Before you take delivery of your steel building, you will need to do several things to make your project go smoothly and successfully. First of all, please make sure we have a phone number where you can be reached during the day and the correct shipping address with any additional directions needed to find it. We will call you about a week before your scheduled delivery date to confirm the details.

In most cases, two to three weeks after we receive your deposit, you will get the package that contains your erection drawings. They are the authoritative guide for your particular building, and your erector should study and follow them scrupulously. Included with the drawings will be an "anchor-bolt setting plan with reactions." Your foundation engineer will use the reactions to design a suitable foundation for your building, and the anchor-bolt plan will specify the type, diameter, and locations for the bolts used to anchor your columns to the concrete. Only the final set of erection plans that we produce after you have purchased your building has the proper bolt-setting plan. Do not pour a slab and set bolts using any other plans.

In addition to the drawings, the package will contain an erection and safety manual and other important documents, including a materials list or "shipper". Please read everything carefully. The fully-illustrated manual describes standard procedures and offers general guidelines for safely erecting pre-engineered steel buildings. The other documents include information about unloading, inventorying, and storing your building, some of which is covered here.

Most often, your steel building will arrive on the scheduled date between 8:00 A.M and 11:00 A.M. Unless you have made other arrangements in advance, it will be delivered by one or more trucks pulling 48-foot trailers. These vehicles must have safe access to and from your job site, so make sure the route is clear and can sustain heavy loads. We make every effort to deliver on schedule, but circumstances beyond our control (bad weather, road conditions, etc.) can cause delays. Steelbuilding.com is not liable for any expenses resulting from such delays.

When your steel building arrives, you must pay your balance due (the amount listed at the bottom of your purchase contract) by giving the driver a bank cashier's check made payable to Steelbuilding.com. No other form or amount of payment will be accepted (that means no company checks, personal checks, cash or anything else). You make only this one payment when the building delivers. If accessory shipments arrive before or after the building, you just sign for them.

You will be responsible for unloading your building. Some bundles may weigh as much as 3000 lbs., so you will need some extra manpower and some lifting equipment like a forklift (with spreader bar), sky track, boom truck, or crane. To decide which, check your shipper for the longest and heaviest components (or call our tech support). You will have three hours to unload and inventory, which is plenty of time for even very large buildings. Steelbuilding.com ships each order separately, so you will not have to worry about identifying your materials or unloading someone else's building to reach your own.

You must inventory your parts as you unload them and report shortages and damage immediately. Use your shipper to check off each item as you remove it, and note missing and damaged items on the bill of lading before signing it. You have two (2) days to report "hidden" damage to items in sealed boxes or containers (panel bundles should be counted and inspected as they are unloaded). Steelbuilding.com will reject shortage or damage claims made more than five days after delivery. We happily stand behind our products, but we cannot be expected to insure their security on a construction site. Of course, the 2-day limit does not apply to misfabricated parts because such problems may not be immediately apparent. We ask that you respect a common sense limit to claims for misfabbed parts.

Steelbuilding.com has no way to judge whether a customer has the skill or experience to safely and properly erect a steel building and therefore cannot recommend that any customer do so. However, we believe that every customer should know how their building should be put together, so we offer a free project planning package (pay only s&h) with an instructional video, sample drawings, and our erection and safety manual. Broadband users can view or download clips from this video online. Also, please review our statement on safety.