Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Shipping and Delivery of Your Steel Building: What Are Your Responsibilities?

The Shipping and Delivery of Your Steel Building: What Are Your Responsibilities?

If you have recently purchased a steel building, you may find the following article useful in understanding the shipping and delivery process. To make sure you understand all the relevant aspects of the freighting of your structure, you should converse with your pre-engineered steel building system supplier or dealer.

Shipping to your job site will take place once your pre-engineered steel building has undergone planning and manufacturing. All shipping arrangements are generally produced by the supplier in concurrence to the contract. Normally, the actual shipping is managed by a regular trucking company, although some steel structure suppliers do use their own trucks. Any special arrangements for transport should always be agreed prior to being specified in the building purchase order and you should bear in mind that corrections to shipping particulars close to the delivery date may be very expensive.

Upon purchase, it is the building buyer’s responsibility to select a shipping date and agree it with the steel structure company. Fabrication of a steel structure, as well as rigging and design, can take weeks, or even months if it is ordered during the high building season. You should allow for plenty of time for the completion of the design, the fabrication, and the shipping.

The carrier is accountable for collecting the steel parts from the building production facility and transporting these elements to the job site. The customer is responsible for supplying the correct address. It is the buyer’s responsibility to receive the building and building materials at the assembly site or other address, unless this task is designated to an erector or general contractor.

Some customers require their steel building assembly to be transported to the construction location long before the assembly process. Although most structure components are produced with protective and primer coatings in place, you still need to supply sufficient covering materials to protect the goods form the elements–even if they will only be at the site for a few days. It is the customer’s responsibility to provide materials to protect the items from the elements.

It is also the building consumer’s responsibility to make sure that agreements are set in motion to set up the building ahead of it actually being transported. Many contractors and building erectors are booked up for months or weeks ahead, particularly in the busy season. To ensure things go smoothly, the suggested approach is to locate a reliable contractor initially and secure a time reasonable for the building buyer, steel building company as well as the contractor to receive the structure. If you have any further questions about the transport and delivery of your steel building, you should contact your manufacturer or supplier.

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