Are Steel buildings Fire Resistant, just want to know as I am going to owe it . Suggestions required…………..
Rather depends on the construction method. I've seen a lot of buildings with a steel exterior referred to as 'steel construction', when in fact they had timber framing - not steel. Recently, in my neck of the woods, we had an ice/snow storm, and many timber framed steel buildings collapsed, because of the weight on the roof. A case of not enough pitch on the roof, and not strong enough construction. The fact that there were many that collapsed, tells me the standards for this region are not high enough, hehehe. How a building is finished inside will also affect how fire resistant it is, let alone, the many other factors that come into play, such as wiring, gas lines, and what is actually done (or contained) inside the building. All details not provided. Better Questions Yield Better Answers. Good Luck
What burns in a building are mostly the furnishings and interior, not the frame it's made of. Steel buildings are more expensive to insure against fire than wood frame buildings, because in a fire more steel is damaged by warping and distortion than would happen in a wood-framed structure, and wood structures are easier (and cheaper) to repair. Of course, if everything in a building was non-flammable, fire would never occur. That doesn't usually happen, though, and it's all the flammable stuff that most buildings house inside that burns.
A true structural steel building is composed of steel columns, steel bar joist,steel purlins,steel roof frames,and steel siding. This is all load bearing structural steel. The vulnerable area of a steel building is the exposure of this steel to extreme temps during a fire. Steel becomes weak at high temps and begins to twist and distort like a noodle in hot water. Most all steel buildings now are specified by the architect/engineer to have fire retardant spray applied to the key components to protect against high heat during a fire. Even with that some beams/columns are also wrapped with several layers of type x fire rated drywall. Multi story steel buildings usually have lightweight concrete poured over steel decking for all floors above the ground floor. Any and all penetrations in these concrete floors must be sealed around to stop fire and smoke from spreading from one floor to the next, and fire rated doors at all stairways to each floor. Even ductwork that runs to other floors must have fire rated dampers that close if signaled by a sensor, this stops smoke/fire from spreading through the ductwork. Sprinkler systems are usually required in new structures that exceed at pre-determined square footage by the state you are in. Hope this helps you out.
