Steel Erection Sequence Calculator
Plan steel erection duration, crane picks per day, crew sizing, and crane utilization based on tonnage, piece count, and pick distance -- and flag pieces that exceed crane capacity.
About this calculator
Estimated Erection Days is Total Pieces divided by Picks per Day, and Total Pieces is Number of Floors times Pieces per Floor -- so Pieces per Floor and Number of Floors are the direct drivers of schedule length, while Total Steel Tonnage mainly reshuffles how heavy each piece is (Avg Piece Weight), not how many pieces there are. Picks per Day itself comes from a stepped lookup by average piece weight (30/day under 1 ton, 24/day from 1-3 tons, 18/day from 3-5 tons, 12/day above 5 tons) adjusted by a pick-distance factor, so a tonnage change only moves the schedule when it's large enough to push the average piece into a different weight bracket -- a modest 10% tonnage increase at the defaults leaves average piece weight well inside the same under-1-ton bracket, so Picks per Day and Erection Days stay unchanged even though Minimum Crew Size (driven separately by tons-per-day bolt-up staffing) does shift.
Average Pick Distance also feeds the pick-cycle time directly: reaches over 100 ft cut the daily pick rate by 20% versus reaches under 60 ft. Overweight Pieces flags when average piece weight exceeds Crane Capacity -- it stays at zero unless the crane is genuinely undersized for the job's average piece.
Inputs
Results
Estimated Erection Days
7 days
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the total steel tonnage, number of floors, and average pieces per floor.
- Set the crane capacity in tons at the working radius and the average pick distance in ft.
- Read Picks per Day and Estimated Erection Days to build the project schedule.
- Check Avg Piece Weight (lbs) — if it approaches the crane capacity, a larger crane or rigging plan is needed.
- Use Minimum Crew Size and Crane Utilization (%) to optimize labor deployment.
- Review Tons per Day to benchmark against typical steel erection productivity of 4–12 tons/day.
How the result changes with Pieces per Floor
| Pieces per Floor | Estimated Erection Days |
|---|---|
| 30 | 5 days |
| 45 | 5 days |
| 90 | 10 days |
| 150 | 17 days |
What each input means
- Total Steel Tonnage
- Total structural steel tonnage to erect.
- Number of Floors
- Number of floors/levels in the structure.
- Pieces per Floor
- Average number of steel pieces (beams, columns, braces) per floor.
- Crane Capacity
- Maximum crane lifting capacity at working radius.
- Average Pick Distance
- Average horizontal distance from crane to pick/set point.
What each result means
- Estimated Erection Days
- Estimated working days to complete steel erection.
- Picks per Day
- Expected crane picks per 8-hour work day.
- Total Pieces
- Total steel pieces across all floors.
- Avg Piece Weight
- Average weight per steel piece.
- Tons per Day
- Average tonnage erected per day.
- Crane Utilization
- Estimated productive crane utilization percentage.
- Minimum Crew Size
- Minimum erection crew (operator, connectors, bolt-up, foreman).
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters4 parametersTotal Steel Tonnage = 100, Number of Floors = 3, Pieces per Floor = 60, Crane Capacity = 25 = 5 input(s) provided
- Calculate Estimated Erection DaysEstimated Erection Days7 = 7
- Calculate Picks per DayPicks per Day27 = 27
- Calculate Total PiecesTotal Pieces180 = 180
Engine last updated . Checked against 3 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does increasing total steel tonnage always slow down the erection schedule?
Not necessarily -- a tonnage increase alone raises the average piece weight, but Picks per Day only changes when that average weight crosses one of four fixed brackets (under 1 ton, 1-3, 3-5, over 5 tons). A modest tonnage increase that stays within the same bracket leaves Estimated Erection Days completely unchanged.
What has the biggest direct effect on the erection schedule?
Pieces per Floor and Number of Floors, since Total Pieces (their product) is divided straight by Picks per Day to get Estimated Erection Days -- more pieces to set means more picks needed, regardless of how much each piece weighs.
How does pick distance affect the daily schedule?
Longer crane reaches slow the pick cycle -- distances over 100 ft cut the base daily pick rate by 20%, and distances between 60 and 100 ft cut it by 10%, versus the full rate assumed under 60 ft, reflecting the added swing and travel time in each cycle.
When does the Overweight Pieces warning appear?
Only when Average Piece Weight (Total Steel Tonnage divided by Total Pieces) exceeds Crane Capacity -- at that point every piece in the job is flagged as overweight, since the calculator uses a single average weight rather than tracking individual piece weights.
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