- Measure the building as built. The architectural plan is a proposal.
- Decide where the tolerance goes before anything is cut.
- Coatings lock the sequence. Late colour choices mean site welding and a brush.
Architectural metalwork is the stainless and coated steel that is supposed to be seen: screens, feature frames, canopy edges, shopfront returns, door surrounds, the lines an architect drew and a client will stand under in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. A kitchen bench can be 3mm out and nobody notices. A 4 metre run of fins on a George Street front that is 3mm out becomes a taper you can see from the street.
Set-out is the job
We do not cut this work from the architectural set alone. Slabs fall. Columns miss the grid. Ceiling grids start from a different mark than the floor. We measure the opening at three heights and three widths, pick a datum, and photograph every service in the zone. Then we draw what will actually fit.
- Agree the datum with the builder and mark it where other trades will not paint it out.
- Hold the module the eye reads, usually the gap, and put leftover millimetres at the ends.
- Design an adjustment: slotted plates, a packing zone, a scribe at the wall.
- Confirm the substrate can take the load before the brackets are made.
Finish decides the sequence
Powder coat happens after welding. That means the assembly has to break into pieces that fit an oven and bolt together without a site weld. Galvanising has its own rules: vent holes, distortion, edge build. Brushed 316 on a coastal elevation needs grain direction called on the drawing, or adjacent panels will look like a mistake.
| Element | What usually fails | What we hold |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical fins or battens | Gap creep along the run | Module first, ends absorb the miss |
| Shopfront frame | Alignment with the tenancy next door | Line first, gap second |
| Canopy edge | Level against a falling slab | Datum and packing, not hope |
| Screen to a stair | Fixings into a substrate that cannot take them | Load path before the pattern |
Architectural steel is not harder to weld than a bench. It is harder to set out, and set-out is finished before a machine is turned on.
What to send
The architectural drawings, the finish schedule, and access for a site measure in Australia, whether that is a Sydney CBD screen or a Brisbane canopy. If colour or coating is not decided, say so. We would rather hold the shop drawings than weld a frame that has to be painted with a brush on the scaffold.