Steel studs
 

I found out the other day when I was hanging something on a wall that my relatively new home has steel studs. I see houses being built here with wood studs. Curious as to the reason why different materials are used in different homes.

Lots of houses have wood on exterior walls, while they have steel in interior walls--steel has greater dimensionable stability compared to wood

Wood exterior studs are load bearing for the trusses usually used here, and better insulation wise. Steel interior is cheaper, and not usually load bearing, and less time consuming to run electric and plumbing as they have knockouts and holes pre drilled. Steel is also faster to install.
Steve

When we moved in here just over 2 years ago I discovered that when trying to wall mount our TV. Having never heard of that before since all of our previous life was in a much older area it threw me for a loop. I was afraid if I use too big a drill the beam would collapse. :) Where we lived the only insulation in the walls was a sheet of aluminum foil which was all totally disintegrated. "New" homes there were circa 1950. "Modernization" took us some time to get used to. :)

You can also contact the Sumter County Building department and get a copy of your house plans that will tell you where the metal studs are used.

As for mounting items to metal studs, there are special screw assemblies just for metal studs, DO NOT USE the plastic expanding plugs, as these will be cutoff when you insert the screw and you will have a lot less holding power than you expect (I know this for a fact, I had it happen to me....).

Agreed

And as far as hollow wall anchors, I love these

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Steve

When we had our house built years ago we did not want the metal studs because we wanted more stability in the walls.
We paid a lot more for this feature.
It all has to do with the good almighty dollar. Metal studs are far less expensive than wood.
If you look at some of the changes which have been made over the years you will find a number of things which are a lot less money today than what the developer originally provided.

If was building a house from the get go, the only things i would really demand is real brass valves for plumbing shut-offs--the push pulls used are normally used in manufactured houses--really cheap junk and 2x 6 exterior studs , so I could have had some real insulation, also a fire rated door to the garage & a fire barrier in the attic over the garage between the garage and the rest of the house

My previous home, a custom build, was constructed with ICF - excellent strength and insulation. If building a custom home again I would go with ICF again, never wood studs regardless if they were 2x4 or 2x6.

Ok for those who might not know what is ICF?

In some cities building codes for commercial buildings require metal studs for fire proofing reasons. Steel doesn't burn.

ICF stands for insulating concrete form. It is a composite wall with concrete sandwiched between insulation panels. Yes, it produces a high quality house, but it has never really caught on in a large scale. The construction industry is very gun shy when it comes to using new and innovative techniques. I think they are afraid of lawsuits if something fails, and the house buyers are not willing to pay extra for something they can't see. They mostly buy a house based on cosmetic features.

Not really sure what the interior studs are as we only hung lighter things using anchors and screws through the drywall. TV,s sit on stands or media centers.

We do have a brick house so hanging somethings required drilling through the concrete block and putting anchors in.

ICF stands for Insulated Concrete Forms. They are sort of Lego-ish building bricks made of polystrene - typically about 3 inches thick on each side and held together with plastic ribbing inside. They are stacked on top of each other to form the wall structure. Rebar is then placed inside and the cavity is filled with concrete. The cavity is typically 4 or 6 inches wide. Window and door openings are cut out and blocked before the concrete pour. Drywall is typically attached on the inside and pretty much any exterior finish can be applied. The insulation comes from the polystyrene, which stays in place. They are not particularly popular but if you have a builder who is experienced with using them then they are an excellent way to go. The closest thing in the Villages are poured concrete walls where removable metals forms are used. These, of course, lack the insulation of the polystyrene that remains with ICF.

To prove the lack of insulation in TV built homes -it takes almost no time fora home here to heat/ cool down once the a/c or heat is off-its great that electricity is relatively inexpensive