Never looked into it but I always thought it would be a good idea. Whack up the frame in a day, stick on the roof and build the walls where you want underneath. I assume it isn't done for cost reasons?

These guys do it and when I saw them on Grand designs they had the house up and liveable (walls come pre-wired, plumbed and decorated!) in 5 or so days.

Edit: It looks like they only do post and beam, not steel.

if you are looking to build in the shell, then you can get SIPs kits made to assemble inside. These are conduited for first (and in some cases second) fix services.

Quick and easy.

Steel tends not to be used thanks to its high termal conductivity producing a 'cold bridge' that is typically prone to condensation.

One final note... if the site is in the UK, you will be making yourself liable to VAT on the refurb if you keep the existing shell. Demolition and rebuild allows you to reclaim the VAT.

Lots to think about.

Have fun

Owen

Grand Designs (now repeated ad nauseam!) featured a German steel-framed house made by Huf Haus. Obviously excellent quality of parts and highly skilled Huf Haus installation team (we could do with more people like them working in the UK). The downside is that the houses are quite expensive by British standards.

In the UK, other firms to consider are Scandia Hus (Swedish, timber-frame, fairly expensive, but good quality and excellent insulation) and Potten (British, timber-frame with in one range, the 'Heritage', some gorgeous recreations of old Elizabethan cottages to manor houses with modern levels of insulation. This 'Heritage' range has, for me, more style than any other house on the market, with beautiful proportions of roof v. wall heights, and interesting internal layouts. I always stop and stare at them with awe when ever I come across them, BUT, with the Heritage range, beware of the tendency to find a big vertical beam in one of the bathrooms in some models!!). Also (Welsh company) Border Oak, which combines lovely green oak frames with high-insulation wall panels (probably Celotex) which are covered in aluminium mesh and then rendered. Again, not cheap, but in a Welsh village, they would blend in beautifully while saving you from the many perils of old, traditional houses, within which they would nestle unobtrusively. The oak, if left unstained, weathers to a beautiful, restrained silvery colour.

Potten did sell some of their 'Heritage' kits to Japan, because they stand up well to earthquakes, being based on 4 massive vertical posts on which big horizontal beams rest to support the upstairs floor. All the wall panels are fixed to the beam structure. The big vertical and horizontal beams, made out of dense, slow-growing Canadian hemlock, seem to flex enough to cope with ground movement in a tremor.

I hope that helps!

found framecad.com and a couple of other places in NZ that specialize in steel frame houses.

Some pros & Cons.

Thermal heat loss / gain is the biggest disadvantage. And lack of skilled builders.

So if you can get around both of those issues then there are certainly advantages.

Go wood,

Easy to DIY frame and SIP construction, and the layout can be 'all yours'.

http://liveedge-prefab.com/

http://tinyhouseblog.com/

For a few interesting design ideas...

Have fun

Owen

Gibber,
Is cost the PRIME aspect?
Because if it is, a few ideas from me:

1. Choose a simple design, with a simple roof pattern. ie a rectangle.

2. Put all the rooms needing water supply and drains next to each other to minimise pipe length, number of drains, drain pipes outside.

3. It's probably cheaper to stick to a standard construction type ie wood framing. SIPs might be cheaper. They do claim that.

4. Minimise floor area. And that means maximising efficiency, ie minimising corridor area. The ultimate is the "walk through room" designs.

5. The typical spec house (built to rent) must be a pretty good example of cheap for maximum profit.

IMO the first questions should be:

1. About the aspect of the section.
2. The moisture/drainage of the soil.
3. Does what you want to build/can afford to build match the houses in that area ie will it be too cheap or too expensive?

I could probably go on, but dinner awaits

However, I have no interest in over spending.

Good Site. Right Aspect. Bit of a slope, not extreme and this is Auckland.

Value is important. And Compromise is going to have to happen between fantasy and spend. Anyhoo. Section goes up for auction in a few weeks and nothing is certain.

Go wood,

Easy to DIY frame and SIP construction, and the layout can be 'all yours'.

http://liveedge-prefab.com/

http://tinyhouseblog.com/

For a few interesting design ideas...

Have fun

Owen