DEAR TIM: I’m getting ready to build a large room addition that needs a beam to support the floor joists. I’ve been told that a wood beam will work, but I’ve always seen steel I-beams in other houses.

Panelized wood roofs have been in use for more than 40 years west of the Mississippi, where wood has always been plentiful, but the roofing system is new to regions east of the mighty river and in ...

Q: My house plan calls for steel beams that will support the floor joists and even parts of a brick wall. Can I substitute wood beams for steel? Is a steel I-beam hard to handle on the job site? Do ...

In the last two articles we looked at concrete and steel, two of the basic building blocks of commercial construction. This month we will discuss wood and how it is used in commercial construction. As ...

Many renovated buildings replace wood and masonry structural elements with steel. The replacement of heavy wooden roof and floor joists with the lighter steel open-web bar-truss joists is a common ...

The ConX system uses precisely prefabricated steel beams and connections to simplify and speed up the process of erecting a project’s frame. Simmons claims the system makes it cheaper to put up a ...

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper ...

Why use steel instead of wood to build a house? The versatility of the material makes it attractive to architects and consumers for both aesthetic and structural reasons. And there’s less waste when ...