Some Important Facts That Should Be Kept In Mind While Buying Steel For Home Project

Just like a skeleton which provides a proper shape to our body, steel also gives a proper structure to the building. The strength of the building largely depends on the quality of the steel used in making of the building structure. Steel is used along with concrete for manufacturing of the stairs, slabs, lintels and footings. Concrete is known for its high strength in compression while steel is praised for its high tensile strength. When these two elements are used in combination for construction purpose, they make an excellent structure. If you are planning to buy steel online for your home project, it is essential that you understand what types of steel bars you can use for it.

Types and grades of the steel that is used for general construction include mild and deformed. Mild steel bars are plain in surface and consists of round cross-sections of diameter ranging from 6 to 50 mm. These bars are offered in long lengths and can be cut in to any size depending on your requirement without any damage. Mild bars are used in making of reinforced cement concrete slabs.

Deformed steel bars come with lugs, ribs or some other sort of deformation on their surface. These bars reduce slippage in concrete and improve the bonding strength of the concrete and steel. In comparison to mild bars, deformed bars have more tensile stresses. These bars are available in section ranging from 6mm to 50 mm diameter and do not require end hooks like mild bars. It has been often been observed that reinforced concrete develops cracks when the mild bars are stretched. Not only this, these bars also lose some of their bond when they get stretched. The projecting ribs of the deformed steel improve bonding with concrete. The strength of the deformed bars is usually 40 to 80 % higher than the normal bars of same size. Cold twisted deformed bars are considered best for construction purposes.

Mild Steel Bars are available in the market in two grades including Mild steel bars grade-I, Fe 410-S or Grade 60 bars and grade-II, Fe-410-o or Grade 40 bars. While medium tensile steel bars are provided in Fe- 540-w-ht or Grade 75. Mild steel bars Grade II are considered unfit for the structures which are situated in earth quake zones and highways bridges because these areas are subject to high damage and dynamic loading. Before being used, every consignment of the mild bars should be tested for quality in laboratory. However, for small construction projects, you can use mild bars on the basis of the tests performed by manufacturer at his own premise. Almost all leading manufacturers of steel bars provide test MS for quality before introducing them in market.

The quality of the steel bars used in RCC works depend on its tensile strength, weight, yield strength and elongation. Apart from this, the chemical composition of the bars also affects its quality. A normal person can-not find out these things. Therefore, before you buy steel online or offline, ask your builder to make sure they are tested properly.