Concrete walls. Deep.. 12" Thick. Want to have an exposed steel i/h beam on the exterior only.
Trying to reduce thermal bridging energy loss from the interior to exterior. Can insulate the INTERIOR of the steel beam with 6" of mineral wool. Any ideas on how to trim this out/cover it? No wood framing for this project or drywall. Trying to stick with all steel or concrete or perhaps a thick timber.. Ideas?
A 2x4 soffit with drywall would be an easy solution, but trying to get a bit more creative here. Could do a giant angle iron look with a flat steel plate from ibeam flange, then the end could be flat plate steel to the ceiling. Connection at the flange would present a very long thermal bridge, but allows for insulation..
Example photo below: This project is one story. There's no glazing above the steel beam; just a 1' thick section of concrete resting above the above.
archanonymous
Apr 8, 24 6:59 am
Install a geothermal heat pump. Free heating, issue solved.
Wood Guy
Apr 8, 24 9:15 am
Unless you live in an extremely mild climate, that is simply a bad and irresponsible idea.
This is a Passive House with nearly flush-looking glazing and exposed steel. (I was on the construction team; we panelized most of it): https://barryprice.com/project...
JLC-1
Apr 8, 24 9:53 am
A header detail would help, how tall/wide is the w beam?
JLC-1
Apr 8, 24 9:54 am
If you want just the looks, there's a company making w beams in a polymer compound. Wall theory.
I assume the fake bolts they sell are plastic too?
JLC-1
Apr 8, 24 2:18 pm
I don't know, we were going to use some of their fake concrete panels, but the quality wasn't as expected. and then their marketing dept. started harassing me, so I blocked them all.
t a z
Apr 8, 24 10:33 am
I don't fully understand if you are trying to "express" the steel on the interior?
You can bolt a c-channel to the exterior concrete wall or thru bolt a pair of c-channels on each side of the concrete wall.
As a structural detail, thru bolting c-channels to each side of a concrete wall is a pretty standard header reinforcement detail to cut an opening in a concrete wall after the fact.
Probably hard to justify as an actual Day 1 structural detail tho.
Chad Miller
Apr 8, 24 10:37 am
I think we're going to need to see a detail of what the existing condition is to be able to help you out.
I agree with WoodGuy though, simply wrapping the interior of the steel beam won't do much. You really need to wrap the entire steel beam and have thermal breaks between connecting steel members for this to work.
Concrete walls. Deep.. 12" Thick. Want to have an exposed steel i/h beam on the exterior only.
Trying to reduce thermal bridging energy loss from the interior to exterior. Can insulate the INTERIOR of the steel beam with 6" of mineral wool. Any ideas on how to trim this out/cover it? No wood framing for this project or drywall. Trying to stick with all steel or concrete or perhaps a thick timber.. Ideas?
A 2x4 soffit with drywall would be an easy solution, but trying to get a bit more creative here. Could do a giant angle iron look with a flat steel plate from ibeam flange, then the end could be flat plate steel to the ceiling. Connection at the flange would present a very long thermal bridge, but allows for insulation..
Example photo below: This project is one story. There's no glazing above the steel beam; just a 1' thick section of concrete resting above the above.
Install a geothermal heat pump. Free heating, issue solved.
Unless you live in an extremely mild climate, that is simply a bad and irresponsible idea.
This is a Passive House with nearly flush-looking glazing and exposed steel. (I was on the construction team; we panelized most of it): https://barryprice.com/project...
A header detail would help, how tall/wide is the w beam?
If you want just the looks, there's a company making w beams in a polymer compound. Wall theory.
https://www.walltheory.com/products/i-beam-sample
Priceless!
I assume the fake bolts they sell are plastic too?
I don't know, we were going to use some of their fake concrete panels, but the quality wasn't as expected. and then their marketing dept. started harassing me, so I blocked them all.
I don't fully understand if you are trying to "express" the steel on the interior?
You can bolt a c-channel to the exterior concrete wall or thru bolt a pair of c-channels on each side of the concrete wall.
As a structural detail, thru bolting c-channels to each side of a concrete wall is a pretty standard header reinforcement detail to cut an opening in a concrete wall after the fact.
Probably hard to justify as an actual Day 1 structural detail tho.
I think we're going to need to see a detail of what the existing condition is to be able to help you out.
I agree with WoodGuy though, simply wrapping the interior of the steel beam won't do much. You really need to wrap the entire steel beam and have thermal breaks between connecting steel members for this to work.