Honco’s self-supporting steel buildings are the cornerstone of our success. After several years of research with the Centre de recherche industrielle du Québec (CRiQ) and Université Laval, Honco developed a patented construction technology based on a steel structural panel. This technology presents several advantages in comparison to traditional steel buildings.
A material that has no apparent rigidity cannot, at first glance, support any load, but when the same material is bent, it acquires greater structural properties. Based on this principle, corrugating a steel sheet enhances its bending strength, with the result producing a structural panel.
Manufactured using steel of a higher grade than that used for conventional siding, the Honco structural panel is cold-formed on a fully automated production line.
The main corrugation provides the panel with overall stability during compression or bending. The smaller secondary corrugation ensures the local stability of each panel section. A groove on each side of the panel stiffens the connection between panels.
A study performed by the Metal Construction Association (MCA) on fifteen commercial buildings found that metal roofs (coated in an aluminum-zinc alloy) can last at least sixty years. The material analyzed, known as GALVALUME (aluminum, zinc and silicon alloy coated onto the panel) is the one we use in our buildings.
(Source: http://www.metalconstruction.org/index.php/media-center/press-releases/metal-roofs-can-last-60-years)
Once corrugated, the one-meter wide panels are bolted together to form the walls, roof and ceiling of the building. Gussets plates, struts and lateral spacers are bolted between the roof and ceiling panels to form the roof truss.
The side walls (known as load-bearing walls) and the walls at each end of the building (known as end walls) each bear the load of the building evenly and require no independent steel structure.
All of the components of a Honco self-supporting steel building are bolted together with 9.5 mm (3/8 inch) galvanized steel bolts spaced 200 mm (8 inches) apart to form a complete structure. The longitudinal seals are sealed with a 6.4 mm x 6.4 mm ((¼” x ¼”) polybutylene strip compressed by the bolts to ensure a watertight seal.
Once bolted together, the wall, roof and ceiling panels offer durable and lasting protection even under the most severe weather conditions.
The insulation system used in Honco buildings is one of the most efficient in the construction industry since the walls contain no framing elements such as columns or studs that could compress the insulation or create thermal bridges.
The insulation performs at 100% because:
For more information about the energy efficiency and performance of our buildings.
The weight of a Honco building (and the load it supports) is distributed evenly over the foundation walls, unlike a conventionally framed building, in which loads are concentrated at the base of the columns. As a result, a Honco self-supporting steel structure does not require a massive foundation with pilasters and reinforcements to support concentrated loads. The foundation of a self-supporting building is much simpler and easier to build, and its use cuts overall construction costs by 5% to 15%.
Roof trusses allow plenty of space for installing blown insulation to achieve the desired thermal performance. Unlike most buildings, where there is no space to ventilate insulation, the roof space in Honco buildings is continually aerated by a ventilation system, which keeps the insulation dry and efficient. A roof space offers a host of benefits:
The cornerstone of our Honco technology is the structural panel. Self-supporting steel structures offer a host of advantages over conventional buildings.
