Spec Finish

Technical Joe Cilia, FIS Technical Director, offers step-by-step advice, taken from the new FIS Specifiers Guide, to specifying infill steel framing systems. SPECIFYING INFILL STEEL FRAMING SYSTEMS 12 www.thefis.org S PECIFYING infill steel framing systems (SFS) requires considerable thought and design, even before a specification can be written’, writes Colin Kennedy, Chair of the FIS SFS working group, in his foreword to the new Specifiers Guide, Light Gauge Steel Framing Systems (SFS) External Wall Systems. He adds: ‘This is because the specification should be developed alongside the engineering design rather than a simple output from a list of attributes and parameters, to cover the three infill types and the six current variants of infill SFS.’ AndrewWay, Associate Director at the Steel Construction Institute, who are jointly publishing the guide with FIS, added: ‘In order to achieve the correct specification, a considerable amount of information is required about the intended use of the product and the desired performance characteristics. The key lesson that this new guide teaches, is that before it can be specified, the SFS should be fully engineered specifically for each building, importantly taking into account its location, proximity to other buildings and how that building is designed to accommodate movement.’ Comprehensive, compliant specifications Infill SFS differs from load-bearing light gauge steel framing used to form the structure of some buildings, such as hotels and student accommodation, in that it is used as the façade wall on steel and concrete framed buildings, and is described as: • infill; • continuous (oversail) walling; and • panelised systems. These have a further six variants each, so it’s important that specialist contractors and manufacturers are engaged in the specification process as early as possible. The specifiers guide is the second in a series from FIS written to provide guidance to ensure that comprehensive and compliant specifications for the finishes and interiors sector are produced, and follows on from the Specifiers Guide to Ceilings and Acoustic Absorbers , published in May 2021. We have divided the questions that should be considered in the process of design and specification into two parts: ‘ The FIS SCI Specifiers Guide, to specifying infill steel framing systems.