21st Century Steel Mill, Inc.

Pinoy Engineer Bow Moreno has succeeded in designing a building system that allows him to finish a 72-square-meter, 24 foot-high, two-story townhouse with a spacious attic in just 12 days and for less than P680,000. To prove it, his company, Bow Moreno Construction, delivered 10 townhouses in 120 days (exactly as promised) for the GMA-7 Employees Multipurpose Cooperative.

SO, HOW DID HE DO THIS?
In the article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Moreno explains how he has developed a system called “buil-to-order-web” or BOW building system which takes advantage of the versatility of the steel angle bar. He has put together a clever steel system that when built a certain way will have the strength equal to that of I-Beams but are lesser in cost.

VALUE ENGINEERING
Some methods the BOW system uses include 3 x 3-inch angular bars welded together and joined by round steel bars to form 3 x 6-inch channels that serve as columns and beams. These can then be easily assembled to form the skeletal frame of the house.

The concrete framework is then clad with MX panels consisting of corrugated Styrofoam boards sandwiched by an interconnected pair of galvanized wire mesh which are plastered with cement using pressurized bucket spray for strong & efficient bonding.

Moreno also explains how he does the flooring and roofing. You can read more about his method by reading the article here and start thinking of ways you can also save with steel.