Cost to Build a Steel Frame House in Greece

If you are looking at a steel frame for your home mainly because you expect it to cost less, please read this page first.

We prefer to work with people who want steel in their home for what it offers, not because they expect a cheaper building. If a lower price is the main reason, we are probably not the right team for you.

The exceptions are multi-story buildings, homes with an industrial design or an exposed frame, buildings that need speed and repetition, such as housing developments, and buildings with very long spans. All of these come out very economical in steel.

Steel and concrete compared with the usual Greek construction

In Greece, steel and steel and concrete homes usually cost more than homes with a reinforced concrete frame and brick infill walls, especially low-rise ones. Composite construction did not come to make homes cheaper. It came mainly to close safety gaps in earthquakes, and to bring the benefits of off-site fabrication to building.

The comparison favors steel and concrete when you ask for very good seismic behavior, even beyond what the codes require, and walls with high thermal insulation that also behave very well in earthquakes. It also favors buildings that truly need steel, such as multi-story buildings, buildings that can only be built with an exoskeleton, difficult vertical additions, very long spans and very distinctive architecture.

What affects the cost

six points

The cost of a building depends first on the engineer and builder, on how they price and on the level of service they offer.
The drawings of a conventional home cannot always be built with the same economy as a steel and concrete building.
Conventional brick walls have weaknesses in earthquakes, even in concrete buildings. Steel and concrete buildings are more flexible and work much better with solid wall systems that are firmly connected to the frame.
A steel and concrete building is much more demanding to design and build than a conventional one, at every stage up to the walls. Few engineers and builders have the experience to do it properly. This limits how many such buildings the market can take on and, in turn, raises the cost.
A steel frame usually costs more than a reinforced concrete frame, because concrete is a cheaper material and easier to build with. A small part of the difference is covered by lower labor insurance contributions. A large reduction in total cost comes mainly in tall buildings, where reinforced concrete becomes uneconomical because of material cost, construction time and lost usable floor area.
Steel is also more economical in buildings with demanding architecture, such as long roof or floor spans for rooms or halls without intermediate columns.

How much the cost actually differs

If we built exactly the same classic Greek house, say a two-story home, both ways ourselves, the steel and concrete one might show a small saving, for us alone, from lower labor insurance contributions on the frame and walls, thinner slabs, smaller foundations and a shorter construction time. This does not count the energy savings of the walls usually used with steel, which pay back over the years.

A larger saving is not possible for the ordinary buildings built in Greece. With some designs on the market and with split contracts, though, we have seen prices for the frame stage much higher than conventional construction. Large differences between quotes come from many factors, and not necessarily from quality.

For the same drawings and the same design, each contractor's quote depends on their pricing policy, which in turn depends on their staff and overhead, their experience, the profit they aim for, their know-how, and the partners who oversee the project technically and financially.

You cannot ask for the best possible protection for yourself and your family in a major earthquake and at the same time expect steel and concrete homes to cost less than conventional ones. If some builders choose to compete on a low price, that is their decision and we respect it. We will not follow it.

Steel frame homes