Real estate is one of the biggest and most lucrative industries currently, what with the need for individuals/groups to find a space of their own in today’s ever-expanding world.
By extension, construction has also become a big part of this process, and such is the demand to complete high-end work in today’s world that different agencies are willing to bid the highest amount for a particular project. This means that construction firms now play a vital role in ensuring that building of any structure goes off smoothly, sans hitches or incidents.
This, in turn, means the need for experienced and smart project managers, structural engineers and architects has become highly important. However, the most important task arguably is that of the steel detailers’, who take inputs from both the engineers and architects to make a blueprint of how the structure should be built – inside out. This process is known as steel detailing, and this is what we will take a closer look at here.
Such has been the impact of the real estate industry that it contributes to almost 4 percent of the total world output, with the total global property value coming up to $217 trillion by 2015 end. 75 percent of this is made up of residential property. For those interested, the world economy had a Gross Domestic Product output of $80 trillion in the same timeframe.
In the Indian context, the real estate domain is the 2nd largest employer after agriculture and is scheduled to develop exponentially over the next ten years approximately. The real estate market of Indian is projected to reach $180 billion by the year 2020. The housing sector itself forms around 6 percent of the country’s GDP.
Know The Work
To begin with, let’s have a look at two of the key terms here: steel detailing and steel fabricator. A steel fabricator is a company that provides – and at times installs – steel foundations for any construction project.
Steel detailing is the process where a person, known as a steel detailer, makes shop drawings for the steel fabricator. Shop drawings are a set of drawings or a kind of blueprint which shows how the steel members have to be erected to get the best possible shape and stability for the structure being constructed.
Based on the steel detailers’ drawings, the fabricator will cut and weld the members together. Along with this, the detailer will also generate instructions for layout which will aid in building and put together the steel skeleton.
Number crunch: In the US, ironworkers (those who install and reinforce iron and steel to form the structure’s skeleton) are paid substantial salaries for their work. According to the country’s Bureau of Labour Statistics, ironworkers’ median pay is $50,830 per year, and $24.44 per hour, for 2016. There were around 90,300 such ironworkers who were employed in 2016.
Did you know: Structural engineering dates back to around 2,700 BC in Egypt, with the construction of a step pyramid by Imhotep, the chancellor to pharaoh Djoser. However, the oldest structures in the world are the Megalithic Temples of Malta, a group of temples even older than the great pyramids of Egypt or the Stonehenge in England.
Why The Steel Detailer Is So Crucial
The detailer is so crucial to how the overall project shapes up. Having to combine the design of the architect and calculations for size and locations of the steel by the engineer is not easy, and slight deviations can lead to stumbles in how the structure finally looks. The steel detailer needs to be aware of the guidelines and norms of all aspects regarding construction so that the structural steel detailing can be made according to the common standards followed. A good detailer should be able to make even the most difficult of projects conceivable within the given budgets and timeframe.
Did you know: The average pay for a steel detailer per hour is $19.75, while total pay can range from $30,000 to $70,000!
Why Is Steel Detailing Now In High Demand?
Anyone who has followed the developments around the world recently will know that construction is a growing field, what with the worldwide population heading towards a “population explosion”, this means that both residential and commercial complexes need to be constructed every other day. There is no lack of construction work around the world, but each country will have its own sets of challenges and regulations to work around.
This is where a good steel detailer, who knows his/her way around a construction site and can communicate clearly with the various people he has/she to work with (engineers, architects, contractors, fabricators) as to what is the best way to move forward with the project.
While there is no shortage of steel detailing companies around the globe, finding a detailer who can provide quality and clarity is not easy. Of course, this is not to say that the detailer is the be all and end all when it comes to construction of a structure.
But someone who is good at the job can be a big difference between extra costs or losses incurred and making optimum use of available resources to come up with the best structure possible.
Know the union: Most developed countries have trade unions, which include those working in the construction field. These unions take care of demands, requirements, wellbeing and safety of workers.
Technology Cutting Off Detailers
Many companies have started making use of technology to aid detailers in coming up with the best models for a structure. In fact, nowadays, they are doing away with detailers, instead focusing on using the accurate virtual models that are prepared by machines. All that is to be done is feed in details of the construction site and structure, and an accurate blueprint is brought out by computers.
For example, the Tekla steel detailing model has been a big success, thanks to the BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology that is used by the company. This form helps reduce fabrication errors and minimizes the need for rework.
Technology has made its presence in many fields in today’s world, be it sports, finance, politics or human resources, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the construction field embraces its use shortly. Until then, combining the best quality of steel, the best manpower, the best engineers and architects and detailers can help contractors and fabricators come up with the best structures.
Some of the software used for steel detailing are:
- Bocad by AVEVA
- Advance Steel by Autodesk
- ProSteel by Bentley Systems
- Tekla Structures by Trimble Navigation
- TecnoMETAL by Steel&Graphics
- SDS/2 by Design Data
- Soft Steel
- SSDCP
- SOLIDWORKS
- TSD (The Steel Detailer)
Primary Keywords: steel detailing, structural steel detailing, steel detailing companies, Tekla steel detailing
LSI Keywords: real estate, construction, project, project managers, structural engineers, architects, steel detailers, blueprint, steel fabricator, steel foundation, shop drawings, steel members, cut and weld, steel skeleton, common standards, technology, virtual models, fabrication errors
