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The section's weight per foot run.
In an AISC designation such as C15×33.9 or W12×40, this is the second number. Use it for self-weight only — a uniform load written in plf is a force per unit length, not a mass, and converts differently.
Mass per metre
50.45 kg/m
Converted using an exact defined factor of 1.488163944 kg/m per lb/ft. If the pounds per foot is a line load rather than a section weight, it belongs in kN/m instead — 1 lbf/ft = 14.5939 N/m.
- Conversion factor applied
- 1.49 kg/m per lb/ft
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Pounds per Foot to Kilograms per Metre Calculator: 50.45 kg/m — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Take the pound to the kilogram and the foot to the metre — 0.45359237 and 0.3048, both exact — and the ratio 0.45359237 ÷ 0.3048 gives 1.488163943569553805… kg/m per lb/ft. Exact as a ratio; the decimal runs on.
Inputs used
- Weight per foot (lb/ft)
- 33.9
Intermediate steps
- Conversion factor applied
- 1.49 kg/m per lb/ft
Confidence note: Converted using an exact defined factor of 1.488163944 kg/m per lb/ft. If the pounds per foot is a line load rather than a section weight, it belongs in kN/m instead — 1 lbf/ft = 14.5939 N/m.
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This result is a specification — 50.45 kg/m — not a quantity. Put the thing it sizes into your project: how many, what you call it, and your supplier’s price.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-08-26 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations1
- Take the pound to the kilogram and the foot to the metre — 0.45359237 and 0.3048, both exact — and the ratio 0.45359237 ÷ 0.3048 gives 1.488163943569553805… kg/m per lb/ft. Exact as a ratio; the decimal runs on.
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Your workspace
Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.
Steel arrives on a bid before it arrives on a lorry, and the bid is in tons. An American section states its own weight — a C15×33.9 is 33.9 lb/ft — so a tonnage takeoff is length times that figure divided by 2,000, and the whole estimate lives in pounds per foot. The moment that job is priced by a metric fabricator, quoted against a European section, or shipped where the freight docket reads tonnes, the same figure has to become kg/m. Convert the rate rather than the total: rounding a per-metre weight once and multiplying by the run keeps the error where you can see it, whereas converting a finished tonnage buries it in a number nobody re-checks.