Awarding structural steel is the highest-leverage decision on your schedule, because steel gates every trade behind it. The right erector is not just the low number. It is the party most likely to stand the frame on time, safely, and without a stack of RFIs. Here is how to separate a qualified steel subcontractor from a price on a bid tab.
First, settle the certification question
Start by reading your own project manual, because it decides how this question gets weighted.
If Division 05 requires AISC Certification, the check is binary and it happens before anything else. An uncertified bidder is nonresponsive no matter how sharp the price, so confirm certification before you build a number around a bid you cannot award. Verify it as a document: look the company up in the AISC directory of certified companies, confirm the certification category matches your scope, confirm the legal entity on the certificate is the entity that will sign your subcontract, and confirm the date is current. That is a five-minute check and it is not negotiable.
If your spec does not require it, certification becomes one input among several rather than a gate. It tells you a company runs an audited quality management system. It does not tell you whether they self-perform, how they sequence, whether their crews are safe, or whether they can bond your package. Those answers come from the next nine questions, and on a spec without a certification requirement they are the ones that predict how your frame actually goes up.
Either way, treat certification as an entry ticket rather than a finish line. It is a real signal about a company’s quality system, and it is silent on most of what decides a steel package.
The 10 questions to ask before you award
| # | Ask | What a strong answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Do you self-perform erection, or sub it out? | We erect with our own crews, on our own payroll |
| 2 | What AISC certification category do you hold, and does my spec require one? | A specific category matched to the scope, or a straight answer about what they do and do not hold |
| 3 | Are your welders AWS D1.1 qualified for this scope? | Yes, with current WPS, PQR, and welder qualification records |
| 4 | What is your current EMR? | At or below 1.0, with the carrier letter to show |
| 5 | Can you show your OSHA 300 logs and written safety program? | Both, without a delay |
| 6 | What is your bonding capacity? | Single and aggregate limits comfortably above this job |
| 7 | Can you give three comparable references? | Similar tonnage, market, and complexity |
| 8 | Who produces the shop drawings and BIM? | In-house or a tightly managed detailer |
| 9 | How do you sequence fabrication to erection? | Fabrication built around the erection plan |
| 10 | Who owns weld quality across shop and field? | One QA/QC chain, one accountable party |
Print the table, take it to the scope review, and make every bidder answer each one on the record. Scoring the same ten questions across bidders is what turns a bid tab into a comparison.
What “self-perform” really tells you
Question one is the most predictive on the list. A steel subcontractor that self-performs both fabrication and erection owns the whole package: the crews, the sequence, and the quality. When a fabricator subs erection to a third party, or an erector buys steel from an outside shop, you inherit the seam between them.
That seam is where fit-up disputes, sequencing misses, and finger-pointing live. If a connection does not fit, the fabricator and the erector each have a commercial reason to call it the other party’s problem, and you are the one holding the schedule while they work it out. A single-source steel subcontractor removes that seam before the job starts, because one company answers for both halves.
Ask it directly and listen for hedging. “We have a long-standing relationship with our erector” is a no.
Reading the safety record: EMR and OSHA
EMR and OSHA logs are the two numbers that predict field risk. The Experience Modification Rate compares a contractor’s workers’ compensation loss history to the industry average, where 1.0 is average and lower is better.
Do not stop at the number:
- Ask for the current letter from the carrier, not a figure quoted in a bid narrative.
- Ask for the OSHA 300 logs and read them alongside the EMR. A single bad year on an otherwise clean record is a different risk than a repeating pattern, and the EMR alone will not distinguish them.
- Ask for the written safety program and who enforces it on site. Steel erection is high-hazard work performed above every other trade on your job.
A clean EMR paired with a documented program and trained crews is what you want standing steel over the rest of your site.
Welding qualification, in documents rather than adjectives
“Certified welders” is a phrase, not evidence. The evidence is three documents: the welding procedure specification (WPS) that governs the joint, the procedure qualification record (PQR) that proves the procedure produces a sound weld, and the welder qualification records for the processes and positions your job requires. Field overhead welding and flat shop welding are not the same qualification.
Ask for them at the scope review. They are ordinary documents that a working shop produces routinely, and a subcontractor who needs a week to find them is answering the question in a different way. See AWS D1.1 explained for what the code actually governs.
Bonding, references, and detailing capacity
Three practical checks round out the vet:
- Bonding. Confirm single-project and aggregate bonding capacity comfortably exceed your package. A bonded subcontractor has already passed a surety’s independent financial review, which is a check you do not have to run yourself.
- References. Ask for three projects of comparable tonnage, market, and complexity. A data center, a hotel, and a mall each sequence differently, so match the reference to your work rather than accepting a general portfolio.
- Detailing and BIM. Find out who produces the shop drawings and coordinates the model. In-house or closely managed detailing shortens the approval and RFI cycle and keeps connection design consistent through erection.
Red flags worth a second look
- Erection quietly subcontracted to a third party after the bid is awarded.
- Welder qualification records that take days to produce.
- A bonding limit that only just covers the package, leaving nothing for a change.
- References that are smaller, simpler, or in a different market than your job.
- A fabrication schedule built around shop throughput rather than your erection sequence.
- A certificate in a company name that does not match the entity on the subcontract.
Any one of these is a question. Two together is a pattern.
The award decision
Score every bidder on the same ten questions, not on price alone. The lowest number that answers “we sub out erection,” “we buy our steel outside,” or “we cannot show the safety record” is rarely the lowest cost once coordination and schedule risk are priced in.
The bid you want is the one where one team self-performs the package, produces its qualification and safety documents without friction, carries the bonding to stand behind the work, and sequences the shop to your erection plan. Where your spec requires certification, that team is certified as well, and you have confirmed it in the directory rather than taken it on faith.
TMG | Tri-State Metal Group answers “one team” to question one. We fabricate in our own shop and erect with our own ironworker crews across SC, NC, and GA, staff AWS D1.1 qualified welders working to qualified procedures, run a documented OSHA safety program, and are licensed, insured, and bonded. Bring the ten questions to the scope review and hold every bidder to them, including us.