At Rapidset Buildings, we design, engineer, detail and ship prefabricated steel buildings to your building site, serving professional builders, steel erectors, and pre-engineered metal building resellers.
Here is how to order a metal building from Rapidset;
1. When a quote is completed online or a custom quote is created, the first thing to check is the expiration date. Sometimes steel fluctuates in price where we need to adjust prices. If the quote is past expiration please ask for it to be updated or do another design online.
2.We usually need to talk through and look over any quote or design before we can accept an order. Sometime sale tax would need to be collected, sometime things conflict on the design and;
You need to confirm the loads and code is correct
3. If it's good and we are ready to order then print the quote out and sign it and make out a standard check and make a copy of it with the statement "OK to cash" and send that in by email scan, photo from your smart phone, snail mail, fax, pigeon, ups, fedex...
4. Once we receive the order we will look it over again and confirm it is good to go. Then we will make out an order acknowledgment which explains what you ordered in simple language with a cost brake down and tax if that applies. We send it to you, you confirm by signing it and send it back. If we do not have it through the sales process, we will need a phone number, mailing address, job site address, any special notes that would important to you during detailing and colors. For colors you need to ask the office or the sales rep for a link to a color chart.
5. Once we have all the boxes filled in and your signed paperwork and the deposit we forward the job to detailing. In detailing, that is where they check lengths, count bolts, clean up the plans, generate the fabrication drawings, generate the bill of materials - ship list, make sure the holes line up, etc, etc.
6. Once we get the design back from detailing it gets forwarded to the engineer to stamp for your state and at the same time we send out 2 sets of plans to you stamped "for construction use" and a standard assembly manual.
Please build from the "for construction use" set of plans
because the detailer might have changed something, the engineer might have requested a change, there are different versions of the same job... Who knows - but what we do know is the plans stamped "for construction use" is what is coming out of the factory for delivery to you.
7. When all the above is complete we get in line for fabrication. Regardless of what information you where told for deliver during the sales process we can not dictate the outcome of when that date is. We do have some leeway and can request a date but in general we get assigned a date a couple weeks after we submit an order for fabrication.
8. When we get a ship date we need to stick to it. Often we get the request to move the date back xx amount of time. It depends on when the request is made. If it very early we can sometimes do it. Often if steel is going up they might state "it will be need to be reprices to the current rates" If not sometimes we can do it. But in general it needs to happen on that day. If not there are loading, unloading, storage fees, etc, etc. The bottom line is do not place the order unless we can make it happen.
9. At delivery you need to be ready with a CASHIERS CHECK for the COD amount, have a camera or smart phone that can take pictures if you see damage (a common mistake is the cover sheets for the panels get all bent up but they are cover sheets to protect the sheets you use), forklift or something that can off load the truck. The heaviest piece are usually the bundle of purlins which is usually not more then 3500 pound all strapped together. And the equipment you get needs to lift from about 15' tall. If exported the balance needs to be paid in full 1 week before delivery
10. After delivery you might have have an insulation order or other materials that might not come with the building. The office will line that up with you during scheduling.
11 Once you get the building it is time for inventory. It is critical you inventor within the first week. If you call a few months or year later and say something is missing usually we can only reorder it for you at your cost.
12. Assembly; plan your assembly for safety, plan your work carefully! You and your crews heath is most important. Study the assembly manual and www.osha.gov for safe practices. Do not cut anything without calling us first. Often there is field work but it should bolt together. You will need to cut slots in some wall girts if you have bracing run through a flush wall condition. It will be obvious when you get to that point. The assembly manual is really good at showing you how to layout the anchor bolts, start assembly with the brace bay, and very important -
temp brace everything as you go
Safety is important then anything else. This statement is a mindset, you need to adopt it before you start. If you are at a standstill and things don't make sense after you studied the plans and manuel for a while, call the office and we can bring up your job on our computers and drill down to the part in question. With your help we can determinate if it was fabricated correctly or it is only the need to talk it through how the parts go together.