Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

MenOfSteel MenOfSteel try. Nail guns that shoot into metal studs. The deflection tracks and clips all invented to make assembling steel framing faster and safer. I can remember opening a Simpson catalog on steel hangers designed for wood framing and thinking “is there anything they don’t have for wood framing?” The steel framing accessories were pretty skimpy for many years. Well, today the steel framing industry has the same catalogs and has ﬁnally caught up with the wood people. I would dare to say, they are even surpassing them for creativity. There are so many designs for headof-wall deﬂection, corner studs that allow full access for plumbing runs, pre-insulated headers, slide clips for curtain walls, bridging bars that snap in place, clips that attach to top track and seal to the ceiling and a multitude of curved type tracks. Truly amazing. The THE FUTURE OF STANDARDS The future is deﬁnitely in cold-formed steel framing. Take note: I did not say “light-gauge steel framing.” If you sit on an ASTM or any steel framing committee you get in trouble for using the term “light-gauge steel framing.” The term light-gauge has changed to cold-formed steel framing. This is because the industry has moved away from using gauge thickness to mil thickness. By deﬁnition, gauge thickness had some wide allowable tolerances and this made engineers never really know how strong one manufacturer’s 16-gauge stud was as compared to another manufacturer’s. Mil thickness is an absolute measurement. From now on it is mil thickness that counts. I suppose the guys in the field will forever be using the terms 20-gauge studs, 16-gauge joists and 25-gauge hat channel. However, every tradesman should know the newer standards will reﬂect the modern mil thickness as opposed to the old gauge standards. Another reason was the globalization factor. The rest of the world uses mil thickness, since the world is getting smaller and we are moving toward the global terminology. Gauge thickness is an obsolete method of specifying sheet and strip steel thickness. Gauge numbers are rough estimates to the true thickness of steel. Mil thickness provides accuracy. Here is a simple chart to com- 4s off to the side. I have always wondered what they do with all of those spaghetti 2 x 4s? Then you get them home and 10 to 20 percent of them start to twist before you get a chance to use them. Steel studs do not decay, rot, twist or compress from a loss of moisture, and they are recyclable. THE SIMPLE A few years back, steel stud work was pretty much limited to nonload-bearing commercial work. If you wanted to use steel studs on any load-bearing work, commercial or residential, you had to hire an engineer. That engineer had to be familiar with load-bearing structural steel. Pardon the pun, but qualiﬁed engineers weren’t exactly growing on trees. If you were lucky to ﬁ nd an engineer who knew that bridging had nothing to do with the Golden Gate or Brooklyn Bridges, he would be either cost-prohibitive or booked for months. Today there are several engineers familiar with cold-formed steel framing and these guys are good. Most steel framing manufacturers have engineers on staff that are readily available and are only too happy to assist clients with designs, bidding and project management. Today’s engineers are not limited to strict basic formulas and are more creative than their predecessors. The steel stud manufacturers and the engineers are making it much more convenient to build single-family, multi-family and commercial projects out of steel framing. Today these guys are helping us make it simple. THE AMAZING The one piece of the puzzle that was missing was innovative, easy-to-use products for the guys in the ﬁeld. In years past, you had studs, track and a weak screw gun. Let’s start with the screw gun. The young guys today can not appreciate how today’s tools are light years ahead of what we had in the 1970s. I remember the huge bulky screw guns with weak short-life batteries. I still have one of those old tools. When I bought it, I thought it was awesome. Today’s tools are far superior. Did I mention that old weak clunker cost more than today’s awesome tools, and that was in 1980 dollars! Today, the tools and products are amazing for the steel framing indus- 20 | Walls & Ceilings Architect | October 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

Contents Trade News Silver Certiﬁed Airtight The Men of Steel Thinking Thermal Firestop 101 ICFs Create a Tight Envelope The Finish Line The Green Thumb Cracking the Code

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