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Structural Steel Budgeting for Your Construction Project
January 12, 2019 | Leave a Comment
Typically, one of the main building materials in small and large industrial construction projects is structural steel. It’s used in the building of industrial sheds as well as skyscrapers. Knowing that major construction projects can take a long time to complete makes it challenging to estimate how much the steel is going to cost for a project.
In addition, the fact that structural steel prices will often very widely, makes it imperative that an estimator has a way to account for the cost of this building material in a budget, which will also give the estimator an idea on the amount of labor costs that are going to be involved in helping install the steel.
Structural Steel Cost
To be able to accurately bid and win a major construction project, it’s going to be important to have an accurate estimate of of all the costs that are involved in a project. Structural steel is one of those costs. If it’s estimated wrong, it can cut into profits. One of the main considerations when estimating the price for structural steel is the quantity and location. The supply for small orders is usually acquired from a warehouse, while large orders are associated with the prices that are offered by a mill.
A manufacturer or supplier will quote the price of structural steel so that is tied to the time of delivery. This makes it a priority to use an escalation clause in a contract so that prices can be absorbed if there are any unexpected increases in the cost of the material. This is especially salient in the construction of a building as a framing system will often contribute to 10 percent or more of the building cost.
Creating An Estimate
The pricing for structural steel is usually figured off of its weight. A list of the sections that are going to be used for a project should be created. These also include the lettering for each section, which is important in coming up with an estimate that’s accurate.
When listing the type of section that’s going to be used, it helps to specify it by using the standard method. For example, if the section being used is an American Wide Flange Beam, the type of section would be listed as W 6 x 25. This indicates that the section is 6 inches deep and has a weight that’s equal to 25 pounds per foot.
Computing The Weight For Structural Steel
In order to compute the weight for structural steel that’s going to be used in a construction project, it helps to build a table that includes the following:
– Type of section
– Quantity used
– Length of pieces
– Total length that’s required for each section
– Weight per linear foot
To compute the total weight, an estimator would take the total length of a section and multiply it by the weight per foot. For example, if a section is listed as W 14 X 132, this would indicate that it is 20 feet long. If there’s only one of these type of sections, the total length would be 20 feet. If the weight per foot is 132 pounds then the total weight for that section would be 2640 pounds.
After completing the total weight for each section, each of the total weight figures are added together, which gives the figure for the total weight of steel that’s going to be needed for a project. With this number, and estimator has a good idea of the cost for the cost of steel and can add it into the budget for a project.
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