Barry's Advanced Construction of Buildings, 4th Edition

4Single‐Storey Frames, Shells and Lightweight Coverings

This chapter describes the construction of single storey buildings such as sheds, warehouses, factories, lightweight mast and fabric structures, and other buildings, generally built on one floor and constructed with a structural frame of steel, reinforced (prefabricated) concrete or timber, supporting lightweight roof and wall coverings (see also Chapters 5–8). A large proportion of the buildings in this category are constructed to serve a very specific purpose for a relatively short period of time, after which the market and hence the required performance of the building will have changed. It is not uncommon for sheds and warehouses to have a specified design life of between 15 and 30 years. After this time, the building will be deconstructed and materials recovered, reused and recycled. Alternatively (and less likely), considerable works of repair and renewal are required to maintain minimum standards of comfort and appearance. As a consequence, the materials used are selected primarily for economy of initial cost, tend to have limited durability and are often prone to damage in use.

In traditional building forms, one material could serve several functional requirements; for example, a solid loadbearing brick wall provides strength, stability, exclusion of wind and rain, resistance to fire, and to a small extent thermal and sound insulation. In contrast the materials used in the construction of lightweight structures ...