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Steel Section Weight Calculator

Weight per metre, total weight, and the surface area that decides what galvanizing will cost. The third figure is the one nobody else gives you.

Steel weighs 7,850 kilograms per cubic metre. Everything below is that number multiplied by a cross-sectional area, and the formula for each section is shown as you use it so you can check the arithmetic rather than trust it.

The surface area output is the useful part. Galvanizing is priced and consumed by area, not by weight — a thin-walled hollow section of the same tonnage as a solid bar carries far more surface and takes far more zinc. If you are budgeting a galvanizing job, area is the number you actually need.

Steel section weight and surface area

Theoretical weight at 7,850 kg/m³. Surface area is the figure that decides galvanizing, and almost nobody publishes it. Both ignore root and corner radii, so treat them as close estimates rather than mill figures.

0 kg
Weight per metre
Surface area, total
Zinc at 85 µm

Channels, beams and joists are not here on purpose. Their cross-sectional area includes root radii and tapered flanges that no simple formula gets right — take those from the IS 808 section tables rather than from a calculator.

What these figures are, and are not

  • Theoretical, not mill. The formulas use nominal dimensions and ignore root radii on angles, corner radii on hollow sections and rolling tolerance. Real material typically comes in slightly heavier. For contractual weight, use the mill certificate.
  • Channels, beams and joists are deliberately absent. Their area depends on root radii and tapered flanges that a simple formula gets wrong by a few per cent. Take those from the IS 808 section tables.
  • Surface area is a close estimate. It uses the section perimeter times the length plus the ends, which is how a galvanizer estimates too — but holes, cleats and gussets on a real fabrication all add area.
  • The zinc figure is the coating on the work at 85 microns, not the total zinc drawn from the bath. Dross, ash and drag-out mean real consumption is higher — see the zinc consumption estimator.

Steel grades we fabricate from

All of it is IS 2062 structural steel — E250 at 250 MPa minimum yield, E350 at 350, E410 at 410 — with the sub-grade set by the toughness the design calls for. Chemistry is verified in-house on a Bruker Q2 ION optical emission spectrometer and mill test certificates travel with every consignment. See the IS 2062 page for what the sub-grade letters actually change.

Questions engineers ask

Answered from our own line, not from the standard's cover page.

How do you calculate the weight of a steel angle?

Cross-sectional area times density. For an equal angle the area is (2a − t) × t in square millimetres; multiply by 0.00785 to get kilograms per metre. For an unequal angle it is (a + b − t) × t.

What is the density of structural steel?

7,850 kg per cubic metre, which works out at 0.00785 kg per metre for every square millimetre of cross-section.

Why does the calculator show surface area?

Because galvanizing is consumed and priced by surface area, not by weight. Two consignments of the same tonnage can need very different amounts of zinc if one is thin-walled hollow section and the other is solid bar.

Why are channels and beams not included?

Their cross-sectional area depends on root radii and tapered flanges, which no simple formula gets right. Take those weights from the IS 808 section tables rather than from any calculator.

Are these the weights I will be invoiced for?

Not necessarily. These are theoretical weights on nominal dimensions. Real material carries rolling tolerance and usually comes in slightly heavier; contractual weight comes from the mill certificate or the weighbridge.

Related standards and pages

Send us the specification

Tell us the standard, the coating requirement and the component, and we will confirm in writing what we can hold and how we will certify it. Galvanizing is on our own floor, so the answer comes from us and not from a sub-contractor.

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