Can Steel Beams Be Reused? Buying Used and Offcuts

Yes, steel beams can be reused, and steel is one of the easiest building materials to reuse because it doesn't rot or lose strength with age. The catch is paperwork and condition, not the steel itself. The 2024 Ontario Building Code (Division A, Sentence 1.2.2.3.(1)) allows used materials to be reused when they meet the code's requirements for new materials and are satisfactory for the intended use. For a beam in a building, that means someone qualified has to confirm what it is, what grade it is and that it's undamaged.

This post covers when a used beam is a good buy, what an engineer needs to accept it, where offcuts make sense, and how a beam's scrap value is worked out.

Why reusing steel beams is harder than it looks

A new beam arrives with a known size, a known grade and a mill test certificate tracing it back to the mill heat. A used beam usually arrives with none of that. Here's what a designer has to answer before putting one back into a structure:

• What section is it? Measure the depth, flange width, flange thickness and web thickness, then match them to a published shape. Older beams can be sizes that are no longer rolled, or imperial S-shapes rather than modern wide-flange beams. Our post on I-beam vs W-beam vs H-beam shows how to tell them apart.
• What grade is it? Most new Canadian W-shapes are CSA G40.21 350W. A beam from a 1960s building may be a lower-strength grade, and the difference changes its capacity. See structural steel grades in Canada.
• Is it sound? Look for section loss from rust, especially at the bearing ends and along the bottom flange, bent or twisted flanges, dents from demolition, and cracks.
• What has been done to it? Old bolt holes, torch-cut copes, welded-on clips and burn marks all reduce capacity or leave stress raisers. Holes in the wrong place can disqualify a beam that's otherwise perfect.
• Can it be welded? Older steels can have chemistry that makes welding harder. If the beam needs new plates or connections welded on, the welding procedure has to suit the steel. We cover this in can you cut or weld steel beams.
• What's on the surface? Paint on older steel can contain lead. Cutting, grinding or welding through it releases lead dust and fume, which brings worker-protection rules into play and needs to be handled before any hot work.

How an engineer can accept a used beam

There are three usual routes, and your engineer decides which applies:

1. Paperwork. If the beam comes with its original mill certificate or project records that identify the grade, it can be treated much like new steel once its condition is checked.
2. Testing. Samples can be cut from the beam (often from an end that's being trimmed anyway) and tested for tensile strength and chemistry. The results let the engineer assign a grade and judge weldability.
3. Conservative design. For low-demand uses, an engineer may design with a deliberately low assumed strength rather than test. That can make the beam work for a lighter job than the one it came from.

In every case the beam still has to be measured, inspected and drawn on the permit drawings like any other member. If you're bringing a used beam to a permitted job, raise it with your designer before you buy it, not after.

When a used beam makes sense, and when it doesn't

Good candidates:

• Non-structural or lightly loaded uses: shop jigs, equipment stands, trailer and farm projects, landscape features, fence or gate posts.
• Accessory buildings where a designer is already involved and the beam is clean, straight and identified.
• Temporary works such as cribbing or lifting frames, where a qualified person checks capacity.
• Projects where you already have the beam on site, such as reusing steel from a wall being rebuilt, and the engineer can reassess it in place.

Poor candidates:

• Basement beams and wall-removal beams in a house where the span and size are already tight. The time spent identifying and testing the beam can outweigh any saving.
• Any beam needing many new holes, plates or welded connections. Fabrication work is the same whether the steel is new or used, and old holes may clash with new ones.
• Beams with section loss at the ends, heavy pitting, or bends.
• Exterior uses where the old coating is failing and the beam would need blasting before it could be primed or galvanized.

Also check length. A beam that's slightly too short can't be stretched without a designed splice, and a long one has to be cut. Our standard steel beam lengths post covers the lengths new steel comes in.

Buying I-beam offcuts and drops

Every fabricator and steel yard ends up with drops: the short pieces left after cutting beams to length. They're new steel, often with known grade from the original bar, but usually without their own certificate once they're separated from the order.

Offcuts are useful for:

• brackets, stiffeners and short posts for non-structural work;
• welding practice and shop projects;
• bases, anvils and fixtures;
• repairs where an engineer has specified a short piece and its grade can be confirmed.

When you buy them, check the length, straightness and ends (torch-cut ends may need cleaning), and ask what grade the parent stock was. If the piece is going into a permitted structure, treat it like any used steel: the designer has to accept it.

How much is a used steel beam worth?

There are two very different answers, and we don't quote figures for either because both move with the market.

As scrap, a beam is worth its weight times the scrap yard's rate for that category of steel. To estimate the weight, use the second number in the designation: a W250x33 weighs about 33 kg per metre, so a 6 m length is about 198 kg. Our steel beam weight chart lists other sizes. What changes the offer:

• the yard's current posted rate, which follows the scrap steel market;
• whether the steel is clean or has attachments, concrete, wood or coatings;
• whether it has to be cut to the yard's maximum length;
• whether you deliver it or the yard picks it up.

As a reusable beam, it's worth what a buyer would otherwise spend on a new beam, minus the cost and time of identifying, testing, cleaning, cutting and transporting it. For a clean, straight, identified section in a common size, that can be worth pursuing. For an unidentified beam with old holes, it's often closer to scrap value.

New beams, cut to length

If you'd rather skip the uncertainty, new steel arrives identified, straight and ready to fabricate. We supply wide-flange beams cut to length or fully fabricated to your shop drawings, with plates, holes and connections ready for installation, and we can prime or galvanize to suit. Delivery covers the GTA and Ontario. For the buying process, see where to buy steel beams in Ontario.

Send your beam size or drawings for a quote, or browse our steel products.