded exposed sections, which aided in designing architectural features.

For example, when used in main living areas, LSB presented the opportunity to use the beam as an internal exposed architecture feature.

In addition, a definite increase in spans enabled more usable space under the main structure.

When constructing the home, LSB’s usability continued to impress.

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.

The builders found that when ordering stock lengths, the inherent stability of the stock section was very easy to cut i.e. with cold cut sawing.

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 – an advantage not available with Hot Rolled Steel structural beams.

Using a pneumatic nail gun, workers are able to nail flooring (up to 2.5 mm thick) directly to LSB.

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.

Steel-Tek Solutions Pty Ltd found LSB impressive, and calculated an approximate $3,200 saving on factory and site budget costs for the Hallet Cove project.

According to Arthur Staples, Managing Director, Steel-Tek Solutions Pty Ltd, “I believe that there are still some major advantages that we will no doubt reveal as we continue to use the LSB.”