Properties

Pre-Engineered Steel Building

Conventional Steel Building

Structural Weight

Pre-engineered buildings are on the average 30% lighter because of the efficient use of steel.
Secondary members are light weight roll formed “Z” or “C” shaped members.

Primary steel members are selected hot rolled “T” sections. Which are, in many segments of the members heavier than what is actually required by design.
Secondary members are selected from standard hot rolled sections which are much heavier.

Design

Quick and efficient design since PEB’s are mainly formed by standard sections and connections design, time is significantly reduced.

Each conventional steel structure is designed from scratch with fewer design aids available to the engineer.

Construction Period

Average 6 to 8 weeks

Average 20 to 26 weeks

Foundation

Simple design, easy to construct and light weight.

Extensive, heavy foundation required.

Erection and Simplicity

Since the connection of compounds is standard the learning curve of erection for each subsequent project is faster.

The connections are normally complicated and differ from project-to-project resulting tin increasing the time for erection of the buildings.

Erection Time and Cost

The erection process is faster and much easier with very less requirement for equipment

Typically, conventional steel buildings are 20% more expensive than PEB in most of the cases, the erection costs and time are not estimated accurately.
Erection process is slow and extensive field labor is required. Heavy equipment is also needed.

Seismic Resistance

The low weight flexible frames offer higher resistance to seismic forces.

Rigid heavy frames do not perform well in seismic zones.

Overall Cost

Price per square meter may be as low as by 30 % than the conventional building.

Higher price per square meter.

Architecture

Outstanding architectural design can be achieved at low cost using standard architectural details and interfaces.

Special architectural design and features must be developed for each project which often requires research and thus resulting in higher cost.

Future Expansion

Future expansion is very easy and simple.

Future expansion is most tedious and more costly.

Safety and Responsibility

Single source of responsibility is there because the entire job is being done by one supplier.

Multiple responsibilities can result in question of who is responsible when the components do not fit in properly, insufficient material is supplied or parts fail to perform particularly at the supplier/contractor interface.

Performance

All components have been specified and designed specially to act together as a system for maximum efficiency, precise fir and peak performance in the field.

Components are custom designed for a specific application on a specific job. Design and detailing errors are possible when assembling the diverse components into unique buildings.