Beautiful Designs for Steel Stair Railings

The railings you have in your home and on your deck can be a great way to express your style, especially with all the options that are available today to create something unique with something from Wasatch Steel. Here are some ideas to help you create a great design for your deck railing or interior railing.

Designer Spindles
The spindles on your railing are one of the best ways to create something truly unique when you are ready to build a railing. There are several different things that you can do with your spindles today, whether you prefer to go with a more conservative or traditional design, or you like the look of something more modern. At Wasatch Steel, you can even get spindles that are made specifically to match your personal style, so if you have a favorite design or a look that you really want, you can get it created just for you.

You can also get spindles in several different shapes and sizes. Many people today are choosing to go with a look that departs from the old railing style of having small circular spindles that are functional and only there to hold up the handrail, to something that is a fashion statement for your home or you deck in and of itself. You can get wide or thin spindles, in square, rectangle, cylinder, or oval shapes so you get the perfect look.

Railing Accents
There are also a lot of options that will allow you to customize the railings with the right accents to highlight your style. Some of the most common accents that you see are geometric shapes, such as squares and lines, to more classic looks, like floral accents, leaves, curled edges, fleur de lis, and other similar styles. In addition, you can get railing accents that are designed to resemble other nature scenes like leaves, suns, and more.

The benefit of shopping for your railing accents at Wasatch Steel is that you can get just about anything you want on spindles, even if you’re looking to do something really unique, such as a railing that resemble tree branches or something artistic.

Blending Your Railing
Another thing that many homeowners today have started doing is a blended look with their steel railings. No longer do you have to just use wood for railings or just use steel, you can blend them together for a very unique look. You can use steel spindles with wood balusters anchoring the railing, and a wood handrail to top off the look.

Any Size
Another way you can customize the look of your railing is by choosing the size of spindles and balusters that you get. At Wasatch Steel, our experts can help you find the perfect size, up to about 4 inches wide, and you can even paint the steel so you can get colors beyond just traditional gray or black metal.

When you’re ready to create your own railing to get the exact look that you want, start your search at Wasatch Steel.

Tips for Getting a Great Price on Your Steel

Steel plays a big role in many different industries, and in several different parts of our daily lives. If you are planning to build something, chances are you could use steel to build it. Steel provides a great option for every building project because it offers lightweight durability, and is often one of the most affordable options you can find with such a high strength-to-weight ratio. There are several different options for purchasing steel, with options from brand new to used. Here are some tips to help you shop for the right steel and get a great price.

Brand New Steel
New steel is produced in steel mills, but buying direct from the mill is often not an option for most consumers. In order to get it from the mill, you usually have to commit to large purchase quantities (sometimes several thousand tons a year), which may not be feasible for smaller companies, or someone who just needs some steel for a project around the house. There are times when new steel is required, especially in cases where the look or sterility of the metal is important, such as food production or medicine. A place like Wasatch Steel often has surplus inventory from the steel mills, including mill overruns and obsolete inventory that is available at a lower price, so you can still get brand new steel but without the huge purchase commitment.

Excess Prime Steel
Another option, when the look of the steel is not as important, is to purchase excess prime steel. Wasatch Steel can often find shipments of excess prime that may have some signs of oxidation after being exposed to the elements, so it may not look as good as brand new steel. The benefit of this kind of steel is that you can often get like-new steel in terms of the quality at a much lower price.

Secondary Steel
If you are looking for a great deal at the steel supermarket, you can also find recycled steel or secondary steel. This kind of steel is often available with very low pricing, and Wasatch Steel offers a very wide selection so you can find just about any kind that you might need. With so much secondary steel available at the steel yard, you can get the items you need immediately and take it with you so you don’t have to wait for a shipment. Plus Wasatch Steel has several decades of industry experience purchasing steel from several different suppliers nationwide, so they know how to choose only the highest quality secondary steel to offer to customers.

Buying in Bulk
You can also buy in bulk to get better prices, and have the experts at Wasatch Steel cut it to your exact specifications so your steel arrives ready to use and you can cut down waste.

No-Hassle Shopping
Another way to save money when you’re buying steel is to go somewhere that you can buy everything you need in one stop. If you have to go all around town to find several different pieces for your project, you can spend a lot of extra time, and more money on gas. By finding everything in one place at the steel supermarket, you can save a lot of both. You can even find all the tools and accessories you need at Wasatch Steel, so you get everything with one stop.

Buying & Working With Steel Pipe

Pipe is a critical component of our modern world, and it is everywhere that you look. There are many different structural uses and applications, from sign posts and columns to a conduit for liquid or other similar materials. In fact, there are so many different types of steel pipe available that it can be difficult to know which one to choose when shopping at Wasatch Steel.

Different Types of Structural Pipe

One of the most common uses for pipe is for building things, often referred to as structural pipe. Steel pipe that meets a certain chemical composition requirement can be used for structural building purposes. There are several different types of pipes available for use in building, including:

• Seamless Steel Pipe – a durable product that is often preferred for bollards, dock piling, and pipe piling. 
• ERW Steel Pipe – also called “high quality line pipe”, it is used by companies that need long-term durability and performance, such as the oil industry and utility companies. 
• Spiral Steel Pipe – a common material for road casing, piling, and trenches, because it is both economical and durable.
• DSAW Carbon Steel Pipe – is specially welded on the OD and ID, and available in many different grades so it provides a great material for road boring and culverts. 
• Fence Pipe – used for many different kinds of fences, such as parks, parking lots, and other areas that require high strength and durability.
• Culvert Pipe – used to channel water in areas where you want to prevent flooding, such as drainage systems, around driveways, an in sewer systems.

Most Common Uses for Steel Pipe

A pipe is cylindrical in shape and hollow in the middle, so people often think of pipe as something that transports liquid or similar materials, but it can be used for several different applications. You can get pipes that have thicker or thinner walls, and that come in a variety of different diameters and lengths. The type of pipe you get will depend on what you plan to use it for. Some of the most common uses for steel pipes include:

• Columns
• Sign posts
• Support systems in building structures
• Pilings
• Bollards
• Billboard support
• Road bore casings
• Dock piles
• Fences
• Sewer systems
• Liquid transport

Buying Steel Pipe
Wasatch Steel, the steel supermarket has a wide selection of steel pipes for every different application. Whether you are working on a small do-it-yourself project at home, or you are working on a large construction project at work, you can find the exact pipe you need. When shopping for steel pipe, Wasatch Steel can cut it to your exact specifications for any length you need. Plus you can choose from a wide selection of brand new, excess prime, and recycled or secondary steel.

The helpful staff at Wasatch Steel can show you all the different types of steel pipe that are available, and help you figure out which kinds would work best for your application. The steel supermarket has several different thicknesses and diameters, and in a range of grades to suit your exact project specifications. Come find out how beneficial it is to have a broad selection of steel pipe.

10 Ways to Decorate with Steel Around Your Home

There are dozens of different types of steel available today, and while it is one of the most-used materials for all types of building projects, it is also a great material that you can use to decorate around your home. If you’re looking for a few creative ways to use this material, here are 10 ideas for creative steel use around your house. You can find all the steel you need at the steel supermarket at Wasatch Steel.

1. Stainless Steel Appliances
Although it may not be the most creative way to decorate with steel, stainless steel appliances can bring a clean, modern look to any kitchen. They are available in several different finishes and brands to bring out the most from your kitchen.

2. Exposed Steel Beams
The “loft” look is popular in many big cities, and while you may not be ready to commit your entire home to this look, you can build in exposed steel beams to provide support to your home and provide a unique accent piece on the walls. You can also paint steel beams to match any accent color in your home.

3. Cabinet Hardware
The cabinets in your home provide an opportunity to express your style, and you can add a lot of flair with the hardware. You can find sleek styles at Wasatch Steel, or more ornate styles depending on the décor in your home. If you have a favorite design, you can even have the experts at the steel supermarket create custom steel decorations for you.

4. Stair Railings
Your stairs don’t have to be generic, and getting beautiful steel spindles and balusters can make your staircase into an eye-catching design element. Whether you opt for a more modern, traditional, or artistic look, you can find the right decorative steel spindles at Wasatch Steel.

5. Wall Décor
There are hundreds of ways you can use steel for wall décor, whether it’s a unique artistic piece, an abstract design, or even grating over your windows. You can even create your own wall décor with unique pieces of steel at Wasatch Steel.

6. Mirrors
With a great mirror in the center, steel can give you a beautiful outside design around the mirror and help the glass stand out on your wall.

7. Steel Lighting
Whether you want to get wall lighting, having something that hangs from the ceiling, or find a unique lamp, there are dozens of unique lighting options with steel. The durable material can help ensure your lighting holds up in the long run, and you can use either the more traditional metal color of steel, or paint it to match your other accents.

8. Home Accents
The possibilities of steel accents are almost unlimited, with options for steel vases, bowls, candles, clocks, and even figurines or statues. You can add flowers to vases or bowls, or accessorize with colorful candles to add color.

9. Window Hardware
Your drapes can add a lot of life to your windows, and using the right window hardware ensures that your drapes and your window hardware will draw people’s eyes.

10. Garden and Patio
Outside your home there are also several opportunities to decorate with steel. You can use steel to create landscape edging, have steel benches or other furniture outdoors, and add steel planters with flowers to create color and depth on your patio.

Steel provides you with endless possibilities to decorate around your home, and gives you the option to create any look you want from modern to traditional. It’s strength and beauty can add just the right look to any home, and you can find all the right steel pieces at Wasatch Steel.

9 Industries That Rely on Steel

Steel has become one of the most integral parts of our daily lives, and it affects so many different industries and businesses today. Whether you are a small business or a do-it-yourself weekend warrior looking for steel from a place like Wasatch Steel, or use steel for your large company, the steel supermarket has what you need. There are many different industries today that rely heavily on the production and use of steel for operations, and here are nine of them.

Construction
Commercial construction today has a critical need for steel, because it combines a unique mix of strength and light weight. In fact, the availability of ultra high strength steel (UHSS) reduces the need for more load-bearing beams, which means there is more available space in every building. Plus the removal of support pillars means you can get more windows, translating to better ventilation, more light, and better energy efficiency.

Housing
Residential homes today are often built with steel as part of their support structure, which means that homes are safer and more energy efficient. Steel won’t burn like wood in case of a fire, and the steel helps to create better lighting and temperature control throughout by creating a high efficiency interior that can keep cool air out in the winter and warm air out in the summer. Steel and proper insulation also helps prevent corrosion with an airtight seal to keep moisture outside.

Transportation
Almost every mode of transportation today uses steel, from trains and ships to personal transport with bikes and cars. The range of properties that steel provides, with one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios of any material. In the train industry, steel has revolutionized the form of transportation, with lightweight materials to allow high-speed travel, tracks and technology made of steel to reduce friction and minimize noise. The strength of steel leads to better shipping capabilities on the ocean, while the weight of steel helps improve gas mileage for passenger vehicles.

Agriculture
Whether it’s agricultural tools or storage for the crops, steel has long played a big role in this industry. Although agricultural jobs represent only a small portion of the total population, billions of people worldwide rely the ability to purchase low-cost food that comes from this business.

Recycling
With many businesses, individuals, and countries today looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint, recycling is an important industry. Steel is not only integral in recycling other materials, it is also one of the greenest metals available, because it is almost universally recyclable.

Energy
Finding “green” energy sources is important for the planet, and steel provides the material you need for hydro, wind, and solar renewable energy sources. Steel is used to build wind turbines, solar panels, and hydro plates to harness the power of the tide.

Automotive
Most vehicles today are constructed with advanced high strength steels that combines good body structures with light weight for maximum fuel efficiency and protection in case of an accident. With the focus on improving MPG for all vehicles over the next couple of decades, steel will play in important role.

Packaging
Today’s global market means goods are transported around the world in order to get to their consumers. Packaging must not only be able to get the goods to the right place, but must protect the items for effective distribution. Steel solutions offer strength and versatility to get your items to the places they need to be.

Steel is one of the most important materials that we have today, and you can find all the steel you need at Wasatch Steel.

The Steel Revolution: How Steel Has Changed Our Lives

The steel industry in America, and throughout the world, has become one of the most important industries that we have, supporting several different aspects of our lives. In the 1800s and 1900s the industry helped America grow into a world economic power. Today it is hard to imagine a world without steel from suppliers like Wasatch Steel, because it has such an impact on everything that we do.

The Rise of Steel
Iron, the metal that makes up the base of steel, has been around for many centuries as a material for transportation, tools, and weapons. In the mid-1800s a British metallurgist Henry Bessemer discovered a process (now called the “Bessemer process”) that uses high-pressure air and heat to convert the iron to steel, removing impurities in the process. Through the next few decades, the process of making steel was refined until it became an easy and inexpensive metal to manufacture. In addition, the strength and light weight of steel make it ideal for several different applications. In America, the abundance of iron ore to turn into steel, and coal to heat the steel furnaces, helped this industry grow, and by the early 1900s America was the top producer of steel worldwide.

Steel in Our Lives Today
American steel production peaked in 1969, when 141 million tons were produced, but the trend of lower labor costs overseas and inexpensive transportation options to bring the steel back to America has pushed production outside of the U.S. However, the need for steel today is higher than it has ever been.

Today, steel is a regular part of many different industries, including:

• Transportation
• Agriculture
• Healthcare
• Food Service
• Energy
• Construction
• Packaging
• Automotive 
• Consumer goods
• Technology

Its strength and durability, along with its relatively inexpensive price, are the most common reasons that people choose steel over other metal options.

Where to Get Steel
One of the most difficult things about buying steel is knowing where to find it. Unless you are a contractor working on multi-million dollar projects on a regular basis, you probably don’t use enough steel to purchase directly from steel mills, where the minimum order might be several thousand tons a year.

Today many people find everyday uses for steel, whether it is to decorate your home with wall décor and accent pieces, or as the spindles in a beautifully ornate railing for your stairs or deck. It can be used in landscaping, or as a functional base for your workplace as flooring, grating, and more. Steel is also the most common building material, used for commercial, industrial, and residential buildings, and for things like roads and bridges.

When you’re looking for the most variety and selection, whether you have a large-scale construction project or just a small-scale do-it-yourself project, the best place to get steel is from a place like Wasatch Steel. This steel supermarket is the place where you can find steel of all shapes and sizes. Wasatch Steel also offers options for purchasing brand new, used, and excess prime steel. The term "excess prime" refers to new steel that has been exposed to the elements and has some oxidation on the surface—the benefit of purchasing this type of steel is that you can get a like-new product at a significantly discounted price.

When you need great selection and great prices, buying steel from the steel supermarket at Wasatch Steel is the best place to go.

A Guide to Different Steel Types

You probably use steel for a lot of different things in your daily life, from your car and the roads you drive on to your home or office, and even home appliances. The truth is that there are so many different types of steel and steel supplies, you may not even realize how much you encounter day to day. This is a quick guide to some of the most common types of steel that you can find at a Utah steel supplier like Wasatch Steel. At the steel supermarket, you can find a wide variety of different steel types that will satisfy any building need that you might have, whether it’s for construction on a new home or office building, or simply looking for something you can use in your next piece of art.

The Foundation of Steel
Iron is at the core of steel, and it is a metal that has been in use for centuries. As one of the most abundant elements in the world, making up about five percent of Earth’s crust, it has been extracted from iron ore through the process of smelting and was a integral part of building human civilization. Up until the Industrial Revolution that began in the late 1800s, the process to extract and form iron was relatively inefficient. However, with the invention of the blast furnace by British metallurgist Sir Henry Bessemer, the “Bessemer process” made the production of steel much faster and has fueled the growth of this type of metal as part of our modern world today.

Compounding Steel
Today’s there are several types of steel and steel supplies that you can find at a place like Wasatch Steel, and they contain different metals that are added to change the properties slightly. For example, carbon is added to make the steel stronger, and nickel is added to make it less magnetic and less brittle when exposed to low temperatures.

Classifying Steel
Steel is classified into groups based on its compound metal structure, ranging from 200 to 600.

• 200 Series are austenitic, comprising chromium, nickel, and manganese.
• 300 Series are also austenitic, and are the most common type of steel produced in the world. They have carbon, chromium, nickel and/or manganese, and offer benefits like weldability, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and temperature resistance, which is useful for sterile surfaces in food production and healthcare settings.
• 400 Series are ferritic, which means they have a high level of corrosion resistance. The trade-off is that they tend to be a little bit less durable than the 300 series, containing higher chromium content and less nickel. Many 400 series steels also contain molybdenum, and sometimes aluminum or titanium as well. 
• 500 Series are heat-resistant chromium alloys. 
• 600 Series are martensitic steels, hardened through heat treatment, and extremely strong. They contain chromium and molybdenum, as well as a little bit of carbon for added hardness. There is a trend among defense contractors to use this extremely high strength steel building things such as aircraft to prevent corrosion. 

Steel is not only one of the strongest and most affordable metals available today, it is also one of the most versatile, and one that can be tailored to meet almost any need that you have by adding the right mix of other metals. Find out how steel can benefit your next project by visiting Wasatch Steel and shopping the steel supermarket today.

5 Unique Ways to Use Steel for Your Staircase

Steel is an important part of our lives today, and it has also become a very important building material for many construction companies, contractors, and do-it-yourself enthusiasts all over the world. If you are trying to think of creative ways that you can add style and function to your home, building a unique staircase using steel and other materials is a great option for you. Here are five different ways that you can creatively use steel in your home and office to build stairs.

Experiment with Shapes
Whether you are building a new home or you already living in your current home, stairs are one of the most functional items in that space. If you are tired of the “traditional” look for stairs that includes a straight staircase with each step evenly spaced that only serves the function of getting you from one floor to the next, you can shop at a place like Wasatch Steel, and find a whole selection of different shapes and sizes of steel to help you create a whole new look for your stairs. Whether it is a more abstract construction, or you just prefer to go with a uniform but nontraditional shape, these new stairs can add a whole dimension to your home that you never imagined.

Use the Space Under the Stairs
If you find that you don’t have enough space in your home to store all the things you need, consider the space under your stairs as a great option. Traditionally this space is just wasted anyway, so you can easily utilize it by building steel shelving units that slide out from underneath the stairs. The steel supermarket at Wasatch Steel has a whole line of building materials you can use to create the railings, shelves, and sliding units for your new storage space. Now all your coats, clothes, and toys can have a secure place to hide when you don’t want them out in the open.

Go Curvy
If you are tired of looking at the box-like appearance of traditional stairs, go curvy. You can find an array of balusters and steel spindles at Wasatch Steel that can give your stairs a curvy new look and bring a sensual landscape to your home. Allowing the stairs to curve will add flow to the architecture, and can add a beautiful new dimension to any home.

Go Flat
If you prefer a more modern look, steel can also provide you with a flat, functional staircase. Consider purchasing thick steel plates from Wasatch Steel, such as diamond plate or expanded steel, with each plate coming out of the wall and "floating" in space above your main floor. This flat, modern look can instantly transform your entire home by providing a clean, crisp look to your room.

Bring Nature Inside
Steel spindles and balusters that reflect a natural landscape, such as floral designs or leaves, are a great way to bring nature inside. If you are feeling particularly creative, you could even have specially designed spindles or balusters that reflect a unique design you want to bring to your home, such as the shape of a favorite tree or beautiful flower. Talk to Wasatch Steel about getting a custom design for your staircase today.

When you’re ready to design something that is not only going to be functional in getting you to the upper floors of your home, but you want it to make a statement, find out how steel can help you bring personality to your staircase.