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Steel
Building Quote Comparison Checklist |
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ervice and integrity together
with advanced 21st- |
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Century technology to give you the best available in
pre-engineered steel buildings. |
If
you're thinking of buying a steel building, you should
have a lot of questions about the products you are
considering and the companies that sell them. To help
you make informed choices, we've compiled a quick and
very, very brief checklist for you to take a look at.
While
very few companies can match our prices on comparable
steel buildings, there are in fact a few who purport to
do so. This handy form will help you determine if you're
comparing apples with apples. |
Do you know who you're doing
business with? Does your prospective supplier have
facilities for facing column ends at splices,
machining base plates, sand or shot blasting,
turning shafts, boring large diameter holes, rolling
plates and forging special shapes.
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Remember
smaller fabricators are often only capable of
carrying out the most basic operations of cutting,
drilling and welding, and consequently are sometimes
inclined to take short-cuts.
Purely
for your information, the four main requirements for
efficient steelwork production are:
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processing
machines (preferably computer
numeric-controlled) for the type of work being
handled
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a
suitable shop layout that will allow the smooth
and orderly progress of work through the
fabrication processes
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adequate
handling facilities, such as overhead and jib
cranes, roller tables and conveyors, and
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modern
automatic and semi-automatic welding equipment.
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Workshop
Size
Does
your prospective supplier have adequate workshop
facilities?
An
important consideration in planning the flow of work
through the shop is to avoid delays in the progression
of work. |
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Any hold-up in production, whether because of
unusual fabrication processes, awkward shapes or
sizes, or the need to correct errors, wastes time and
money since other work is being delayed. It is
therefore necessary to minimise impediments as far as
possible, and this simply cannot be achieved in a
small cramped little workshop.
Furthermore,
because of cost implications, fabricators generally
prefer welding to bolting for the attachment of
fittings in the shop. This requires the positions of
fittings on each of the main members to be marked, but
even if this is done with care there is the
possibility of errors since each marking operation is
a once-off activity, except when jigs are used. Larger
fabricators with programmed drilling or punching
equipment might prefer bolting, particularly for
standard connections. Because the repetitive
nature of the drilling or punching operation the
likelihood of errors is reduced. |
Design: High-quality
Drawings
Will you receive a comprehensive set of plans that can be submitted to your
local authorities? Are the cost of these plans and those of an engineer's
certificate included in your price?
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You
should bear in mind that it is a legal requirement
that a designer, whether employed directly by you, the
steel building manufacturer or a building contractor,
is a registered professional engineer or registered
technologist, or that his work be done under the
supervision of a registered engineer or technologist.
It is also mandatory that the design complies with the
National Building
Regulations (Ref. 2),
which in turn refers to
SABS 0400: Code of
Practice for the Application of the National Building
Regulations (Ref. 3)
for the 'deemed to satisfy' aspects of the design. One
of these requirements is that the structural steelwork
must comply with SABS 0162: Code
of Practice for the Structural Use of Steel (Ref.
4).
See
also South
African Steel & Steel Building Fundamentals: The Basic Fundamentals of Steel Buildings. |
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Columns
One particularly important factor worth mentioning on
its own is that the end of the column
shaft has to be flat to ensure uniform transfer of the
force to the base plate. This requires machining and
cannot be achieved without the proper tooling (see
above). |
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The most commonly used bolts in steel building erection are the Grade 4.8 ordinary bolt to SABS 135, the
Grade 8.8 high-strength precision bolt to SABS 136
and the Grade 8.8S high-strength friction-grip
(HSFG) bolt to SABS 1282.
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The
bolt generally used because of its low cost and easy
installation is the Grade 4.8 ordinary bolt. It is
used in holes punched or drilled 2 mm larger than
the nominal bolt diameter. This hole clearance
allows easy assembly of the connected parts, but
does result in a small amount of slip taking place
when a force in the plane of the connection is
applied. The force is then also transmitted in
bearing between the bolt and the side of the hole.
For
this and many other reasons, Steel Building Projects
manufacture their own bolts to exact required
specifications.
It
is of general interest that as a rough guide, an
allowance for bolts of between 2,5 per cent to 5 per
cent of the steel mass would be realistic.
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Single Order Delivery & Shipping
Will your order ride
on the truck by itself so that you don't have to
worry about unloading and reloading someone else's
building to get to your own?
This
happens most often when the transport is contracted
out.
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Does your supplier have a creed similar to ours?
"The
ideal of service is the basis of all worthy
enterprise" to ensure you receive
help with matters like product information, shipping, and
technical support.
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Does a prospective
supplier spend as much time bad-mouthing other
companies as they do describing their own?
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Do you
have to show them other quotes before they offer
their "best" price?
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Do they claim to be
matching or beating a quote without specifying
exactly the same items in the contract?
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Do they try to hurry
you into a decision before you've gotten all the
facts or decided what you want?
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Do they ask you to
sign a contract and pay a deposit before you know
the total cost, including shipping?
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Do they tell you
it's important to "get the ball rolling"
and promise to iron out the details later?
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Note: Although some companies claim to have
dozens of "clearance buildings," it
is highly unlikely that they really do. First of
all, no one, but no one, "stocks" metal buildings; they
are only manufactured after an order is placed. Real
clearance buildings are those that were made for a
customer but never delivered. They result from
contract breaches, errors in fabrication, bounced
cheques, and other problems and mistakes. Even at
reduced prices, they are hard to sell (imagine your
daughter's wedding is cancelled and you need to sell
her custom-designed bridal gown along with three
turquoise bridesmaids' dresses), and no company can
afford more than a few of these a year. Most people
will be far better off ordering a new building made to
their exact specifications.
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So
Why Not Contact Us And Possibly Save Yourself:
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Countless
Hours of Needless Hassle,
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Endless
Worry, and
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Unexpected Expenses That Inexperienced or Careless
Manufacturers Can So Easily
Create With Your Steel Building Project. And that's apart
from:
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SAVING
YOURSELF SOME MONEY with Our Factory-direct Prices.
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