"We need some steel platforms fabricated" cannot be priced. It can only be guessed at, and the gap between the cheapest guess and the real cost is where rework, delay and argument come from.
Here is what belongs in the scope before you send it out — workshop job or site job.
1. Drawings beat descriptions
Send drawings. A dimensioned sketch is worth more than three paragraphs of description.
If drawings are not final, say what stage they are at. Quoting from concept drawings and from approved-for-construction drawings are two different jobs at two different prices.
Where no drawing exists — a replacement guard, a modified skid, a cracked bracket — a dimensioned photograph or the failed part itself is enough for us to work from.
2. Name the steel grade
"Steel" is not a specification. State the grade and the standard it is called up against:
- Sections and plate: ASTM A36, ASTM A572, or EN 10025 S275JR / S355JR.
- Stainless: 304/304L or 316/316L. Coastal and washdown environments usually mean 316.
- Pipe: material, schedule and standard, not just the bore.
Say if grades are mixed. Joining stainless to carbon steel is a design decision, not something to leave to the shop floor.
3. State the weld standard and the acceptance level
The code the work is welded to. AWS D1.1 for structural steelwork, ASME IX for pressure equipment. Name it.
The acceptance criteria. ISO 5817 quality level B, C or D decides what counts as a defect. A scope that names a code but no acceptance level leaves the most expensive variable open.
Add the weld detail itself: fillet leg length, full penetration or partial, and whether weld symbols on the drawing govern.
4. Qualification and inspection
If qualified procedures are required, say which: a WPS supported by a PQR to ISO 15614-1 or ASME IX, welders qualified to ISO 9606-1. Say whether a witnessed test is needed first.
Then name the inspection. "100% visual, 10% ultrasonic on butt welds" is a scope. "Welds to be inspected" is not. Choose from visual, dye penetrant, magnetic particle, ultrasonic or radiographic, and give the percentage.
5. Surface preparation and coating
Coating fails far more often than steel does, and almost always because of preparation.
- Blast standard — commonly ISO 8501-1 Sa 2½ for abrasive blasting, St 3 where blasting is not possible.
- The paint system: primer, intermediate, topcoat, and dry film thickness for each.
- The ISO 12944 corrosivity category. Coastal and petrochemical sites in the Kingdom routinely fall into the harsher ones.
- Or hot-dip galvanising to ASTM A123 — decide this early, because vent and drain holes are a design feature, not a finishing step.
Our paints, primers and protective coatings range covers the systems normally called up on industrial work.
6. Workshop or site — and what site really means
Workshop fabrication is faster and cheaper per tonne. Site work is unavoidable for tie-ins, oversized structures and anything welded to plant in place.
If any part of the job is on your site, the scope needs to state:
- Working hours, and whether night or weekend work is permitted.
- Hot work permit process, fire watch, and any isolation or lock-out requirements.
- Whether the work sits inside a shutdown window, and how long that window is.
- Power and compressed air availability, or whether we bring our own.
- Gate pass and induction lead time — often the longest single item on a first visit.
Access is the cost people forget. Working at height needs scaffolding and access equipment priced into the job rather than discovered on day one.
7. Say what happens either side of the steel
Fabrication rarely arrives alone. Plinths, baseplates, holding-down bolts, reinforcement, grouting, cutting and patching, and making good afterwards are all part of the real job.
Decide whether one team executes the civil work, the fabrication and the reinstatement, or whether you are managing the interface between contractors. Programmes slip at that interface more than anywhere else.
8. Equipment and consumables
If your own crews are doing part of the work, the consumable list is part of the plan: filler metals matched to the parent material, gas, cutting discs and abrasives, and the machines themselves. Our welding machines and consumables range covers MMA, MIG and TIG plant, and hot-work PPE should be issued against the same standards as the rest of the site.
9. Ask for the records in the scope, not at handover
Documentation requested after the job is finished is documentation that gets negotiated. List it up front:
- Material certificates — EN 10204 3.1 where traceability is required.
- WPS and welder qualification records.
- NDT reports against the named acceptance level.
- Coating records: preparation standard achieved and dry film thickness readings.
- As-built or as-fabricated drawings where anything changed.
The short version
A scope that answers these is answerable first time: drawings or dimensions, steel grade and standard, weld code and acceptance level, qualification requirements, inspection type and extent, surface preparation and coating system, workshop or site, access and permit conditions, programme, and the records required at handover.
You do not need all of it to start a conversation. You do need it before anyone can give you a price that will still be the price at the end.
We fabricate, weld, carry out civil and maintenance work and attend site across Saudi Arabia. Send drawings, a sketch or the failed part through our contact form, or see what the Industrial & Site Services division covers. We quote against the standards your scope names.
Updated 6 September 2026