light guage steel imported from China

[mronlinetutor]

I am an civil designer with two years of experience. I have a degree for the University of British Columbia in civil and structural engineering. UBC meets the academic standards in North America.

Now my client. a builder from Ontario, Canada is requesting a prefabricated house from China and have all their windows, doors, insulation, and electrical appliance approved by Canadian Standard Association. The house is made from light gauge steel. He want me to make sure that the whole house is CSA approved. So light gauge steel from China cannot be used. My recommendation is to ship the light gauge steel from Canada to China. After they have prefabricated the house, dismantled it in order, I would ask the manufacturer to ship it back to Canada for erection. What do you think of that. Would it be cheaper to hire a local manufacturer to do the job.

He want to know how much it would cost, how much would it cost to do the design. He wants me to do the architectural design and interior design also.

I need some advice on the cost of the job and on the design of light gauge steel.



disclaimer: all calculations and comments must be checked by senior engineers before they are taken to be acceptable.

 

[txeng91]

You need to consider everything your going to have to analyze: joists, studs, shearwalls, foundation, etc and estimate how long it will take to you to do the analysis plus any drawings you may have to do. Assuming it’s small (<2000 sf) I would probably charge around 2k-3k USD if it’s a one off project. Defiantly wouldn’t agree to do architectural and interior design unless you have experience in it and know what your doing. Not sure what the regulations are there where I am you don’t need a registered architect for residences so you could get a house designer to draw it up for dirt cheap.

 

[NorthCivil]

sounds like you have so much going on here. you need to verify each individual building component verified by the CSA.

The windows. the insulation. the structure. electrical. mechanical. heaters, pipes, sinks, weatherproofing, building wrap, gypsum board, paint, fans, wiring, plugs. roofing material, nails, screws, all the various sealants. and more.

you might need a dozen or so engineers, highly experienced in the Chinese import and supply chain, of wide ranging disciplines, to appropriately verify all components. to economize this type of building, you would have to do 100's.

There is a reason offshore pre-fab hasnt taken off for entire buildings. its very, very complex. I've been involved in procurement for chinese facade packages and the process is nothing short of a nightmare, very difficult, that only marginally makes the entire affair worth the effort in cost savings. and the materials i'm involved with are only glass, aluminium, and various sealants/gaskets. the sealants and gaskets are only possible because DOW and the major chemical companies that supply these products operate in china with very stringent processes. glass and aluminium can be quality checked with relative ease. myself and the project team typically travel to china, usually 2-4 times per project, at a cost of about 50-70 thousand dollars per expedition. (consultant day rates, business class airfare, local testing facility hire is the bulk of this expense). I've had more than one trip that was essentially a waste of everybodies time and money, due to catastrophe, shady business, cultural clashes and honest mistakes.

This type of rigorous western engineering consulting for chinese products can be absorbed on a project where the supply and install package is 15% cheaper on a 30 million dollar contract. I don't see how this can be translated to a single family residential dwelling.