Nestled among indigenous vegetation, with spectacular views of Chapman's Peak and Hout Bay harbour, a new development will alter the Hout Bay skyline for ever. Built by the Silverline Group using the light steel frame building method, this eco-friendly 340m² triple-storey house, took approximately four months to complete and has drawn attention from tourists and locals alike.

The LSFB method produces very little waste and has a much smaller carbon footprint than conventional building practice and saves significantly on construction time. This project started at the end of February 2014 and was largely completed by the end of June 2014. The low mass of the structure and walling allowed the engineers to design a shallow concrete raft foundation with outer beams 450mm deep and 250mm wide and a 70mm thick slab cast in recycled PVC Modulo Blocks. “Compared to the heavy reinforcing and thick concrete for conventional building techniques this LSF house saved costs on materials and labour associated with the foundation and floor slab construction,” says Charl van Zyl, CEO of the Silverline Group.

Once the foundations were completed, the ground floor walls were erected using LSF panels made from high-strength galvanised steel sheeting. The engineer specified the use of chemical anchors to bolt the structure to the concrete foundation. A LSF joist floor was erected on top of the walls and covered with fibre cement boards as the new floor. The remainder of the walls were constructed with light steel frame wall panels fixed together with corrosion protected screws, ensuring a rust free building in spite of its close proximity to the ocean. 9mm fibre cement board external cladding gave an overall external wall thickness of 133 mm, with an R-value of 2.8. The R-value is a measure of the thermal insulation of the wall panels - the higher the R-value the more effective the insulation of the building.

Comparing the R-value of the light steel frame structure - with external walls consisting of 9 mm fibre cement board, fixed to the light steel frame through a thermal break layer and a Tyvek vapour permeable membrane, glasswool Cavity Batt insulation installed in the wall cavities followed by a 15mm fire resistant high impact gypsum board on the inside - to a standard uninsulated double brick wall with R-value of 0.26, shows the superiority of the composite wall system that LSF offers. Internal walls consist of light steel frame panels clad with high impact 15 mm fire stop gypsum boards with a more than 30 minutes fire rating, and glasswool cavity batt insulation in the cavities, to enhance acoustic insulation.

The insulating layers in the external walls reduce the building's energy requirements for heating and cooling, with tests on the building's total energy demands indicating that it has achieved a 17% to 20% improvement in energy efficiency, compared with those of conventional designs. Due to the energy efficient design, the building will heat up faster in winter and will cool down faster in summer.

“According to the CSIR, energy required for heating and cooling a well-insulated LSF dwelling will be less than half of that needed to keep the internal temperature of a uninsulated masonry dwelling at a comfortable levels,” adds John Barnard, Director of the Southern African Light Steel Frame Building Association. To make the house even more environmentally friendly, the owner will be using solar heating and recycling rainwater which he will use to water the plants in his garden. The owner, Dieter Losskarn, who describes himself as “a regular brick-and-mortar kind of guy” was initially quite reluctant to build with anything else. “But this Hout Bay Harbour House in Harbour Heights has converted me. Light steel frame houses are the future – especially in this country.

“Everybody talks about green and saving energy and this house does it so well. Even on really cold days, when a brick structure would be chilly as a morgue, the LSF house retains the daylight sun and is – even without any additional heat source – surprisingly warm inside. With a fire place burning there, even my triple-story, open-plan house will be pleasant and cosy inside.

Not only is the house warmer, it was also built in less than half the time of a normal brick structure. I loved the fact, that the electrician and the plumber followed the build through the wall cavities, instead of messily breaking and chasing through brick walls afterwards. A much cleaner build - with less rubble and waste,” Losskarn says.

Project Manager Ruann Mare says “Light steel framing is definitely the future and I think many more people should consider building this way,” he concludes.