Steel: Cheap and Green?

Steel: Cheap and Green

Construction of the new building for the Madison Christian School is proceeding at a good clip. I bicycled by yesterday evening and saw a couple roofers in the hot sun on that shiny steel roof. Just today Keppen Construction popped some windows into the steel framing. As expected, it's not a big fancy building. However, as KJAM reports, the recycled steel framing costs less than traditional wood framing. The steel supplier for the project, Haus Steel Framing of Pierre, says that steel framing can cut materials costs as much as 40%, since they involve less waste and are cheaper to ship. HSF also says experienced contractors can erect steel framing 30%-40% faster than they can put up wood.

Now I don't know if this is connected to the use of the steel framing itself, but KJAM also note that the building will be very energy efficient, with monthly heating and cooling bills of maybe $40 a month. Wow! Using recycled materials, saving 32 trees, keeping energy usage low -- these Christians seem to be taking creation care seriously. (Now if they can just organize a car pool -- or a bike pool! -- for all the kids to get to their site outside of town.)