Normal price on metal? Does this sound about right?

I was at my local supplier and asked him about frame material. I wanted to know about 2x3 and 2x4. His prices are $6.xx and $7.xx (respectively) per foot.

So about $120 /$150 per 20' section. Does that sound about right?

dont know the going price andrew but ask if they have cut offs long enuff you can use, they're always cheaper here

Thats quite a bit cheaper than I recently got mine for. I paid about $220 per 20 ft stick of 2x4x3/16. Steel has started to come down some.

Wow! That's close to $1/lb. That's probably as good as you'll get. You can check around with any local manufacturing companies. They might have some in stock that was purchased when the price was lower. All in all it's probably not worth the time and hassle though.

In April we were buying 4x2x1/4 for $4.58/ft. That was direct and in bulk quantity for OEM, though.

If your friends with any steel fabricators, your better off going through them. We get better prices than people who just walk-in off the street. What i do is if someone walks in the shop wanting me to order something, i'll tack on 30% if i dont know the guy. Usually thats still cheaper then if they go to the warehouse, and its delivered to my door where i could cut it as needed. 2x3 and 2x4 usually comes in 20' or 24' lengths, so you'de have to get it cut in half just to get it home anyways. If it gets delivered to a shop, you can do all the cutting you need without wasting material.

Thanks for the imput guys!
Hillbilly, I'm planning on getting a full 20' section. I can haul it fine.
I'm not really "friends" with this steel supplier, but it is a small outfit, and very personality-based-service... So I put on my thickest southern accent and talk about chewin' tobacco and deer huntin' and I get along great with 'em.

I didn't think that it was a BAD price... shoot. that means I can pretty much primarily build my frame for about $200! great bargain! I was just seeing if thats the normal price. It looks like it is

I'll definitely continue using these guys and build a better relationship with them.

oh and btw I just saw in a local Advertiser that someone is selling some square .75"x20' tubing for $9/ea. thats right. NINE dollars and it sounds like he has multiple! giggity!

-Andrew

The salesman from my steel suplier stopped in at my shop the other day. He tells me steel is coming down over the next month or so. So I am holding out on my next big order till I run out of some material. Price sounds pretty good, but prices have been all over the place in the last 6 months.

It's scrap steel that has really dropped. Last year I was getting as high as $350/Ton it dropped back to $25/Ton last month and as of yesterday it's $30/Ton.

The story i heard on the steel prices, both scrap and new, goes like this; China is building some huge bridge project. All of our steel was being sent overseas. When the olympics took place in China last year the air pollution was so bad that they shut down all the factories. China's ports were then flooded with our steel, so the docks were closed. This caused the imediate stoppage of steel being shipped out of the US. Thats how scrap prices went from $350 a ton and now to $30.

My supplier tells me that prices are going to go down on new steel too. Im not expecting a drop like at the pumps. But its amazing how the steel prices have, in some cases, doubled over the past 5 years.

That is not a bad price on the 2x4 or 2x3. I bought a bunch of steel today and I asked if prices were truly going to come down and was told that they had. I don't about scrap other than it has come way down in the past couple of months.

I forget what we pay, but I do remember that the last time I asked it had gone up significantly. But so was scrap steel, so that made sense. We also buy what our local supplier calls "drops". These are cut off sections that are left over from jobs, and they go pretty cheap.

We used to be able to go through and dig around for steel we could use, but some idiot customer hurt himself one day and sued them, so now nobody can go into the shop. D*** sue happy people ruin it for everyone else and don't take responsibility for their own clumsiness. Now we have to stand in the doorway and kinda point at stuff we want to buy. We have offered to sign a waiver that we would assume any liability, etc. Still no dice.

Don

^ that sucks to hear, Don!
I can relate to situations like that around here, too. Not with our steel supplier, but other places. People are stupid.

Just priced some 2 x 4 .120 at $5.61 Canadian a foot
Bob

How do Canadians feet compare to Americans feet?

ours have snowshoes on them

^^^ ha good one.

2 weeks ago i bought:
3 15' sections of 1x1 1/8" wall
1 15' piece of 1x3 1/8" wall
60' of 1.5" dom tubing
13' of 2" dom tubing
3 4 1/2' x 4" pieces of clean cut 1/4" steel
and just some other small pieces of 3/8"

everything was $140 bucks. seemed like a good deal to me. this was from a place called Fazio's steel supply in Jersey.

I just bought last week 20ft of 2x3x1/8" thick from my local supplier it cost me about 80.00 Then yesterday I went and picked up 24' of 1x1 and 20' 1x2 to build my subfloor, and it came to about 32.00

PatDoody said:

I just bought last week 20ft of 2x3x1/8" thick from my local supplier it cost me about 80.00 Then yesterday I went and picked up 24' of 1x1 and 20' 1x2 to build my subfloor, and it came to about 32.00

Click to expand...

Fazio's?

I will price check over here in Fresno, Ca as well. Not sure if it has gone up but odds are it has. All metal is going up as our dollar goes down.

I was scouring the shorts rack at the local steel yard tody. 50 cents a pound. Lengths up to 14 feet on some stuff in the shorts rack.