Resources

Ever lose a bid and wonder how the winning fabricator will ever do that project for that price? If you’ve been in business for more than a few months, I’m sure you’ve experienced this head scratcher. Bid prices can run the spectrum with a 300% (or more) difference between the lowest and highest estimates. This drastic price difference often comes down to knowledge about the scope – they know something you don’t know, or the contrary can be true and they missed something vital. Most experienced steel fabricators can estimate over 80% of the projects they bid without consulting an

Wendy Hellstern, REX Engineering’s VP of Business Development, is a seasoned NASCC attendee. For each NASCC conference, she creates a list of recommended sessions for steel fabricators and steel erectors.  For  NASCC 2023, Wendy couldn’t pick just a top 5 because this conference has a TON (pun intended) to offer! Wendy’s Top Picks for Steel Fabricators: Practical Design of Block Out Connections at the Base of Steel Moment Frames Structural Steel: An Industry Overview and Economic Forecast Common Mistakes Made by New Connection Designers Fulfillment Center Floor Design: Robots to Vibration Connection Design Responsibility and Completeness of Contract Documents Round

I’ve been to thousands of steel fab shops in my career and none of them fabricate steel the same way, even two shops at the same company. Each fab shop has a unique layout, set up of machinery, in-house expertise, local codes, and philosophy, so they inherently do things differently. So why do most connection engineers design things the same way, regardless of the fabricator? Beats me. Most Important Spec Steel Fabricators Should Tell Connection Engineers That’s why I believe the most important question a connection engineer should ask a steel fabricator is what is their preferred connection. We ask

Like AutoCAD, building information modeling (BIM) is a transformative technology for the building industry. And as AutoCAD far surpassed the capabilities of hand drafting, BIM far surpasses AutoCAD for architecture, engineering, and construction firms because it provides three-dimensional drawings opposed to just two dimensions. Considering that BIM is currently used by a slight majority of firms, what does the future hold for this tool, and what does the A/E/C (Architecture/Engineering/Construction) industry look like when most firms are using BIM? According to the 2021 report, Accelerating Digital Transformation Through BIM SmartMarket Report, a new global study by Dodge Data & Analytics

Steel is an essential part of commercial construction, and stability or volatility in pricing can have an outsized effect on the construction industry as a whole. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently seeing mostly encouraging signs for our sector regarding the steel market. During the pandemic, the construction industry as a whole was upended just like every other area of our society. When one employee on a job site tested positive for COVID, the entire project was shut down for at least 30 days, and sometimes for 60 days or more. Everything seemed to grind to