- If the part can come back to the shop, it usually should.
- On-site work is decided by access, ventilation and what is behind the joint.
- A make-safe and a proper fix are often two visits, on purpose.
Mobile and on-site welding exists because some steel cannot visit Moorebank: a cracked frame in a live Sydney kitchen, a handrail already fixed to a stair in Wollongong, a hopper that only comes apart with a crane. The question is not whether we have a welder in a ute. It is whether a weld in that position will be as good as a weld on a bench.
Bring it in when you can
In the workshop we can clamp flat, purge a tube, dress a weld and passivate it. On a ladder, overhead, into paint, with a dinner service starting in two hours, we can make something safe. Those are different products. If a section unbolts, unbolt it.
When staying on site is the right call
- The assembly is built in. Cutting it out would cost more than the repair.
- You need a make-safe the same day so the floor can keep trading.
- The join is between two things that were never going to leave: a rail to a landing, a frame to a slab.
- A shutdown window exists, with permits and isolation already booked.
What we will not pretend
We will not sell a single visit as a finished repair if the joint cannot be prepared. Paint, rust and grease have to come off. A grinder has to reach. There has to be air to work in, and nothing behind the heat that we cannot see. If those are missing, the honest job is brace it now and come back with the section we made in the shop.
| On site | In the shop |
|---|---|
| Make-safe, braces, temporary plates | Replacement sections, dressed welds, passivation |
| Joins to structure that cannot move | Anything that unbolts or can be cut free |
| After-hours in a live venue | Day work with a flat table and a purge kit |
A good on-site weld looks boring. If it looks heroic, the access was wrong.
What to send
Photographs, the suburb in Greater Sydney or the city if it is interstate, when the site can be accessed, and whether the area is a kitchen, a plant room or a public stair. We will tell you if we are coming to weld or coming to measure something that should leave with us.