2026 CFSEI EXPO | MAY 18-20, 2026 | LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

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.

This 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. It is time to fundamentally rethink the construction materials and methods to address the rapidly evolving environmental conditions the industry faces each year. The 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, Carl Welty Architects

Carl Welty is a California licensed architect and Principal of Carl Welty Architects. Carl has been at the forefront of green building and sustainable design for the past 30 years. Carl received his Master’s in Architecture from Yale University and his bachelor’s in architecture from Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo. He currently serves as Director of Architecture and Planning of the Banning Ranch Land Trust. Carl’s work focuses on affordable energy efficient design and durable resilient building systems. Carl advocates leveraging natural systems including solar orientation and climate appropriate principles to create cost effective solutions to double the energy efficiency of structures with little or no increase in construction costs, and building durable, low maintenance, and resilient structures (increased fire, mold, and termite resistance) by incorporating well tested alternative construction materials. Two projects include a 9,000 sqft Water Conservation Education Center that was framed with light gauge steel and incorporated commonsense climate appropriate design principles that achieved a Title-24 Energy Compliance score 60% above the baseline standard (30% above is considered well above average), and a 1500 sqft green house designed with light gauge steel that could meet California’s earthquake design requirements for schools and buildable for 20% of the construction cost of a similar size green house built for a Los Angeles Highschool. Carl’s work with the Banning Ranch Land Trust combines his interest in affordable equitable design and advocacy for Native American’s rights to their ancestral lands.

W. Donald Wheeler, Wheeler Steel Framing Supply

Don Wheeler is a seasoned, professional general contractor with over 50 years of experience in both residential and commercial projects with special emphasis in custom residential steel construction from foundation to finish. He is skilled in supervision, cost control, negotiations and finding creative solutions to construction challenges. Manufactured and installed steel trusses and pre-cut steel framing materials, including concrete form material.

Wheeler has extensive experience coordinating all phases of construction from permit to open house. At Wheeler Steel Framing Supply, Wheeler supervises the pre-cutting of steel framing material at the Fullerton warehouse location and works with onsite framers installing CFS framing material. He has also taught cold-formed steel (CFS) framing at Chaffey College for three years and has given presentations on CFS in Japan. He is active in several associations and has been featured in various professional publications.