What a steel fabrication quote should actually include

In this article

If you have ever had two quotes for the same steel package come back thirty percent apart, the gap is rarely the steel. Steel is a commodity and every shop in Brisbane buys it at roughly the same rate. The gap is in what each quote assumed, and what it left out.

Inclusions and exclusions, in two columns

A quote that lists only what is included is telling you half the story. The half that costs you money is the other column. Galvanising, surface treatment, access equipment, cranage, traffic control, permits, connections where the drawing carries no detail — every one of these is a legitimate exclusion, and every one becomes a variation if it is not named up front.

Ask for both columns. A fabricator who will not put exclusions in writing is not being generous; they are keeping the variation door open.

What happens when the drawing does not carry the detail

Engineering drawings are not always complete. Connections get left to the fabricator, base plates get shown in principle, and sometimes a member is drawn without a size. There are two ways to handle that at quote stage.

The first is to price an assumption and say nothing. The number looks sharp, and the variation arrives in week three. The second is to flag it before pricing and agree what happens. That number looks higher on the day and is usually cheaper by the end of the job.

Weld standard and testing

Structural steel welded in Australia should be to AS/NZS 1554.1. If a quote does not name a standard, ask which one they are working to and who is checking. Magnetic particle testing on critical welds costs very little at fabrication stage and is expensive to retrofit once the steel is up.

Who installs it

A quote for supply only and a quote for supply and install are different animals. If the fabricator is not erecting it, someone else has to, and the handover between the two is where tolerances go missing. Ask whether the crew that builds it is the crew that installs it.

A short checklist

• Inclusions and exclusions set out separately, not buried in a paragraph
• Weld standard named, and what testing is included
• Whether connections and base plates are designed by you or by them
• Cranage, EWP, scaffold and traffic control — in or out
• Surface treatment: mill finish, primed, galvanised or painted
• Delivery, and who unloads
• Who installs, and whether it is the same crew
• How long the price holds

None of this makes a quote longer to read. It makes it possible to compare two of them.