What is The Cost 

of Galvanized Steel?

The true cost of protecting steel work from corrosion has to take into consideration two important elements:
  1. The initial cost of protection
  2. The lifetime cost, which includes the cost of maintenance. This is the cost of ensuring that steelwork is protected from corrosion throughout its service life.

cost

Initial cost
of galvanizing

Ultimate efficiency comes from speaking to us during design phase and to think about corrosion protection early on, so that we can help optimize the design for galvanizing and ensure that you are working to the relevant standards and specifications. Galvanizers Association has been closely involved with the development of process standards at a European level and across the world. 

The paint system was found 
to be 35% more expensive 
than hot dip galvanizing.

Galvanizers Association commissioned independent consultants, The Steel Protection Consultancy Ltd (SPC), to investigate the galvanising prices and the cost competitiveness of galvanizing. SPC in conjunction with consulting engineers, WS Atkins, designed a typical, 240 tonne, steel-framed building and sent it out to tender. Two corrosion protection systems were specified; (i) hot dip galvanizing and (ii) a good quality, grit blast and three coat paint system of 250µm dry film thickness. Quotations from eight fabricators in different parts of the UK were obtained and averaged. The paint system was found to be 35% more expensive than hot dip galvanizing. Figure 1 illustrates that for many applications the cost of hot dip galvanizing is lower than that of applying alternative coatings. The reason for this is simple: alternatives such as painting are very labour intensive compared with galvanizing, which is a highly mechanised, closely controlled, factory process.

Whole-life cost

Whole Life Costs for a Building

The whole-life cost of a building can be defined as: “The cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining a building over its whole life through to disposal”. Whole-life costing can be characterised as a system that quantifies financial values for buildings from inception and throughout the building’s life. It is an approach that balances capital with revenue costs to achieve an optimum solution over a building’s whole life. This technique, whilst not in itself new, has over recent years become accepted best practice in construction procurement. Whole-life costing can be used at any stage of the procurement process and can be used at the levels of facility, function, system and component. This includes everything from initial design to end-of-life.
Design Build Operate Dispose Total
£

3%
£

17%
Run/Maintain

£ – 40%
£

?%
100%

Cost of

Ownership
    Repair

£ – 30%
   
    Periodic

Replacement / Refurbish
£ – 10%
   
         
1 Year 2 Year 25 Year 1 Year Total

whole-life cost

Capturing 

whole-life cost

It is estimated that up to 80% of a building’s whole-life cost can be attributed to running, maintenance and refurbishment costs. Consequently, there are spikes in expenditure at 10 years and every five years after that.

The initial choice of materials and the way that they are protected obviously plays an important role within the maintenance and refurbishment costs of a building over its lifetime. They therefore have a very large influence on the whole-life cost profile of the project.

Smoothing
the expenditure

Life cycle expenditure tends to inherently produce ‘spiky’ profiles with large peaks at 10, 15, 20 and 25 years. Information supplied by Turner and Townsend, Construction and Management Consultants.

The overall cost of protecting a steel fabrication throughout its life depends on the cost and durability of the initial coating in the particular environment and, on the costs and frequency of any subsequent treatments where the required life exceeds that of the initial coating.
In the majority of applications, hot dip galvanizing will provide a long, maintenance-free life without any requirement for maintenance.

Take the case of a steel structure that has a projected life of 25 years and for which the discount cost of capital is 5%.

Galvanize: system 1
Paint: system 2
Paint: system 3

Durability provides Cost effective sustainable solutions!Cost Effective sustainable Solutions!

The overall cost of protecting a steel  throughout its life depends on the cost and durability of the initial coating in the particular environment and, on the costs and frequency of any subsequent treatments where the required life exceeds that of the initial coating.

In the majority of applications, hot dip galvanizing will provide a long, maintenance-free life without any requirement for maintenance.

Related reading
Can’t find what you looking for?

Allow us to assist you

Scroll to Top
Iqbal Johal
Marketing Manager

Contact us for free guidance on specification, performance or design.