Building for the 21st century: Noncombustible Construction with Cold-Formed Steel

Earn 1 PDH

Cold-formed steel (CFS) construction offers a practical, affordable method for building noncombustible homes. Following each "urban wildfire," studies emerge to understand the devastation, accompanied by extensive discussions about reducing fire risk. However, recommendations for fire risk reduction typically focus narrowly on "home hardening" strategies designed to protect combustible wood construction from embers and other ignition sources that threaten our wooden homes.

The January 2025 Los Angeles fires destroyed over 11,500 homes and killed at least 31 people. While the frequency of large-scale urban conflagrations continues to increase, capturing headlines and public attention, single house fires receive far less notice despite killing 2,600 to 2,800 people annually in the United States—far more than dramatic large-scale fires. Though conflagrations destroy more properties, single structure fires claim more lives.

Modern conventional wood-framed houses present an alarming reality: they burn eight times faster and generate 200 times more smoke and toxic gases than older homes. While fire destroys structures, the toxic outgassing from these fires kills more people than the flames themselves. Beyond wood's inherent combustibility, the adhesives and chemicals in manufactured lumber and other building materials produce deadly gases responsible for more fatalities than direct fire exposure.

Our presentation will demonstrate how CFS construction enables the building of noncombustible houses at costs comparable to conventional wood construction while simultaneously solving two critical problems. Steel framing prevents fire ignition and spread at the source, while eliminating dependence on manufactured lumber that outgasses toxic chemicals responsible for rapid incapacitation and death in fires. The increase in large-scale fires and the accelerated burning of modern houses compared to older structures are symptoms of more systemic issues. We believe it's time to fundamentally rethink our construction materials and methods to address the rapidly evolving environmental conditions we face each year. Our goal is to pose critical questions and provide insights into how noncombustible steel construction can solve these pressing problems. 

Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate how CFS framing and wood framing perform in fire.
• Home hardening wood frame construction vs noncombustible construction with steel.
• How to build noncombustible houses with CFS affordably.
• Fires impact on structures in large urban fires and single-family homes, different problems that building with CFS provides solutions.
• Modern homes burn 8x faster than 50-year-old homes and outgas toxic chemicals; we will discuss causes and how we can build for changing lifestyles and a changing climate.

Carl Welty
Don Wheeler

This presentation will be delivered by Architect Carl Welty and CFS industry expert Don Wheeler.

In 2000, Carl Welty identified the growing decline in the quality of modern lumber and recognized the need to reassess traditional construction methods. After conducting extensive research into alternative building materials, he concluded that cold-formed steel (CFS) construction offers superior ecological value, durability, and resilience compared to conventional systems. His findings have helped shape a more sustainable and robust approach to modern construction.

Don Wheeler has over three decades of experience in the steel construction industry, specializing in cold-formed steel framing methods. Throughout his career, he has pioneered innovative techniques, including the development of pre-cut framing kits delivered directly to job sites. His work has significantly streamlined the CFS framing process, making it more efficient and cost-effective. These advancements have played a crucial role in making non-combustible steel structures both accessible and economically viable for a wide range of applications.

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