Costs
Initial costs
Hot-dip-galvanizing is always a very economic solution both for light steel structures, and for heavy sections. Taking into account all the costs of painting, comparative analysis has shown that galvanizing have a lower cost.
Life Cycle Costs
The life cycle costs include all costs for necessary maintenance throughout the expected life of the building steel. A way to compare different treatments against corrosion is to estimate the planned expenses as if they were to be paid immediately, but correcting future costs as if you were able to use the money for other purposes (economists speak of net present value of future cash flows) Comparing hot-dip-galvanizing and two systems of painting, the life costs of painting are twice the hot-dip-galvanizing ones, because of painting shorter life.
Replacement Costs
Because of the high manpower costs, the expenses for steel’s replacement are considerable. Besides that, for producing new steel, either by fusing and laminating steel scrap or by extracting minerals and producing new metal, all these processes have a cost for the environment, since resources are consumed and energy is used.