The range and its distance from warehousing
The published orders of magnitude span the whole commercial hall market, and the range within production halls alone is already a factor of 2.5. They are net figures per square metre of hall area.
| Hall type | Order of magnitude per m² |
|---|---|
| Open covered shelter without a closed envelope | low three-digit range |
| Production hall with extensive technical equipment | 600 to 1,500 € |
| At the upper end of that | halls with a crane runway and demanding building services |
| Gap between warehouse and production hall of comparable size | 100 to 300 € |
That gap does not come from a single item but from four groups, which act independently of one another. None of them can substitute for another.
| Group | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Structural allowances | imposed loads and crane loads |
| Machine foundations | project-specific, contained in no per-square-metre benchmark |
| Utility distribution | cost group 400, partly use-specific in KG 470 |
| Workplace requirements | welfare areas, tempering, lighting, noise control |
The crane runway changes the entire structure
A crane runway is not a fitting but a design parameter. It acts on every component of the hall.
| Component | Effect of the crane runway |
|---|---|
| Columns | larger sections, frequently fixed rather than pinned bases |
| Foundations | considerably larger, since fixity moments must be resisted |
| Rafters and roof structure | additional loads and deflection limits |
| Bracing | raised requirements because of horizontal crane loads |
| Hall height | hook height plus crane, runway and structure sets the wall height |
The last point is the most expensive. The required hook height fixes the hall height, and every additional metre of wall height increases steel quantity, facade area, wind loads and heated volume simultaneously.
In practice cranes of very different capacity are installed, from a few tonnes for pillar-mounted slewing jibs up to overhead travelling cranes in the double-digit tonne range. Between a hall for a light jib crane and a hall for a heavy overhead crane lie worlds of structural difference, even though both are described as a production hall with a crane runway.
Rule for cost estimating: the crane data belong in the brief before the cost estimate, with capacity, hook height and the number of cranes per bay. A crane runway added later is structurally almost never possible without strengthening the frame.
Machine foundations and floor loads
Heavy or vibration-generating machines need their own foundations, which may be structurally separated from the floor slab so that vibration is not transmitted into the building. These foundations are project-specific and inside no square metre benchmark.
Added to which are raised requirements for the floor slab itself, both in distributed loads and in resistance to oils, cutting fluids and mechanical wear. Surface preparation is routinely more demanding in a production hall than in a warehouse.
In practice this implies a sequence that is frequently disregarded: machine layout precedes hall design, not the other way round. A hall designed before the plant list is fixed either carries unnecessary reserves or forces expensive retrofitting later.
Utility distribution
Cost group 400 weighs considerably more in a production hall than in a warehouse, because process-related plant is added to the usual building services. How that plant is allocated also decides how it is treated in any later viability assessment.
| Plant | Scope |
|---|---|
| Compressed air | generation, treatment, ring main |
| Power supply | dedicated transformer station at the corresponding connected load |
| Extraction and process ventilation | according to the type of manufacturing |
| Cooling water and cutting fluids | supply and separators |
| Swarf and waste logistics | process-dependent |
Part of this plant is use-specific and belongs systematically in cost group 470, another part in general building services. The allocation must be recorded, because use-specific plant disappears on a later change of use and is therefore treated differently from the basic installation.
The structural grid
The choice of grid spacing acts in opposite directions structurally and operationally, which is why it cannot be derived from the frame alone. The economical spacing follows from the process.
| Grid | Structurally | Operationally |
|---|---|---|
| Wide | larger beam sections, more expensive foundations | few obstructing columns, high flexibility of machine layout |
| Narrow | cheaper | obstructive, every process change ends at a column |
Column spacing is a cost decision with a double effect in production buildings. A wide grid reduces the number of obstructing columns in the manufacturing area and increases flexibility in machine layout, but demands larger rafter sections and more expensive foundations. A tight grid is structurally cheaper and operationally more obstructive.
The economic grid dimension therefore follows not from the structure but from the process. Manufacturing with fixed workstations tolerates a tighter grid than an assembly line whose route is meant to change.
A common error is to select the grid from a supplier's standard range and then plan the machine layout into it. That saves on the structure and costs across the service life, because every process change runs into a column. Conversely, a grid chosen over-wide out of caution is expensive ballast. Both errors are avoidable only if process planning is complete before structural design.
The workplace is a cost block of its own
Unlike a warehouse, a production hall is permanently occupied. A set of requirements follows that are not negotiable and that are missing from benchmarks drawn from pure storage projects: The requirements that follow concern climate, lighting, sound insulation and sanitary provision.
| Requirement | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Welfare areas | changing rooms, sanitary areas, break rooms, showers where applicable, sized by headcount and activity |
| Heating and ventilation | tempering; envelope insulation turns from a question of viability into a necessity |
| Lighting | illuminance and glare control by activity, governed by standard; ridge lighting strips also serve smoke and heat extraction |
| Noise control | room acoustic measures, enclosures where necessary |
These items are the main reason a warehouse cannot readily be converted into a production hall, even where structure and floor area would suffice. Conversion rarely fails on the structure and usually on the building services.
Extendability as a cost decision
Production halls are extended more often than other building types, because the process changes. Whether an extension will later be economically possible is decided at the time of the original build.
Two choices act most strongly: selecting a structural grid that permits extension along the hall axis without disturbing the existing bracing, and forming the gable wall as a future internal wall rather than a permanent external one. Both are made at concept stage and can only be changed expensively later.
Both cost little at the outset and save considerably at extension. They belong in the cost estimate as a deliberately recorded item rather than as a silent reserve.
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The orders of magnitude given are indicative values for Germany. They do not replace a project-specific cost estimate and vary considerably by manufacturing process, crane provision, plant scope, ground conditions and location.