advice please buying a steel beam

happyhero

Hi we are having our front and back rooms joined to form one big lounge and this means we are removing a supporting wall and must fit a steel beam for support.

The beam my structural engineer has stipulated is 254x254x73 UC and the length if all goes as planned should be 3620mm.

We went to Sparrowhawks in Epsom, Surrey which is near us and well known in this area and they have quoted us a price. I am prepared to pay what ever the cost is within reason but i was surprised at their price so I am after guidance on whether it is correct and whether there is anywhere else I should be trying in the say Surrey/Kent area.

They recommended that they supply it red oxide painted which we thought was a good idea, and the price they quoted was £478 + Vat making it £573.60. They said they currently have access to an off-cut about the size I need, (not sure at the moment what about the size means) but that if I am in time then I could have that for £300 + vat making it £360.

Do these prices sound right?

Should I be looking anywhere else, ie can you recommend?

Sparrowhawks are just round the corner and popular round here, seems everybody uses them but I was shocked at how much a steel beam could be and just want to be sure I am not being ripped off.

Any help/advice appreciated.

Furts

I would buy the offcut on the proviso that you receive written, signed, dated proof of what the steel is and it's suitability. Ask to be shown the tabulated figures showing that the offcut is higher up in the tablulated steel charts/books that what you require. You will need this to show the Building Control Inspector

Elfbert

I'd phone around a few other architectural steelworks and get some more quotes. You can get an 8mtr UC for just under their original cost from ParkerSteel! Somewhere might be willing to order it in, do one cut to get it to your required dims and buy the rest off you? Or you might find someone who'll do you a better deal on an offcut they have. I used to be an architectural steelworker and we were always buying stuff in for builders and cutting it to size and coming to an agreement on price, as we'd generally have no problem using most of the rest on another job.

If they charge extra for the paint then check that too - 5ltrs of waterbased red primer will cost you £30 (inc. vat) and will take you no time to splash on if you have the space to do it. And you'll have 4.5 ltrs left over (I've used this a lot, it's perfectly good stuff).

System

Are you getting a builder to do the work?
They could probably get a cheaper deal than a one off purchase from a diy-er...
(Also if you have them measure and order it, its down to them if it needs adjusted on site...)

Babbawah

You are not necessarily being 'ripped off' per se.

But at that price you will be paying well over the odds for a 3620mm length of a standard sized RSJ.

Think of it like this . . . are you paying for someone's expertise in specifying what you need . . . !

This would be a good price if the builder solves your problem.

It would NOT be a good price if the builder wants you to buy one, have it delivered to site, and then charge you to install it.

structuralengineer

FWIW I can give you an insider perspective.

A 254x254 73UC seems an enormously heavy beam for a span of 3.6m. To give you an idea of what a beam like this can support, it resists 245kNm of moment, whereas a more usual moment for a 3.6m span for a domestic property could be around 40kNm.

The "73" means 73kg per metre, so the beam weighs 260kg. You need a crane for that kind of weight. Steel costs around £1500 to £2000 per kg, so you should be paying around £390 to £500 for it.

So the steel stockist isn't ripping you off, but you could have concerns about why your designer specified such a heavy beam. They probably did it because they want to support a 250mm or 300mm cavity wall over the top, and using a 254 wide beam does this nicely. That means you're paying a high premium for convenience.

The more usual way to specify beams for conversions is to use two beams, one for each leaf of the cavity wall. If you'd used a structural engineer who specified two 178 x 102 x 19UB beams, your weight per beam would have been 68kg, able to be lifted by two people (thus no need for a crane or other lifting mechanism), and costing about £100 per beam.