Interstate Steel Corporation

Services to Building Contractors

ISC offers to the General Contractor, certain subcontract services which many General Contractors feel is very advantageous to the workmanship and economic outcome of their project and which is rarely available within the realm of expertise of most fabricators.

Complex Building Layout

It is quite evident that in most skewed, curved and sloped building designs there are several inadequacies regarding the accuracies of designed dimensions and angular degrees.  This is primarily due to the numeric methods used in the basic calculations of the building dimensions and secondarily due to the measuring of an inaccurate CAD layout of certain areas.  Generally, designers use two point decimal figures in their calculations and elevations, as do many computerized design programs, and the final answers are then rounded off to a nearest fraction of measurement.  In small areas, this poses no problem; however,when dealing with long runs of distances, it creates major misfits and bad alignment in the actual layout of the building on the grade.  This is especially true when working a layout with angular changes of directions and when trying to deal with a given radius point location, a specific radius, and exacting the points of intersection with the X,Y axis of the building lines.

The general consensus in the field is “this is as close as we can pull it” or cheat the dimensions somewhere along the line to close the corners and to achieve certain aspects of the layout.  In some constructions, even this poses no problem, however, in others the problem is mushroomed and requires the installer of certain trades to cut, grind, twist or force his materials into place, which not only diminishes the overall workmanship of the building, but may cause even more problems to the maker or installer of other trades; thus diminishing the buildings workmanship even more.  The end result affects the reputation of the General Contractor and sets the stage for “gouging” back charges and ultimately some measure of conflict between the builder and the owner or developer of the project.

ISC is capable of quickly producing an approvable, accurate geometric layout of the designed plan, and, while working closely with the General Contractor and in coordination with the

designers, obtain an early approved working plan for the field layout team.  A plan that is easy and clear to work with and which will benefit all other trades as well, ensuring that every trade is working with the same set of dimensions and that every product fitting therein is accurately made, varying only by the makers ability to be accurate but not by guess work; thus solving the problems before they become problems.

ISC is also capable of working onsite with the layout crew to ensure that the layout is accurately obtained if such service is deemed necessary by the General Contractor.  An alternative to on-site supervision for projects which require expensive travel and accommodations due to distance from ISC, ISC can work via phone, fax and email with the layout crew on a daily basis until the General Contractor is satisfied he or she has a proper layout; thus solving the problems before they become problems.

Proper Setting of Anchor Bolts

One of the most costly problems to a steel column framed project is the misaligned and improperly set anchor

bolts by the subcontractor responsible for the bolt setting and concrete pouring of the column footings.  The “after the fact” fix can range from the bending of anchor bolts, slotting of base plate holes, off-setting the base plate (all of which is dependent on approval from the Structural Engineer) to re-fabrication of the column or removal and replacement of the footing.  These on-site “fixes” are time-consuming and extremely costly.  They also diminish the quality and integrity of the project. The same is true with inadequate or excessive projection of the anchor bolts as well as slight to major errors in the proper elevation of each footing.  These errors generally require on site or in shop rework of the column.

ISC is capable of on-site inspection or supervision of all aspects of the anchor bolt setting prior to the pouring of the footings; thus solving the problems before they become problems.

Erection of the Structural Framework

Too many times the erectors or riggers are faced with a misfit problem in con

necting beam to beam or beam to column.  On site, it is next to impossible to determine the cause by just looking or trying to make the connection work somehow, either by torch cutting or by scab welding the connection. This procedure, while sometimes being unnoticed by inspectors, will generally cause something else to misfit. This can mushroom until the quality of the project is in jeopardy, to say nothing of the time-consuming and costly efforts improperly used by not knowing or understanding the actual problem originally causing the misfit. This improper procedure of field fixing almost always results in unfair back charges by the erector, when the proper approach to the correction would result in a minimal cost of time and money and would be a positive service to the quality and integrity of the project.

ISC is capable of working closely with the erector to ensure against unnecessary wastes of job site time, while protecting the integrity of the General Contractor, in the determination of the

“real” problem and development of an approved correction in a timely manner and with minimal expense to anyone. This can generally be achieved by the engineering staff of ISC via phone, fax and email.  Based upon the General Contractor’s assessment of the erectors inability to perceive a suspected problem, ISC can be on site during the erection process of the basic framework, watching and inspecting thus being able to immediately work with the home office for proper determination and correction, minimizing any delay to the project.  It is noted that if the problem is determined to be an error in fabrication, ISC will gladly pay a fair price for its correction.