All Contractors should be intimately familiar with Steel Reinforcing Bar (Rebar) grades and sizes. With materials coming from all over the globe these days, it is ever important to know the comparison between the Imperial and Metric systems for bar grading and sizing. Starting in 1997, CRSI member steel mills have adopted new “soft metric” standards in their grading and sizing.
The charts below should be used to cross reference imperial grades and sizes with metric grades and sizes. Watch out because if your specs are in metric and your supplier is still using the imperial system, you may wind up with some really huge bar diameters on site. As you can see, the old #4 (1/2″) bars are now being called out as #13, so be very careful here to avoid these kinds of potentially costly mistakes.
Soft Metric Bar Sizes vs. Inch-Pound Bar Sizes:
| Metric Bar Sizes | Inch-Pound Equivalents |
| #10 #13 #16 |
#3 #4 #5 |
| #19 #22 #25 |
#6 #7 #8 |
| #29 #32 #36 |
#9 #10 #11 |
| #43 #57 |
#14 #18 |
| Inch-Pound Grade |
psi* Minimum Yield Strength |
Metric Grade |
MPa** Minimum Yield Strength |
| 40 | 40,000 | 280 | 280 |
| 50 | 50,000 | 350 | 350 |
| 60 | 60,000 | 420 | 420 |
| 75 | 75,000 | 520 | 520 |
* pounds per square inch
** megapascals
For more information, please visit www.crsi.org/rebar
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