Steel costs?

[Pecanfan]

Can anyone give me an approximation of how much I'll be expected to pay for

12 x 2.3m lengths of 220x75 PFC / RSC? (pre-drilled, cut to precise lengths and delivered). I've checked shop4steel.com but they only do 12m lengths and it seems quite dear (and I don't fancy trying to cut this stuff in the street).

Also, according to shop4steel.com the 200x75 stuff is 23Kg/m. How realistic is it that I'm going to be able to lift the steel into a loft, precisely manoeuvre it all into place and bolt it all together with 20mm bolts, myself?

(search for "A loft hatch, joist cutting challenge for you..." on Google Groups for the story behind this!)

TIA,

Andy

[nightjar]

That is 53kgs, or about a hundredweight. Whether that is practical to move alone will depend a lot on how strong you are. I know many people who have trouble even lifting that, much less be able to manoeuvre it through a loft hatch. In any case, for safety and control, I would use a hoist and / or enlist the help of a couple of other people.

Colin Bignell

[John Rumm]

Don't know - will probably vary from area to area etc. I think I paid about 450 for all my steel, but at least two thirds of the price was bolts, joist hangers, dogs etc. The actual flitch plates I had made were quite cheap (120 maybe). That was for 4 plates 200x8 mm all 4m or so. Drilled, painted etc.

I would enlist the help of a friend. My flitch plates were comparable weight (although longer, and a bit floppy in one axis!). Lifting them is one thing, getting them up ladders and through gaps on your own is quite another - it was hard enough with two of us. If you plan to get them through a loft hatch then it may be worth having a practice with a similar length of 4x2" just to make sure you can get round all the corners you need to.

[Richard]

This may give you a rough idea at what you could be expected to pay:

I bought some steel a few weeks back, a couple of 100X100x4.0 Rectangular Hollow sections cut to around 7.5 ft in length and paid £104 each.

I also bought a larger RHS 200X100x6.0 which was 3.3 metres long (£180). This thing weighed a ton and me thinking I could of done this myself!! it took 4 of us to lift into place resting ontop of the other 100x100x4.0 sections. Ask a neighbour to help you out or recall some favours from your mates. If your just dragging it and not lifting over head you should be fine with one person helping you out I would think.

Cheers

Richard

[Pecanfan]

Mmm... OK, cheers for all the comments. Well, based on shop4steel.com it was going to cost £518.25 for 3 x 12.2m lengths of 200 x 75 PFC, but that's going to be completely impractical. I've phoned around a few steel stockists and they're after ~£800 for the 12 lengths cut and pre-drilled. Just waiting on one more company to get back to me.

Apart from anything else, I'm slightly concerned about the ceiling taking the weight of all this steel while I'm manoeuvring it into position. In case you hadn't guessed, I've had the drawings back from the structural engineer and I need to bolt PFC to either side of the two big chords running from the front to back of the loft

Think I might have to use some temporary props to support the ceiling while I'm working on this, especially if I'm going to have a few people up there helping me...

One final question, how realistic is it that I'll be able to drill 20mm holes in this stuff myself? Not at all I suspect... For the sake of an extra £150 or so I think I'll opt for pre-drilling.

I can see this being fun... :-)

Andy

[Rick Dipper]

It depends where you live, I got my steel for less than shop4steel, but them my place is just round the corner from a big steel fabricators, but if I had been in the city, I would have expected to pay more.

The steel is not massivly heavy, I have a 7m 10*4 RSJ to get on my roof (no crances can get in), its only 300KG. thats less than 4 men to lift it.

Once is almost in place moving it small ammounts is just a matter of nudging it with a hammer, but if you have a small slot in a wall to get it into (for example) this may be somewhat harder.

Rick