Before you order your steel building, it is important you understand that we are not supplying a ready-made item we can pull off a shelf. You are commissioning us to engineer and fabricate a custom building to your specifications. At Steelbuilding.com, this process moves very quickly. Once it has been started, changes become increasingly difficult and expensive, and soon they are impossible.

So take your time, collect the information you need, decide what you want, and check with your building inspector before you move forward.

When you click the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of your quote and the "I agree" button below our terms and conditions, you execute a legal signature and establish the basis for a contract between you and Steelbuilding.com. It goes into effect when we receive your engineering deposit. On a building sale, we require a down payment of 20% of the total purchase price. Although we refer to it as a "deposit," this payment is a fee for the engineering and drafting services required to design and fabricate your steel building as well as to prepare and print your plans. It is not refundable.

You can pay your 20% deposit online with a credit card (MC, AMEX, Visa), or you can mail a check. If you pay online by credit card, you lock the price, and we start processing your order immediately. Steelbuilding.com uses the most advanced data security systems available, and a credit card transaction with us is at least as safe as one you make in person at a store or restaurant (probably more so because we never have your card number). If you choose the check option, your order will be held until we receive the payment. Be aware that price quotes are not guaranteed for any period of time and that we may cancel any order for which we have not received payment, so send your check promptly. Occasionally, people ask to pay the total price for a building up front by credit card. Because of card transaction fees and other concerns, we cannot honor these requests. You must pay the balance due by bank cashier's check only when the building is delivered.

For make and ship orders, you can request one of two delivery options: 6 to 8 weeks or 8 to 10 weeks from the date we receive your deposit. You will be notified of the actual date (and it will be posted in your online account) approximately two to three weeks after we receive the deposit. Please note that we cannot promise ahead of time that we can meet your exact request, only that we will do our best to accommodate you. If you need to delay your delivery more than 10 weeks, please contact us before placing your order.

When you order a steel building, you can set its status as "Make-and-Ship" or "Hold for Permit Office Approval" ("permit hold"). When possible, you should choose Make-and-Ship, and we will fabricate and deliver your building in approximately 6 to 10 weeks (see above). If you are required to submit "permit drawings" as part of your permit application, you must place the order on hold. In that case, we will start preparing your permit drawings as soon as we receive your deposit, but we will not schedule the building for fabrication until you give us written release (fax, mail, or email) that you have your permits. Be advised that permit-hold orders are subject to any cost increases we incur after the date the order is placed. Also note that buildings destined for California must be ordered on permit hold status and will only be fabricated with a written release from the buyer. For more information on drawings and delivery scheduling see the following page.

A typical metal building company asks its customers to pay a deposit and sign a contract that does not bind that company until one of its officers countersigns it. Ironically, the other so-called online companies add a second hurdle to the process. After their customer clicks "buy" on an online contract, the company faxes a new (and perhaps different) contract which must also be countersigned to be valid. Steelbuilding.com is the only company that allows you to bind us to the contract you create online. Unless you request changes, we do not reprice or renegotiate these contracts. We do have an "out" clause in our pricing policy, but it only exists to protect us from a serious programming error. For example, if our design and pricing program charged you $10 for a 3000 square foot building, we would probably exercise our option to cancel the order (in fact, I'm sure we would). So far, in all our years of online operation, we have only used this option once, and that was on a garage door order (see the section on change orders on the following page).