Structural steel repair

[priya15]

I am involved with billboard renovation project. The owner wants to reuse the exisitng steel columns. But they are a bit rusted. I'd like to know if there is any place where I can send those columns to where they can be scraped off the rust and prepped appropriately and make it like new and re galvanize it. Is there such a service given by fabricators? Has anybody tried this approach instead of specifying new steel?

 

[dik]

Depending on the assembly, it can be sand/shot blasted and HDG... it's a matter of size of the components.

Dik

 

[Jerehmy]

how rusted are they. are you able to visit the site, scrape all the rust off of a few locations and measure the actual beam dimensions with calipers? that's what we usually do if we're going to re-use a member. then we have it sand blasted as dik said.

 

[bridgebuster]

I agree with Dik & Jerehmy concerning the reuse. However, you should contact a galvanizer about performing the surface prep. Fabricators typically don't do this type of work.

 

[JStephen]

It can be done, the real question is whether it's worthwhile.
"A bit rusted" could be highly variable in meaning.
Check with local galvanizers and see how big of a section they can handle, that'll let you know how you need to disassemble it.
They can also do the surface prep.
If it's old and painted, check for lead-based paint.

 

[JAE]

Also be sure to consider fatigue in the steel. Many billboard structures are subject to continuous repetition in wind loading which
can fatigue steel and steel weld joints.

 

[bridgebuster]

You might want to consider metalizing in lieu of disassembling & HDG.

 

[TDIengineer]

Seems like a lot effort to re-use a column, especially if you're talking about removing it to dip into a tank.

What about galvalloy? I thought there are ways to "paint" a galvanizing finish to the existing element without removal. But usually this is for touch-up because of field welding, not the whole shape.