Most architects we work with in Metro Vancouver have a good handle on concrete, wood framing, and glazing systems. Custom metalwork is where things get less predictable — not because the work itself is mysterious, but because the coordination between design intent and fabrication reality has more moving parts than people expect.
We’ve fabricated architectural metalwork for commercial and high-end residential projects across Burnaby, Vancouver, and the North Shore for over 30 years. Some of those projects ran smoothly from tender to installation. Others burned weeks on avoidable RFIs, late changes, and misaligned expectations between the architect’s drawings and what the shop could actually build to budget.
The difference almost always comes down to when the fabricator gets involved and how the spec is written.
Get the fabricator into the conversation early
The single biggest cost lever on a custom metalwork scope is timing. Not material selection, not finish complexity — timing.
When an architect brings us in during schematic design or early design development, we can flag problems before they become expensive. A cantilevered stair detail that looks clean on paper might need a hidden structural plate that conflicts with the millwork package. A cable railing spec might call for post spacing that won’t meet BC Building Code requirements for the 100mm sphere test without adding intermediate posts. A steel canopy connection to an existing concrete structure might need core drilling that nobody has priced.
These are the kinds of things a fabricator catches in a 45-minute meeting over redlines. If they surface during construction — after the steel is ordered, cut, and partially welded — the cost to fix them multiplies by 3x to 5x.
On a recent commercial lobby project in downtown Vancouver, the architect specified a floating mono stringer staircase with glass guardrails. The design was striking. But the structural engineer’s connection details assumed a poured concrete landing that the GC had already framed in steel. We caught it during our pre-tender review and proposed an alternate connection that saved roughly $8,000 in field modifications and kept the install on schedule.
That kind of input doesn’t happen if the fabricator first sees the drawings on bid day.
Writing specs for custom metalwork
Spec writing is where the architect’s design intent either translates cleanly into fabrication — or doesn’t.
The best metalwork specs we receive do two things well: they’re precise about performance and appearance requirements, and they leave room for the fabricator to propose the most efficient way to achieve them.
What to lock down in the spec:
- Finish and colour — RAL numbers or custom colour chips, not “dark bronze” (which could mean six different things depending on the powder coater)
- Material type and grade — mild steel, stainless 304 vs 316, aluminum alloy series
- Surface finish quality — specify whether welds should be ground flush, left with a clean bead, or polished to a specific grit
- Code compliance requirements — guardrail heights, load ratings, seismic category
- Certification — specify C.W.B. to CSA W47.1 (more on this below)
What to leave flexible:
- Connection details — let the fabricator propose how to attach steel to the structure based on actual site conditions
- Member sizes — specify the structural performance requirement and let the fabricator and their engineer select the profile
- Fabrication sequence and shop joint locations — the shop knows where to break assemblies for transport and field welding
A spec that dictates every tube size, every weld location, and every connection plate thickness is actually harder to bid and often produces worse results. The fabricator either prices it exactly as drawn (including details that could be simplified) or submits a pile of substitution requests that slow everything down.
We see the best outcomes when the spec defines the “what” and the shop drawings define the “how.”
The shop drawing process
Shop drawings are where the fabricator translates the architect’s design into something that can actually be cut, welded, and installed. Every dimension, every connection, every finish callout gets detailed at full fabrication resolution.
For a typical commercial metalwork package — say, railings, a feature staircase, and miscellaneous metals across a 20,000 square foot building — we produce 15–25 sheets of shop drawings. Each sheet shows plan views, elevations, sections, and details at scales ranging from 1:20 down to 1:1 for complex connections.
The review cycle usually works like this:
First submission goes to the architect (and sometimes the structural engineer) for review. The architect marks up the drawings — “Approved,” “Approved as Noted,” or “Revise and Resubmit.” Most first submissions come back as “Approved as Noted” with a handful of markups.
Second submission incorporates the notes. If the markups were minor, this round usually gets full approval. If the first submission had significant comments — often because the architectural drawings had ambiguities the shop drawings exposed — a third round may be needed.
Plan for 2–3 weeks per round. That means the shop drawing phase alone can take 4–8 weeks on a commercial project. Architects who build this into their project schedules from the start avoid the compressed review timelines that lead to missed details.
One thing that helps enormously: a pre-drawing coordination meeting. Before we start drafting, we sit down with the architect (and the GC, if they’re on board) to walk through the scope, identify potential conflicts, and agree on priorities. Thirty minutes of alignment at this stage saves days of markups later.
Material submittals and approval cycles
Separate from shop drawings, material submittals cover the physical stuff — steel mill certs, powder coat colour samples, hardware cut sheets, glass specifications for railing systems, and anchor details.
On commercial projects, the submittal log can include 10–20 line items for a metalwork package. Each one needs architect approval before we order material. The lead time on some items — specialty powder coat colours, custom hardware, stainless cable tensioning systems — can run 4–6 weeks from order to delivery.
The practical implication: if submittal approvals drag, the fabrication schedule shifts. We had a project in Coquitlam where a custom patina finish on mild steel required a sample panel that took three weeks to produce and another two weeks of architect review. The five-week delay pushed our shop start past a previously scheduled commercial job, and the install ended up two weeks later than the GC’s original target.
Architects can avoid this by prioritizing long-lead submittals early in the approval sequence, even before shop drawings are finalized.
Handling RFIs without losing weeks
RFIs are inevitable on custom metalwork. The architectural drawings can’t anticipate every field condition, and commercial buildings have a way of not matching their own drawings once you start measuring.
The RFIs that go smoothly are the ones where the fabricator proposes a solution alongside the question. “The as-built column location is 45mm off from the architectural plan. Here’s how we propose to modify the connection detail — does this work?” That gives the architect something to approve or adjust, rather than an open-ended problem to solve.
The RFIs that burn time are the ones that bounce between the architect, structural engineer, GC, and fabricator without a clear owner. On a multi-trade commercial project in New Westminster, we tracked 14 RFIs on the metalwork package alone. The ones that resolved in under a week all had a single point of contact on the design team. The ones that took three weeks or more had been forwarded between firms with no one clearly responsible for the response.
If you’re the architect of record, designating one person as the metalwork RFI contact — someone who can loop in the structural engineer when needed but owns the response timeline — makes a measurable difference.
Coordination with other trades
Custom metalwork rarely exists in isolation. It connects to, supports, or is supported by other building systems. The coordination points that cause the most friction:
Glazing. Glass railing systems need precise dimensions from the glazier’s shop drawings before the steel posts and channels can be fabricated. If the glass is custom-sized (common on curved or non-standard guardrails), the metalwork and glazing fabrication timelines need to be sequenced carefully. We’ve had projects where the glass lead time was 8 weeks and the steel was 4 — meaning the glass needed to be ordered before the metalwork shop drawings were even approved.
Electrical. Illuminated handrails, lit stair treads, and accent-lit steel canopies all require conduit runs that need to be coordinated before the steel is welded. Trying to fish wire through a sealed steel handrail after fabrication is either impossible or extremely expensive. The electrical routing has to be part of the shop drawing package.
Millwork. Wood-and-steel staircases are one of the most popular combinations in Vancouver custom homes right now. The interface between the steel stringer and the wood treads needs to be coordinated to the millimetre — the steel provides the structure, and the wood wraps it. If the millworker and the steel fabricator are working from different dimensions, one of them is doing rework on site.
Concrete. Embed plates, anchor bolts, and cast-in connections need to be placed before the pour. That means the metalwork fabricator needs to provide embed drawings to the concrete contractor weeks before the steel itself is fabricated. Miss that window and you’re drilling into cured concrete with expansion anchors — which works, but costs more and often looks worse.
Late design changes and what they actually cost
Every fabricator has stories about design changes that arrived after the steel was cut. The cost math is straightforward but worth stating plainly.
A design change during shop drawing review — before any material is ordered — costs the time to revise the drawings. Maybe a few hours of drafting. Call it $500–$1,500 depending on the scope of the change.
A change after material is ordered but before fabrication starts is more expensive. Restocking fees on cut-to-length steel are real. If the material was a specialty item (architectural tube in a non-standard size, for instance), it may not be returnable. Cost: $2,000–$5,000 for a moderate change.
A change after fabrication has started — steel is cut, tacked, partially welded — is where it gets painful. The fabricated material may need to be scrapped. The shop schedule gets disrupted. New material needs to be ordered. On a recent project, a guardrail design change after welding was underway added $12,000 to a $45,000 railing package. The same change at the shop drawing stage would have been a $700 drawing revision.
The pattern holds across projects of all sizes: changes cost roughly 5–10x more once fabrication is underway compared to the shop drawing phase.
Why you should specify C.W.B. certification
C.W.B. (Canadian Welding Bureau) certification to CSA W47.1 is the Canadian standard for welded steel construction. It means the fabrication shop’s welding procedures, welder qualifications, and quality control systems are independently audited and certified.
For structural steel, C.W.B. certification is a code requirement — municipal building inspectors in Burnaby, Vancouver, and across Metro Vancouver will ask for it. For miscellaneous metals and ornamental work, it’s technically not always required by code, but specifying it gives the architect a straightforward quality filter.
A C.W.B.-certified shop has documented welding procedures for every joint type and material combination they use. Their welders hold individual certifications that are tested and renewed. Their work is subject to periodic audits by C.W.B. inspectors.
Shops without certification may do perfectly adequate work on simple projects. But when you’re specifying a feature staircase with structural welds that will be visible in the finished building, or a steel canopy that carries snow load at height, the certification gives you a paper trail that protects both the architect and the building owner.
Jeff and Simon Ironworks holds current C.W.B. certification and has maintained it continuously through three decades of commercial and residential fabrication in Metro Vancouver.
How we work with architectural firms
Our typical engagement on an architect-driven project starts with a scope review meeting — either at our Burnaby shop on Douglas Road or at the architect’s office. We walk through the drawings, identify coordination issues, and discuss material and finish options with physical samples in hand.
From there, the process follows a standard sequence: budgetary pricing (if we’re pre-tender), formal bid, shop drawing production, submittal package, fabrication, finishing, and installation. We assign a single project contact for each job who handles all communication with the architect and GC.
For firms that are early in the design phase and want fabrication input before the scope is fully defined, we do design-assist engagements where we work alongside the architect’s team to develop details that are both buildable and cost-effective. No charge for the initial consultation — it’s how we prefer to start a working relationship.
If you’re specifying custom metalwork on a project in Metro Vancouver, reach out to our team directly or send the scope for budgetary pricing. We’d rather have the conversation early than sort out problems on site.
