Is it practical to frame out a metal building for a small home?
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Planning on a 12′ high to 10.5′ high, 36 x18 steel building on a concrete slab and then framing it out at 8 ft. for a small bungalow home.
One large room with a 6×8 area for bath…. Plan on a PTAC heat/cool unit, large double door on front 36 ‘…..and another door on the back corner.
Is this practical? Plan on supplier’s insulation on the roof and then adding insulation on both walls and ceiling of my frame-out.
Suggestions, hints, warnings?……………In northeast Texas.
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I'll admit my ignorance by saying that I am not sure what the climate in northeast Texas is, but I have done a lot of work on metal buildings of various types. If this is what I expect it is, they are generally used for warehousing and production facilities where energy efficiency rates low on the list of priorities. The slab is generally part of the frame and integrated into the foundations for both cost and simplicty so isolating all of that for better thermal performance will require some uncommon detailing, at least for this type of building. It is also a metal building which has all sorts of great structural benefits but also great thermal conductivity so instulating and thermal breaks will have to be considered. If you have the time and available expertise, it could be an interesting building design both architecturally and for performance.
there have been architects that have fairly successfully (and on limited budgets, even) been able to take a metal building and turn it into a decent project. one of the better iterations of this that i've seen comes from germany prefab industrial metal building (steel) - walls are precast concrete wrapped in zinc. it's actually a really elegant and simple solution, and building costs were in the range of $250k-260k
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