When it comes to wall frames, the most popular options are wood and steel. When presented with those two choices, it is easy to assume that the best one is the steel option, purely because steel is noted as being stronger. While that might be true in a general sense when it comes to specifically wall frames, steel's strength is not the deciding factor, or at least, it shouldn't be. There are many other reasons why wooden wall frames are better for almost all construction projects, including homes and small businesses.
You Will Never Need The Added Strength Of Steel Wall Frames
Unless you are building a mega-building or a house with ten floors and sixteen garages, then there is very little reason to choose steel over wood. Steel is stronger, yes, but that does not mean wood is by any means unsafe. Most homes around today are built with wooden wall frames, and yet most people couldn't name a single home they know of that has been condemned due to the wall frames failing. Wood is plenty strong enough to be the main foundation of your walls, and it has a whole host of other benefits that steel cannot compete with.
Adjustable
When installing anything on a construction site, you always want to be as flexible as possible. Orders can get mixed up, parts won't fit correctly and bad things happen to slow your progress all the time. If your wooden pieces arrive and you notice that some are a little big, then the solution is simple: trim them down with machinery you have on-site. If your steel wall frames arrive and they are not perfectly aligned with what you need or if the plans change during construction, It is much more difficult to cut them to size.
Cheaper And More Insulative
Metal is a conductor while wood is a well-known insulator of sound and heat. This means that during winter and summer, wooden frames will help retain all hot or cold air your air conditioning is working so hard to create, while metal will siphon it right back to the outside. In addition to that, wooden frames are much, much cheaper than steel, which is often the deciding factor even though there are a whole host of other reasons why steel is not as good as wood. If you are very concerned about wall frames, then talk to a professional in this industry.
