On Oct 14, 9:46*am, PeterD wrote:
On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:27:15 +0000 (UTC),

wrote:

Back in 1987 I saw the first steel-stud construction in an office I
was working in. The put up the studs and the sheet rock in two days
flat. But then they took three months doing the electrical and HVAC
ducting. *Why? What can be done to change this? Is there a way that
the placement of the ducts can be so standardised that this can also
be "plug and play"? I believe that because of Katrina, they can now
prefab the entire wall's studs by CAD/CAM, but what about the ducting?
I admit that was a 1950s building, so the retrofit may have been the
bottleneck.

I suspect there is more to the story than you are saying (factors you
were unaware of...)

Generally steel stud walls are done much like wood studs, put in
studs, wire/duct/utilities, then sheet-rock. Should take about the
same time as with wood.

Steel studs are far faster than wood for framing out partitioning,
soffits and the like. Probably about 2/3's quicker.

As far as the OP's observation, a sample of one is not sufficient.
Depending on where and when, the lead time for any particular custom
fabricated item, such as ductwork, could take anywhere from a week to
three months. When I worked in commercial construction way back when,
the tin knockers had one of the biggest backlogs of work and the
delays in getting the duct installed was substantial.

R