What You Should Know About the Safety Risks Associated with Taller Steel Buildings

July 13, 2020 10:21 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Skyscrapers are one of those inventions that can still give you pause no matter how many you’ve seen. They are wonders of architecture, engineering and construction, and their presence in so many of our greatest cities is a point of pride. In the past, they were a dangerous thing to build, but decades of advancements have made construction ever safer.

However, they’re still not quite risk-free. Buildings are more complex than ever, as the infrastructure needed to make them hum becomes more and more complicated. When we talk about taller steel building safety risks in Indiana, we are really talking about a number of factors that can make their construction more challenging.

Height usually increases risk

When a skyscraper begins its slow climb towards the clouds during construction, the risks become greater the higher it goes. There’s just more that can go wrong up there as winds pick up and other factors change. However, steel is at the forefront of keeping these projects as safe as possible. Steel has been a top choice in the construction industry for well over a century, so we are well aware of its capabilities as well as its limitations. We know that building with steel can produce an incredible result if it’s treated with respect and worked by tradespeople who have the experience and knowledge to maximize its capabilities.

Changing requirements as you climb

There are a few things that become more challenging with each climbing story, including working with glass and concrete. When thinking about taller steel building safety risks in Indiana, it’s important to remember that these structures weigh a tremendous amount. This may sound obvious, but it’s not always quite that apparent to clients.

For this reason, as you climb, the concrete mix is likely going to change with each passing floor. The lower floors will be shouldering far more weight than the upper floors, which requires a similar but critically different mixture in the concrete’s ingredients that the pros at Benchmark Fabricated Steel are well-qualified to advise on. Glass thickness can also differ—it needs to be much thicker on higher floors to withstand the increased exposure to the elements that’s so common up there.

Fire risk can’t be avoided

Fires in skyscrapers used to be a terrifying occurrence—there was simply no real way to fight fires so high up in the air. Best practices have evolved over the years so that taller steel building safety risks in Indiana—namely those dealing with fire—can be handled by using sophisticated training. This ensures that buildings can smoothly evacuate, and makes steel all the more critical as a non-flammable building material that can increase the safety of any structure.

When you’re creating a taller building, there are going to be new risks that are added to the ledger. This is simply a fact of life, and the trick is to mitigate and control these risks as much as possible. If a solution allows you to build the structure of your dreams while keeping everything as safe as possible, we would be proud to be your partner in such an endeavor. Contact Benchmark Fabricated Steel today to learn more.

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