As our logo and banner suggest, we produce custom heavy duty grating panels, custom drain covers, and weldment panels for vehicular traffic. Our heavy duty grating lands on trenches, driveways, and pits in factories, shops, warehouses, washing stations, and underground garages. We also produce some of more sophisticated panels of grated steel for pedestrian traffic. In essence we are expert in all applications where extreme impact, vibration, fatigue and significant loads damage existing grating built for static loads. The clients who replace or repair grating every 4-5 years and clients with open basins or open drains who cant find covers or lids, will benefit from our product the most.

• Built for dynamic loads, not just static ones
• Custom sizes to fit your existing trench if possible or increased depth of steel support recommended
• Made in Lucan, Ontario, shipped across Canada and the US

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes

We improve welded heavy duty grating so you can drive on it for years

We at Metalgrating improve weak spots of the standard welded steel heavy duty grating to sustain better the vehicular traffic loads for much, much longer. Please note* we start with span, static load, and size of bearing bar tables but then we start improving. On the trenches up to 1.5 feet span, we install thicker load-bearing banding and weld large welds on both sides of every bearing bar at the banding bar. We place these welds through the whole depth of banding and load bearing bars.

Please compare the welds and the thickness of banding

Our heavy duty grating panel is on the left and the manufacturer’s panel is on the right. You can judge yourself. The images do not need any explanation. Our tradesmen weld our welds and they clean manually all welds. Manufacturer’s use robots.

This method alone increases utilization of our grating to 15 – 20 years when comparing to the trench covers made from the same grating. Our improvements increase utilization time 400% – 500% when compared to grating you have to exchange 4 – 5 years. If you have to exchange or repair trench heavy duty grating every 4 – 5 years then your grating is not as heavy duty as you think, isn’t it?

We weld crossbars on the bottom of load bearing bars to mimic swagged grating

We weld crossbars on the bottom of the panel for wider panels of above 1.5 – 2 feet. Clients use these panels on driveways. Our clients benefit from about 20 years of utilization time when purchase panels with crossbars welded on the bottom. Since clients replace most of the panels in this sector after 6 – 8 years, this is improvement by 250%- 334%

Galvanized boxed steel support

We also produce boxed steel support for each quoted heavy duty grating. This allows for much easier embedding to concrete and maintains specific span during installation. Our steel support has welded rebar in custom sizes on the back. If you will use us for installation of steel support for your trench cover you will benefit of perfect leveling / elevation. More importantly, we assure you of absolute straightness. We are using custom guides for holding our boxed steel support in place during concrete pour. We do it in this way to avoid any bending of steel angle support that causes bending of grating panels. Bend grating panels are prone have twisted or broken load bearing bars and collapse much faster.

Galvanized after fabrication and welding

We galvanize our products after fabrication and welding. Our products meet or exceed NAAMM current guidance. We ask for details of vehicles driving on your property. And, then we consider span and then we ask for existing steel support depth. There is no other way around.

We number heavy duty grating panels for problem identification

Metalgrating stamps numbers on our heavy duty grating on trenches and driveways. We insist that our clients will not rotate them during the maintenance and cleaning operations. In this way, we can identify panels exposed to much bigger loads and impact. Consequently, we can identify problems much better. We focus on panels that need replacement for better rated panels. Therefore we avoid replacing all panels which is a very costly approach. Our numbering saves you money in the long run.

In this way, we identify problem and provide solution. Instead of rotating the panels and damaging all of them. We provide panel that will tolerate the loads very well and we leave the other panels as they are. The replacement of specific panels is a much more attractive solution due to its lower cost.

Static rated welded grating ends up under vehicles

The industry recognizes 3 basic types of heavy duty grating: rivetted grating, swagged grating and welded grating.

Rivetted grating is ideal for vehicular traffic

The most recommended grating for vehicular traffic is obviously rivetted grating. It is used on our bridges on highways and roads. It sustains perfectly static loads and dynamic loads of vehicular traffic, but it is very difficult to walk on it. This type of grating is very expensive and it is difficult to obtain since not many manufacturers produce it. Trying to produce trench panels or driveway panels from riveted type of grating would be technically challenging and extremely costly. High cost of riveted panels prohibits its use for trenches and driveways.

Swagged grating sustains vehicular traffic well

The pressure locked grating or swagged grating would be a second choice for vehicular traffic. It handles static loads and it handles dynamic loads relatively well. Unfortunately, swagged grating is still to costly, difficult to obtain and uncomfortable for for production of trenches and driveways. The swagged grating must be welded outside of its rim bar. The welds on the outside surface of rim bar would make necessary gaps difficult to maintain. Therefore, these panels would be difficult to remove.

Welded bar grating does not sustain vehicular traffic well but is inexpensive

Welded steel grating is the least expensive to manufacture. And it is rated only for static loads. Therefore it should be used for pedestrian traffic on mezzanines, and catwalks. This is a grating that is sized from static load tables meant for floors of mezzanines and catwalks. You should never use welded steel grating for vehicular traffic due to 2 reasons. First reason: the standard allows for welding the load bearing bar to banding bar only on one side. Second reason is that the crossbars protect only top surface of the panel against the angular load. Nothing protects the bottom surface of the panel against dynamic loads. That is why we place 2 welds per each load bearing bar and we weld cross bars to the bottom of our welded grating panels.

The one weld holding the bearing bar to the banding breaks easily under the vehicles going along the trench. These welds often crack causing the panel loosing its rigidity and panel collapse. That is why we weld two welds. The lack of crossbars on the bottom of the panel causes twisting the load bearing bars. This happens very often in larger panels even if the welds are still holding to the banding. Twisted bearing bars in the middle of the panel cause breaking welds between crossbars and load bearing bars. Twisted load caring bars quicky loose capacity to sustain any static loads or dynamic loads. In fact, stopping the vehicle on the grating or radically turning the wheels while standing on grating damages the welded steel grating the most.

Distributors sell without asking questions

Many contractors purchase the welded steel panels tor their trenches based on span and depth of an existing angular steel support. Since the most popular size is 1.5″ depth all trenches with different spans have welded grating with panels of 1.5″ thick. And since the most popular bar grating is 1/4″ thick than most trenches disregarding the vehicular traffic have load bearing bars 1/4″ x 1.5″.

To make things even worse, if the contractor asks for serrated bar grating to provide traction for pedestrians, the distributor provides it often at the same cost. The contractor is not aware that serration reduces the static load. Therefore the static load is reduced due to serration to load of the bar smaller by 1/4″. Most importantly, nobody informs the contractor that serration increases traction of vehicles. It increases the dynamic impact acting on the trench cover. Nobody from the distributor asks for the weight of vehicles driving on trench covers made from load bearing bars 1/4″ x 1.25″

Consequently,. all heavy vehicular traffic such as: heavy trucks, agricultural heavy equipment, earth moving equipment, pickup trucks, forklifts and passenger vehicles drive thousand times a day on trench covers suitable for passenger traffic. That is why many owners, property managers, facility managers exchange damaged trench covers every 4 to 5 years.

Heavy duty grating repairs and modifications.

We repair and modify heavy duty grating such as trench grating and driveway grating as long as they are not damaged by rust. This repairs can take place on site or in our shop in Lucan. We provide serous modifications to heavy duty grating in our shop in Lucan . Ontario.

Custom drain covers / basin lids, any size, any shape, any depth, any load

We fabricate custom drain covers and custom basin lids to replace the broken casted covers or damaged lids in factories, shops, underground garages, washing stations and parking lots. We fit your drain . Not the other way around. Standard castings rarely match older drain. We fabricate a steel, custom drain cover to the exact opening so the concrete channel stays exactly where it is. Since we do not replace the concrete channel you will be saving 40%-60% in comparison to the traditional standard replacement that involves replacing the drain channel. There could be though a very minor concrete work if you want your cover to look perfectly. There is no downtime in your facility and there is no heavy equipment involved.

Structure of our custom drain covers and custom basin lids

Our custom drain covers and custom basin lids consist of top plate and custom heavy duty grating for load support. The custom lids and covers level flush to the concrete surface. The thickness of the steel plate ranges from 1/4″ to 1″ going by increments of 1/8″. The custom heavy duty grating could be made from solid steel bars of HSTS or HSTR. We choose these elements with thickest walls in the particular category. They could become very heavy but they can be handled by two men equipped with our lifters. Our lifters come free with every order.

Our custom drain covers have slots and holes to allow proper drainage. Great majority of our covers are galvanized after fabrication and welding.

• Rated for half axle loads
• Built for dynamic loads and heavy static loads
• Does not wobble if steel support is proper or steel support does not exists.
• Flush with concrete
• Made in Lucan, Ontario, shipped across Canada and the US

Three styles of covers: supported, unsupported, and chamfer

We fabricate covers in three styles: supported, unsupported and chamfer. We help you to choose style pending the style of your drain. If your drain cover has the steel angle support for the cover or it has a concrete step out than you need a supported style drain cover at the depth that will make the top surface of the cover flush with surrounding concrete.

Unsupported custom basin lid

The basins with straight walls or drains with straight walls that do not have any support for their cover need unsupported style cover. The heavy duty grating’s supporting structure simply hangs inside the opening and the steel plate absorbs the static or dynamic loads. To make the top steel plate flush with the concrete, we have to grind off the concrete under the plate deep enough to make the top surface of the plate flush with concrete surface.

In extreme situations we could insist to create the steel or concrete support in the drain that does not have one due to significant static loads or excessive impact.

Supported custom drain cover

The supported custom drain cover is supported by steel angle embedded in the concrete, custom rebar structure embedded in concrete or a step out of concrete itself. Therefore edges of the top plate align with edges with heavy duty grating support. The supported custom drain covers tolerate static loads much better and therefore they are preferable for heavy vehicular traffic.

Chamfer custom drain cover

The chamfer style cover offers is the solution when the drain cover has the steel support or concrete support but the depth of support is not sufficient for drain cover to to carry the load. Therefore, we could fabricate the heavy duty grating in the chamfer style. Again, in extreme situations we could insist to create steel support of greater depth to allow us fabricate a supported style cover that will carry your excessive loads.

We repair old drain covers including casted drain covers as long as they are not rusted out.

We repair drain covers / basin lids as long as they are not damaged by rust. This repairs can take place on site or in our shop in Lucan, Ontario. More serous modifications must be shipped to Lucan.,

Weldment panels at Metalgrating

When welded grating panels fail and client is looking for better solution than replacing damaged heavy duty grating panels then we provide grating weldments and in the extreme cases our lighter custom drain cover panels or custom basin lids that will fit your trenches and driveways. When the client is facing the collapse of specific few panels in the trench or driveway every 2-3 years and the rest of the panels are in good shape. Then instead of increasing the depth of the steel support that is associated with significant concrete work and cost above $10,000, and another $15,000 for the new set of cheap welded steel grating, we suggest our weldment panels or our drain covers that fit your trench or driveway.

Our weldment panels are custom and extremely heavy duty grating panels fabricated from heavy flat bars or HSTS or HSTR with heaviest wall possible. They are additionally boxed with extra cross bars on top of panel and on its bottom. In fact, these custom and extremely heavy duty grating panels often form the supporting structure of our drain covers. These weldment panels has much better liquid flow than our drain covers and have better traction too.

A few words about our history

JW Investrade Inc. is a mother company of JW Portable Welding & Repairs. On our specialization page we introduce you to metal grating world and create distinction of metal grating handled by metalgrating.ca from metal grating handled by JW Portable Welding & Repairs,

Our improved customization of heavy duty grating panels involves improvements of existing panels manufactured by others, grating weldments for extreme situations and repairs of relatively old panels. We also produce compound grated steel in form of heavy duty drain covers for floors. Our drain cover also sustains extreme loads and impact.

Our heavy duty grating expertise has grown over the years

We are a dominant mobile welding company for commercial projects in London, Ontario. Since beginning of our existence we have received calls to repair welded heavy duty grating in ramps, trenches, and pits. Also we have repaired staircases, mezzanines and catwalks. The difference in nature of these repairs has been noticeable right away. The repairs on ramps, trenches and pits have focused on cracks of grating steel and twisted bearing bars. However, repairs of mezzanines and catwalks were rather related to steel structure supporting bar grating deck. The only exception of the rule were staircases with rusted steps, rusted steel grated decks and rusted steel structure.

We are tradesmen who are certified welders, certified millwrights and have engineering degree from other country. For last 15 years we have gained hands on experience in variety of heavy duty grating’s issues and we know what works and how long it will work. Due to engineering background we calculate grating properly using NAAMM guidance but we tend to exceed NAAMM standards by 40% – 60% due to our experience dealing with dynamic loads.

Metalgrating.ca mission and communication style

Our mission is to improve utilization time of heavy duty grating panels and provide replacement drain covers / basin lids at reasonable cost. We operate in secondary market of factories, shops, underground garages and parking lots. Our products sustain high static loads and tolerate well impact and fatigue of dynamic loads caused by vehicular traffic. Our goal is to to increase your return of investment in operation of your business through reduction of frequent steel grating failures and reduction of cost for drain cover or basin lid replacement.

We are the custom producer of heavy duty grating panels and custom drain covers for secondary market. The secondary market consists of businesses operating in facilities older than 10 years who are our clients, variety of heavy duty grating steel importers, steel distributors and bar grating steel manufacturers. Grating steel product complexities can sometimes overwhelm clients with or without technical background. Therefore this website’s purpose is to simplify and educate clients about their choices prior purchasing any grating steel. Our direct communication also simplifies concepts as we explain grating steel challenges.

Communication style

Our simplifications throughout this website rely on simple images, drawings, suggestions and comparisons to draw important distinctions and conclusions. We even start with instructions how to measure grating steel and then plan the layout of grating steel panels within your grating area. We teach you everything you need to know to contact any manufacturer, producer or us to provide you with quote. You do not have to hire an engineer to help you with ordering even if you have never hold a tape measure.

Since beginning, we divide the novice buyers into two groups. These clients who seek grated panels for vehicular traffic and those who seek steel grating panels for pedestrian traffic. Each group learns what they need to know about grating steel separately since there are some significant differences between these panels. We also ask each group to have “Bar grating basic concepts” open for quick concept reference. Having this page open while reading many pages on our website will clarify the concepts of grating steel even faster. Our contact page has been simplified to accommodate clients expecting faster responses from us. However, we still implement step by step information gathering process prior quoting. Our contact page suits novice as well as engineer specialized in the field of metal grating as they take different paths.