Steel Building Elements: Lowering the Fabrication Expenses

Steel is an ideal material to consider incorporating into your home during the construction process. The metal is strong and durable, which makes it an ideal choice for supporting loads in the building structure. Basically, you can choose steel when for building elements likes reinforcement bars, handrails, window frames and even supporting posts for decking roofs. These elements can be purchased from stores as ready-made items but custom alternatives are better in terms of fitting and personal aesthetics. Unfortunately, the bespoke option can also be costly for a home building project. Here are some tips to help you cut the cumulative expenses of fabricating the custom steel building elements. 

Choose the Standard Material Length

The steel material used in fabrication can be obtained in both standard and specialty lengths. You should consider this factor during the design process and discuss the aspect with your fabricator before making your order. If you the pertinent elements can be manufactured with standard length steel bars or plates, the cost of purchase will be lower. Specialty lengths require cutting of standard longer sizes, and this will result in unusable remnants and more energy expenses. Additionally, ask your fabricator about the most available raw steel size in the current market conditions. More standard stock often means that the cost purchase will be lower.

Avoid Primed and Painted products

Steel is vulnerable to air and moisture and exposure usually will result in rusting. However, the process is not so accelerated that it will compromise your fabricated building elements immediately. Therefore, it is not economical to request for the fabricator to prime or paint your steel products. This is often unnecessary expense, especially when dealing with structural building elements that will be covered. For example, special reinforcement bars designed to support concrete columns should not be painted because they will be protected by the concrete from external conditions. For exposed steel elements like handrails, you can paint them onsite after the main building work is completed. If rust forms on the surfaces, it can be easily brushed off before priming and painting.

Long-Term Performance vs. Low Cost

Finally, you should understand that cheaper steel is not automatically the right choice for long-lasting performance. In simple terms, if you choose low quality steel which is prone to rusting, corrosion and distortion, you will have to deal with avoidable expenses related to replacement and repair of the elements. Therefore, you should check the market for the standard steel price per unit weight in the local region and compare with the material provided.