Why people prefer prefabricated buildings these days? Recently my friend has told me that he is going to owe a steel house so I was just thinking are these steel structures really durable and cheaper than concrete structures?
It really depends upon the environment and the construction techniques used. Steel that is painted or coated will without maintenance eventually rust. I would expect this tendency to be exacerbated in a humid or shore environment. Heat may tend to cook a steel house and the structure does not add much thermal mass. Construction techniques tend to be fairly quick a part of the construction is essentially prefabricated. Work done in a factory will almost always be cheaper than work done in the field, all things being equal. Concrete can be fairly hi tech with lots of equipment or as seen in many parts of the world fairly low tech with lots of laborers. It is easy to change the characteristics of concrete depending upon how it is mixed, reinforced, and treated during the curing process. Because it is applied in a relatively fluid state it can flow around obstructions like bedrock and be formed up into interesting shapes. A concrete structure can be cooler as it provides thermal mass, and a heat sink. It's resulting rigidity may make it more subject to earthquakes than steel. We do really need to be smarter in constructing our homes to make them fit the land and not only the general environment but our particular micro environment.
