Tilt-up or steel: how we price the decision on a distribution building

For a single-storey distribution building in West Michigan, precast tilt-up panels beat structural steel on cost more often than not. The interesting part is the exceptions, because that is where the decision actually gets made.

When tilt-up wins

Large footprint, simple rectilinear form, enough site to cast panels on the slab, and a schedule that can absorb the cure. Above roughly 200,000 square feet the panel economics are hard to beat, and you get the fire rating and the envelope in one operation.

When it does not

• A constrained site with nowhere to cast: trucking panels in erases the saving
• Heavy clear-span requirements, where the roof structure dominates the cost anyway
• Winter starts, where cure time collides with the schedule you were trying to protect
• Complex facade articulation, where the formwork cost climbs faster than the steel would

How we actually decide

We price both through preconstruction rather than assuming, because the crossover moves with steel pricing and it has moved twice in the last three years. The answer we give in January is not always the answer we would have given in September.