Distortions of mild steel structures caused by laser welding were analyzed. One thousand-millimeter U-beam structures were welded as overlap joints with different process parameters and thickness configurations. Final vertical and transverse distortions after cooling were measured along the U-beam. Significant factors, which affect distortions, were identified. Heat input per unit length, weld length, and sheet thickness showed a significant effect on welding distortions. Furthermore, the welding distortions were modeled using FE simulations. A simplified and computationally efficient simulation method was used. It describes the effect of shrinkage of the weld zone during cooling. The simulations show reasonable computation times and good agreement with experiments.