S235 vs S355: The Weight-Loss Story Nobody Puts on a Slide

Let’s skip the white-paper blah-blah. If you’re designing a 6-storey braced frame and the architect is already crying about floor height, you need smaller beams yesterday. That’s when you flirt with S355.

Real-life cheat sheet:

• Same load, same deflection limit → S355 beam can drop **one serial size** (think 406→356).
• On a 200 t steel package that’s **~17 t** gone—roughly one truck off the road and one happy crane operator.
• Price spread this month: S355 is **+8 %/t** in northern EU, but you’re buying 15 % fewer tonnes. Net invoice **still drops** a few grand.

But don’t be that guy who specs S355 for the 3 m span mezzanine just to sound fancy—you’ll pay extra for steel you can’t even see.

Bottom line: If your project is >4 storeys or has any “long-span” bragging rights, run a quick section-size study in S355. You’ll usually save enough weight to fund the site office coffee machine for a year. And if the client still cries about the per-tonne price, send him this post.