Steel or Concrete Hall? A Fair, Sourced Comparison

No material always wins. Eight sourced comparisons — and five questions before you decide.

Last checked: 1 Nov 2026 · sources: JRC (European Commission), Croatian Official Gazette, Eurostat, worldsteel and SteelConstruction.info (industry sources, labelled as such) · RAKUŠIĆ Corporation

No material always wins. Steel and concrete differ in self-weight, fire behaviour, environmental protection, spans and what can be done with the structure later. Span, fire requirements, environment, schedule and future plans decide — not slogans. We fabricate steel, so we took particular care to state where concrete has the edge.

1. Self-weight

Design uses 78.5 kN/m³ for steel and 25 kN/m³ for reinforced concrete. Density alone says little about how heavy a hall is: compare the total dead load per m² of roof and what reaches the foundations, for the same span and loads. Sources: JRC, EN 1991-1-1 Annex A (2025); JRC, Eurocode 2 worked examples (2014).

2. Spans

System	Typical span	Source
Steel portal frame	15–50 m; most efficient 25–35 m; frame spacing 6–8 m	SteelConstruction.info (industry)
Precast prestressed concrete girder	generally 30–40 m; transport is the limit	CPI trade journal (2019)

Sources: SteelConstruction.info, Portal frames; CPI worldwide (Universalbeton Heringen, HTWK Leipzig), 10 Jul 2019. We found no official or peer-reviewed source for “typical” spans, so these are labelled as industry figures.

3. Fire

Steel does not burn, but it loses strength at high temperature. Per EN 1993-1-2, the share of yield strength retained:

Steel temperature	400 °C	500 °C	600 °C	700 °C
k_y,θ (share of f_y)	1.00	0.78	0.47	0.23

Source: JRC, Structural Fire Design – Worked examples (2014), table per EN 1993-1-2, Table 3.1.

Reinforcement in concrete is protected by the concrete cover and heats up more slowly. An unprotected steel section heats faster — so for higher requirements steel is protected (intumescent coating, boards) or designed for fire. The required fire resistance is set by national regulations; in Croatia by the fire-resistance ordinance (OG 29/2013, amended OG 87/2015), which allows one grade lower where automatic detection and suppression are installed. Sources: OG 29/2013, OG 87/2015.

4. Durability and environment

Steel: the corrosivity category of the site (ISO 9223, ISO 12944-2) determines the protection system — paint or hot-dip galvanizing to EN ISO 1461. More in our galvanizing guide.
Concrete: exposure classes (carbonation XC, de-icing salts XD, sea water XS) determine cover, strength class and mix (EN 206, EN 1992-1-1).

Both materials need durability designed for their environment; neither is “maintenance-free” by definition.

5. End of life

Steel: worldsteel estimates recovery of steel from construction at at least 85 % (industry source). worldsteel, 2023
Concrete and mineral construction waste: according to Eurostat, 80.1 % was recycled in the EU-27 in 2024 and 86.8 % in Croatia (our calculation from the data). “Recycling” here includes lower-grade uses such as backfill and road sub-base. Eurostat, env_wastrt

6. Embodied carbon

Under EN 15804, construction products are compared meaningfully only at building level over the whole life cycle — not per tonne of material. From 2028, new buildings over 1,000 m² in the EU disclose their life-cycle global warming potential (EPBD 2024/1275). The only peer-reviewed comparison we found concerns multi-storey buildings and shows overlapping results across materials — so we do not claim that either material is “greener”. For a specific hall, the answer comes from a calculation with the environmental product declarations (EPDs) of the actual products. Source: European Commission, EPBD.

7. Construction speed

We found no official or peer-reviewed comparison of construction speed for steel and concrete halls. The schedule depends on design, permit, degree of prefabrication, weather and crane availability. So ask for a phased schedule in the quote rather than a single number.

8. Later changes and reuse

The EU Level(s) framework names mechanical, reversible connections as good practice and welded joints as a barrier to reuse; larger column spacing gives a more flexible layout. This applies to both materials: a bolted steel structure is easy to dismantle and extend only if it was designed that way. Source: JRC, Level(s) indicator 2.4.

◆Five questions before you decide. What column-free span do you need? What fire resistance does the regulation require for your use? Is the site coastal or industrial? Do you plan to extend or relocate? What is the deadline — and is the schedule in the quote broken down by phase?

For a steel hall or structure, send us the span, use and location — we reply with a structural proposal. See also international projects.