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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2016
LSFB
brings
PEACE
and
BEAUTY
STEEL CONSTRUCTION
Yet, in the recent past in South
Africa, not only has this exciting
building method become increas-
ingly accepted in the mainstream
architectural and construction industries, it
has also shown that an architect can design
almost any building or structure and have it
executed with LSFB.
The most recent and example is the
expansion at the well-known Boland farm
Vrede en Lust of their function and wedding
venue accommodation. This was built in
a typical Cape Dutch style so that it would
blend in with the existing buildings on the
farm – some dating back to the early 1700.
The owners decided that it should be a
five-star facility, an energy efficient building
with excellent acoustic insulation between
rooms, top class finishes and, most impor-
tantly, had to be built within six months as a
turnkey project.
The Silverline Group, one of the leading
LSFB contractors in the country, was
contracted for the structural engineering, the
detail shop drawings, and the total construc-
tion project including civil works and finishes.
The project began on 4 May 2015 and the
first wedding ceremony was successfully held
at the venue on 7 November 2015, an incred-
ible mere six months later.
John Barnard, SASFA director says that
the speed of construction possible with LSFB
allows the facility to be in use that much
quicker, thereby bringing in income long
before it would otherwise have been possible
with conventional building methods. “It
is not only the speed of construction that
saves money in the long term,” he says. “By
using LSFB material wastage can be reduced
significantly, transport costs slashed by up
to 80% and the carbon footprint significantly
reduced,” Barnard says.
He adds that LSFB is definitely much more
energy efficient than more traditional
construction methods, both with regard
to ‘embodied energy’ of the materials and
components, as well as ‘operational energy’
relating to heating and cooling of the building
over its design life.
At Vrede en Lust aluminium-zinc coated,
high strength steel sheet was used for the
light steel structure and was roll-formed on
a Framecad roll-forming machine. The roof
trusses were designed by Silverline Group
using MITEK UltraSpan software. All windows
were specified to be single-glazed aluminium
frames – due to the high R-values of the insu-
lated walls, double-glazing was not required.
It has taken some time
for the South African
architectural industry
to accept that light steel
frame building (LSFB) is
a construction method
suitable even for complex
and creative design.
In order to achieve the Cape Dutch design
a special cobbling plaster, designed by
Malherbe Rust Architects, was used. The
building was finished internally with full skim
plaster on 15 mm high impact Lafarge gypsum
boards with 102 mm Cavitybatt insulation
supplied by Isover.
Charl van Zyl, CEO of Silverline Group,
says that with fully skimmed ceilings in all
bedrooms, down lighters were the perfect fit
for the luxury room designs. Acoustic ceilings
were fitted in the kitchen, front entrance and
boardroom and restaurant. All bathroom
walls were clad with fibre cement board and
waterproofed, fully skimmed and painted.
Van Zyl says that this was one of the most
LSFB was used for the successful
expansion of the luxury
function and wedding venue
accommodation at Vrede and Lust.
>
“By using LSFB
material wastage
can be reduced
significantly,
transport costs
slashed by up to
80% and the carbon
footprint significantly
reduced”.