Construction and demolition

Construction spends cash immediately and can add recurring costs once rooms operate. Use the placement preview before committing, especially when building several rooms at once. Room comparison compares base room costs; Budget explains the tower's finances.

Place rooms and floors

1. Choose a room or floor from the build palette. The default floor shortcut is F; see Controls and interface.
2. Move the pointer to the intended location and read the preview and placement message.
3. Check the room's full width and height, the supporting floors, and the available cash.
4. Click or drag to place it, then let construction finish. A paused tower does not advance construction.
5. Connect the finished room to the tower entrance, power where required, and its services. A valid placement alone does not guarantee an operating or occupied room.

Hold Shift while placing rooms to build missing supporting floors automatically. With Shift held, a room drag can extend across floors; keep it held until releasing the mouse button. Extra floors and any floor merging are included in the cost preview.

Why a placement fails

Problem	What to check
Not enough money	The combined room, floor and transport cost, rather than only one room's price.
Wrong location or floor	Room-specific restrictions. For example, lobby and underground facilities have their own placement rules.
Overlap or too little space	The complete footprint, including every floor of a multi-storey room, existing rooms and transport.
Missing support	Supporting floors and the floor below; try a smaller addition or Shift-assisted construction.
Outside the build area	The map's upper, lower and side limits.
Item unavailable	The map's unlocks and Star rating, or required installed content.

A room may finish construction but still show no route, no power or no eligible service. Use Needs and requirements and Transport systems to resolve that state before assuming a vacancy is caused by price or demand.

Demolition

Select the demolish tool with X or Delete. Check the highlighted target and displayed cost/refund before committing. Depending on the target, the tool can remove rooms, floors, wallpaper, transport or an elevator car. Some merged rooms allow partial removal; ordinary rooms are removed as complete rooms.

Occupied leased rooms require an eviction confirmation before removal. Removing transport that disconnects rooms also produces a confirmation: check the affected rooms and provide an alternative route first.

Floors cannot normally be removed from under rooms or transport, while supporting upper floors, or where they are required beside an elevator. Remove dependent objects or redesign their support before removing the floor. The last car in an elevator cannot be removed on its own.

Refunds and costs

With refunds enabled, a room still under construction receives a full construction refund. A completed room also receives a full refund within one in-game day of construction; older rooms receive 50%. Burned rooms receive no construction refund. Demolition charges are separate, so the net cash change can be smaller than the refund. Session settings can disable refunds or demolition charges; use the displayed preview for the actual action.

For example, an older room with a $100,000 construction investment and a $10,000 demolition charge gives a $50,000 refund and costs $10,000 to remove: the net cash gain is $40,000. These are illustrative amounts, not a quote for every room type.

After a fire, empty burned floor tiles can be restored with the demolish tool's rubble-clearing action. A burned room must be dealt with through its room controls or removal before clearing the floor beneath it. See Disasters and infestations for recovery.