Please forgive me if I missed something.

What about clay mud we have in abundance and has been used locally for ages. This can be made into clay bricks like blocks.

Some of the most expensive houses in the Southern parts and some up north in United States used brown clay as bricks.

You can still see old houses in Europe built with the brown bricks.

What happens to Ajaokuta steel or raw iron ore from ancient times.

Please educate those of us that are not engineers.

Aconomist:
We all know how common building collapse is in Nigeria, and this occurs because of our bad habit of building multi-storey buildings with concrete. In other parts of the world they are using steel, which is a far superior building material because it is lighter (doesn't put as much strain on the foundation) cheaper than Dangote cement, and requires less maintenance. We need to start using creativity to solve our problem in Africa.

Steel is and has always been in use in Nigeria. The use of the building determines the design. Also note that the essence of design is to determine the structural use of materials that will deliver the building at the cheapest cost.

Concrete is cheaper than steel.

Steel is used in buildings with larger headroom sand longer span between supports.

Use of steel design will not stop building collapse. In fact the problem of collapse is linked to the use of inadequate steel or brittle steel in reinforced concrete.

Do you know the cost of Steel?. it's very Expensive and it's usually imported which is not good for our economy.

emae009:


what are the recycled materials you are speaking of??
What properties of this materials will trap carbon atoms within themselves?
Whether we cut trees to use for timber or not, those trees will still be cut and then land used for something due to the exponential growth of urbanization. This way using timber for construction helps to reduce the damage.
All the roads being constructed, the trees that were cut to make way for that, how have we replaced them?

Stop talking about zero emissions. You're clearly not an ambassador

The Amazon forest captures most of the CO2 on earth.

If you don't know that planting trees and keeping them alive is the biggest source of reduction in CO2 emissions then shut up and stop misleading people

I think the op need to update himself about things more there is no where you compare steel and concrete in this manner they both have their pros and cons. The problem of building in Nigeria is not engaging the rightful professionals the our way shortcut always we want the cheapest without considering safety. Concrete is not even prepare well in majority of site no mix ratio, some concrete are almost get set on the sport before transportating to need area.

As a civil engineer who has been involved in the design of steel structures mainly for industrial structures and oil and gas structures, I can tell you some of the challenges:

1. Lack of technical know-how: most of our higher institutions do not teach steel design and construction in detail to civil engineering students, as most of the lecturers themselves are concrete-biased. So they do shy away from teaching students, due to limited knowledge. Only few consulting firms in Nigeria also have the capability.
2. Difficulty in construction: unlike concrete that you can make mistake during construction, break or chisel and re-do, steel construction is very technical and has to be precise. The tolerance for error is only few mm in most cases. Also, you need specific equipment in all phases of steel fabrication and installation, whereas you only need basic tools like shovel, headlamp, buckets for small concrete buildings. Hence, there are very few construction companies that can fabricate and install steel structures.
3. Cost: As rightly mentioned by some earlier commenters, steel construction is generally more expensive than concrete in Nigeria, because of 100 % importation of steel materials, and more expensive equipment for fabrication and erection. It is only economical for large industrial structures (warehouse, workshops, etc) and high rise buildings. Hence it is only large manufacturing companies and oil and gas industry that often tend to build steel structures.

However, steel structures is preferable in the following cases:

1. Where you need long spans: steel can easily go several tens of metres before column support. The depth and weight of concrete beam and colums that would be required in this case will be unrealistic, hence the preference for steel in industrial structures, e.g factories and warehouse.

2. Fast construction schedule: Steel members can be fabricated faster in the workshop, and just installed at site. You only need to get your foundation ready. Hence, steel structure can be installed much faster. You can easily buy and import a fully prefabricated steel structure from China nowadays, and just install with crane at your site in a matter of days or weeks.

3. Cheaper foundation cost: Due to higher strength than concrete, you can use far lighter steel members to carry same load as concrete. Hence in high-rise structures for instance, in addition to shorter construction schedule, you can make significant savings on the size of foundation required for steel structures compared to concrete structure.

At Aquila Consults Limited, our service include the design of steel structures, and we also offer training on the design of steel structures. You can check my signature for our website and get more details.

Thank you.

OilGasNg:
As a civil engineer who has been involved in the design of steel structures mainly for industrial structures and oil and gas structures, I can tell you some of the challenges:

1. Lack of technical know-how: most of our higher institutions do not teach steel design and construction in detail to civil engineering students, as most of the lecturers themselves are concrete-biased. So they do shy away from teaching students, due to limited knowledge. Only few consulting firms in Nigeria also have the capability.
2. Difficulty in construction: unlike concrete that you can make mistake during construction, break or chisel and re-do, steel construction is very technical and has to be precise. The tolerance for error is only few mm in most cases. Also, you need specific equipment in all phases of steel fabrication and installation, whereas you only need basic tools like shovel, headlamp, buckets for small concrete buildings. Hence, there are very few construction companies that can fabricate and install steel structures.
3. Cost: As rightly mentioned by some earlier commenters, steel construction is generally more expensive than concrete in Nigeria, because of 100 % importation of steel materials, and more expensive equipment for fabrication and erection. It is only economical for large industrial structures (warehouse, workshops, etc) and high rise buildings. Hence it is only large manufacturing companies and oil and gas industry that often tend to build steel structures.

However, steel structures is preferable in the following cases:

1. Where you need long spans: steel can easily go several tens of metres before column support. The depth and weight of concrete beam and colums that would be required in this case will be unrealistic, hence the preference for steel in industrial structures, e.g factories and warehouse.

2. Fast construction schedule: Steel members can be fabricated faster in the workshop, and just installed at site. You only need to get your foundation ready. Hence, steel structure can be installed much faster. You can easily buy and import a fully prefabricated steel structure from China nowadays, and just install with crane at your site in a matter of days or weeks.

3. Cheaper foundation cost: Due to higher strength than concrete, you can use far lighter steel members to carry same load as concrete. Hence in high-rise structures for instance, in addition to shorter construction schedule, you can make significant savings on the size of foundation required for steel structures compared to concrete structure.

At Aquila Consults Limited, our service include the design of steel structures, and we also offer training on the design of steel structures. You can check my signature for our website and get more details.

Thank you.

Succinctly put.

Thank you.

n3xt:


I’m a builder and I do a lot of steel constructions.

I would love to connect with you for a future business

KomonSense:


I would love to connect with you for a future business

+234.80.234.29.122

Is it with the furnishings or just structure. Because I'm really interested. Thanks for your feedback.

n3xt:


A standard 2 bed house (contemporary design) on a dry land should gulp between N5.5 - N7m depending on finishing.

Drversatile:
Is it with the furnishings or just structure. Because I'm really interested. Thanks for your feedback.

Just a finished structure. No furnishing.