This thesis aspires to compare glued-laminated timber and steel’s advantages and disadvantages as frame materials. Different solutions costs are compared. Based on these factors, the thesis pursues to find out the most economical structural solution in a case-building. This sort of analysis will help with the pre-design phase of a construction project. The thesis also examines the space and time flexibility of the selected frame type, and whether it can carry the load coming from a crane beam if a crane would be added later.

In the beginning, theory related to glued-laminated timber and steel and their history and material properties are discussed. After this, a case-project is introduced which acts as a base for the building information and calculation models. To support the calculation model, some calculations by hand were also carried out. A rough cost estimation was made based on calculation models. The cost estimations were created using Rakennustieto Kustannuslaskenta platform and information received from a glued-laminated timber manufacturing company. The thesis is finished with a conclusive chapter which discusses the results and other observations. The calculation results are combined as appendices at the end of the thesis.

At the beginning of the writing process of the thesis, the preliminary assumption was that glued-laminated timber frame would be more expensive. It was discovered that this was not the case, although there were some variables affecting the compatibility of the results.