Why Don't People Use Metal for Houses Instead of Wood

Tradition

• Until very recently, steel was not a readily available building material. Look at historic domiciles, and you’ll find buildings of stone, sod, or wood -- whatever material was plentiful. North America was covered with forests of oak, pine and maple when the first Europeans began building houses. From log cabins to pine clapboards to cedar shakes, Americans turn first to wood for their single-family homes. Brick, an early industrial material, is another favorite. Steel, a material not widely produced in the U.S. until a century into its history, simply never caught on as a traditional home-building material.

Appearance

• Metal buildings have become common in places where fast construction and durability trump style. What pole barns and warehouse facilities lack in individuality, they more than make up in economy. Unfortunately, many prefabricated homes resemble pole barns. For people who describe their house styles in terms such as Victorian, Arts and Crafts, Colonial Revival or Postwar Ranch, a pole barn has little attraction.

Execution

• Building a house entails more than just putting up some walls and moving in some furniture. Plans must be presented to plan commissions that conform to building codes and zoning restrictions. Few people build their own houses, so competent contractors and subcontractors must be found to build the structure. Public officials unfamiliar with steel residences and inexperienced contractors can hold up building schedules or, worse, make mistakes that require expensive remedies.

Style

• Steel homes offer limited choices in terms of style. Just as with manufactured homes, they are built to be as efficient and universal as possible. Even though interiors can be suited to individual tastes, exterior colors and siding styles are limited. Other than domed Quonset huts that enjoyed some popularity immediately after World War II, most modestly priced steel homes resemble the plain 1950s tract homes that filled the burgeoning postwar suburbs.