Structural Steel Frame: Supply, Fabricate & Erect – cost per tonne – UK 2026 Rate Guide

Budget rate for supply, fabricate & erect · typical budget rate before your adjustments

Labour, plant, materials, outputs and waste — yours to edit, as an Excel. Three free.

Rates are UK national (non-London): central London and constrained urban sites typically run dearer — adjust the labour, plant and access lines in the build-up accordingly.

Structural steel frame

per tonne · supply, fab & erect

£2701 – £5510 / tonne

What is it

The supply, fabrication and erection of a structural steel frame — universal beams and columns (UB/UC), cut, drilled and welded with their connections and a shop primer coat, delivered to site and then crane-lifted, plumbed, bolted up and aligned into the building frame, priced per tonne of erected steelwork — the way a bill of quantities measures structural steel. This headline prices a general commercial / industrial frame of mixed piece weights. The rate carries two operations:

Supplied & fabricated — the sections cut, drilled, welded with fittings and connections and shop-primed off-site, then delivered.
Erected — crane-lifted into place, plumbed, bolted up and aligned to line and level by a steel-erection gang working at height.

Rate range

Low£2701 – £3481 / tonne

Standard£3311 – £4268 / tonne

High£4275 – £5510 / tonne

Budget rate per m³.

3 key cost drivers

Frame weight, sections & connections

The fabricated steel is around 86% of the cost, so section rates, weight and the fabrication of connections drive the rate. Simple industrial frames with heavy, repetitive members are cheapest per tonne; complex multi-storey frames with heavy connection design, splices and extensive secondary steelwork are dearest. Heavy long members also erect far faster per tonne than light connection-heavy secondary steel.

Erection access & height

Open sites with good crane access and standing erect fastest. Tight urban sites, tall lifts, restricted crane positions and heavy craneage slow the gang and lift the rate; the steel is fabricated off-site, so on-site work is bolting up and alignment.

Supply & quantity

Merchant prices for the bought-in materials move with supplier, account and load size, and the published band already spans that range. Rates are UK non-London; London & the South East typically run dearer — adjust the build-up.

Estimator

Budget rate generator

£3311 – £4268 / tonne

Covers the fabricated steel supplied, the erection gang & mobile crane, and O&P · excl. fire protection, metal decking, holding-down bolts, prelims & VAT

Exclusions

Fire protection — intumescent coating, boarding or sprayed protection (a separately measured item)
Metal decking, shear studs & the composite concrete floor slab (separate rates)
Holding-down bolts, base-plate grouting & the concrete foundations / bases the frame sits on
Connection & fabrication design, shop drawings, and extensive secondary steelwork (cladding rails, purlins) beyond the frame
Main-contractor general craneage / distribution attendance, preliminaries, testing & inspection, and VAT
VAT