What to Expect and Best Practices during Inventory

We’ve mentioned in our previous blog post, Inventorying Your Steel Building Kit is Very Important, that performing a thorough inventory of your materials as soon as you receive them is one of the most important steps you’ll need to take post purchase.  You’ll have 10 days from the day of delivery to complete your inventory and report any issues back to Simpson Steel Building Company.  Ultimately, you will be responsible for reporting shortages or damages within those 10 days.  Any materials damaged or shorted that are reported after those 10 days will most likely require you to pay for the new materials.  The day your materials are delivered, you need to take several pictures of all your material bundles while they are still on the truck.  And then take the same pictures of the materials once you have offloaded them.  Be sure to get multiple angles looking at all the bundles.  When you start opening the bundles, we recommend you take pictures of those parts as well in case something comes up or you need to reference the material during the building process.  We’ve outlined key processes and tips below that we hope help you complete your inventory as simple and effective as possible!

Bundling Basics

• The “Hardware Details” section (pages 6 and 7) of the building erection manual that we have provided is a useful tool to quickly identify most components.  The Table of Contents can also quickly point you to a particular component if you can’t find it in the Hardware Details section.
• Short red-iron pieces may not be bundled. The factory often sends these as longer pieces with score marks, indicating where the “break apart” the pieces to the correct length.
• Flange braces may be sitting inside a bundle of C’s, so you need to open all the bundles to be sure flange braces are not hiding inside other materials.
• Wall & Roof panels are hard to count if they’re still bundled and you can’t verify lengths are correct. You’ll need to unbundle them to do your count.
• This also helps you verify that there is no cosmetic damage to the paneling. Remember, you will have a cover sheet on top and bottom of the panels. Those sheets may look damaged and that’s why we’ve put them where they are. They protect your other sheets. Do not include the cover sheets in your counts. They are extra and can be disposed of or used for other building purposes you may have.
• You will have to open the trim box and go through it to make sure everything has arrived.
  • Trim materials will have clear strippable film on them to protect the coloring. It will absorb any marks. When you peel it off, the marks will be gone. No need to panic here!
• Ridge caps and short wall & roof sheets are usually on their own pallet rather than being included with the longer panels.
• Most items should be labeled, but labels do get knocked off during shipping from time to time.  If this happens, you’ll just need to measure those items and compare the lengths to the material list to determine which piece it is.  You would determine the profile/size and then the length and it should identify most any piece.
• Fasteners come in bags of 250. If there are over 1,000 of a certain fastener, it may come in it’s own box of four bags.
  • Some colors we offer look very similar at a glance. If your counts are off on a certain fastener color but over on another type, be sure to triple check that the color fastener counted is in the correct color category.
• Bolts, nuts, and washers can be mixed. It is not always necessary to count individually. Try to eyeball it. We always provide a few extras of each, so if your high level count is close, you should be fine.
• Closures and tapes will be in the same boxes as the bolts and nuts, usually.  Same goes for any cable bracing components if your building requires cable bracing.
• As a reminder, Simpson Steel Building Company does not provide anchor bolts, concrete fasteners, or caulk.

Have Your Parts List and BOL On Hand

Simpson Steel Buildings will email you a Parts list specific to your purchased building prior to delivery of the materials. This PDF Parts List will be six or more pages long, depending on the options included with your building.  You’ll also receive a Bill of Lading (BOL) from the truck driver the day of delivery.  Make sure you check the BOL against the Parts List first to confirm everything that was supposed to be delivered is first included on the actual BOL. It’s also important to have either the physical copy of the building erection manual or a digital copy available for reference.

Product to Paper

We suggest doing the inventory page by page, so you do not create confusion and lose your spot on the Parts List. The basics of an inventory are that you will be checking to make sure that you received the correct quantity of each item and that the items you received are the correct lengths and sizes. The building materials are not always bundled the same way for every delivery. What each bundle includes depends on the size of the building and how many of each material is included. Following the Parts List page by page is the best way to be sure you received everything you were supposed to.

Parts List Overview

Page 1: This page will list your Eave Struts, Purlins and Girts and will be labelled ES-1, ES-2, P-1, P-2, OR G-1, G-2, etc. Make sure the lengths and quantities of each item match the length and quantities shown on your Parts List.

• Eave Struts are an 8″ C-shape but one ear is longer than the other.
• Purlins will be an 8″ Z-shape and will be the only Z shape on the job.
• Girts are going to be 8″x2-1/2″ C’s. Each of these components may have varying lengths depending on your building.

The eave struts and purlins are typically not in the same bundle, while the C’s are usually bundled together.

Page 2:  This page will list your Door and Window Jambs and Headers, Angles and Flange Braces, Columns, Truss components, Base Channels if included, and any Overhang red-iron components if included.

• Start with the jabs and headers, which will be the same dimensions as the girts previously inventoried (8″x2-1/2″ C’s). You need to make sure that these components are the correct length.
• Then move to the Gable Angle/Base Angle components (GA/BA on Parts List). These are the 2″x4″ L shaped pieces that will come in 20′ lengths.
• Next, locate your Flange Braces (FB on Parts List). The GA/BA and FB components are sometimes sitting inside of a bundle of C’s as mentioned in the bundling basics above.
• Columns will be 8″ C’s but they will be a thicker gauge (12 gauge) and will also be 3-1/2″ wide rather than 2-1/2″ like the girts, headers and jambs.
• When you get to the “Steel Truss” section, you’ll have your rafters (B-1/B-2, etc.) and your middle truss components (S-1/S-2 etc.).
  • The B rafters will be the only 10″x3-1/2″ C’s that you receive.
  • The S components will be the only 6″x2-1/2″ C’s that you should receive.
  • If you have a more custom building, sometimes you will have other components of these sizes, but very rarely.
• If you ordered 18″ overhangs with your building, you’ll need to check the Overhang section of the Parts List and verify you received the correct OC items. Same goes for any Base Channel components if you ordered a Base Girt or are using a pier foundation rather than a full slab or footer.

Page 3: This page will list all of your Ridge Caps. Roof and Wall Panels, Liner Panels, and Wainscot Panels.

• The ridge caps and other shorter panels such as the 1′-4-1/2″ soffit panels for your overhangs are most likely bundled on their own pallet rather than with the longer panels
  • Remember: there will be throw away, protective cover panels on the top and bottom of your panels that are not to be included in your counts.
• If you ordered 18″ overhangs, you’ll see the REV.R items towards the bottom of this page. REV.R indicates the panels are Reverse Rolled. Instead of the color being on the exterior ribbed portion of the panel, the color is instead on the flatter interior side of the panels. This is done to create a flatter soffit under the overhangs.
  • You’ll see 1′-4-1/2″ REV.R panels for the 18″ overhangs on the sidewalls.
  • You’ll see longer REV.R panels if you choose 18″ overhangs on the end walls. The longer pieces will be 3′ wide pieces and will be cut in half to give you a soffit piece on each half of your gable end.

Page 4:  This page will list all the Fasteners, Bolts, Vents, Cable Bracing, and Closures along with any Light Transmitting Panels that you purchase.  Typically, almost all the items on this page should be in the same bundle. Refer to the “Bundling Basics” section above for best practices on counting the fasteners, bolts, closures, and tapes.

• The cable bracing items will come with six total components. Verify you have the correct length of the strands along with the correct quantity of the other items:
  • Cable Strand
  • Flo-loc grip on cable
  • Eyebolts
  • Hillside Washers
  • Flat Washers
  • Nuts
• If you ordered any light transmitting panels, they’ll most likely be bundled with the wall and roof panels.

Page 5:  This page lists all the Trim components that you’ll be receiving. You’ll have to open the trim box completely to go through it and verify you received everything. What trim you received depends on certain options that you may or may not include with your building.

• If you did not order gutters, you’ll receive Eave Trim and rake trim with rake ends that work without gutters.
• If you ordered gutters, you’ll receive the gutters, downspouts, corner boxes compatible with gutters, and items that go with gutters.
• You may have soffit caps or special eave/gable trims depending on if you ordered overhangs or lean-tos.

The type of trim you receive will always depend on the options you choose. Because of this, go down the QTY section and any item that is not blank or does not have a 0 is an item you need to confirm the color, quantity, and length of. If it’s blank or has a 0 in this column, you should not be looking for those items.

Page 6:  This page lists all of your building’s Clips and Plates. When you purchase of Simpson Steel Building’s patented Steel Truss Frame kits or Mini Storage kits, the clips and plates will be shipped separately from the rest of your components. These will be shipped via UPS and typically arrive prior to the rest of the building’s components.

• If you have cable bracing that will be located on a section of the sidewalls of your building and the cables attach to the corner columns, you will receive Corner Brace Clips (CBC on parts list).
• If your building includes a lean-to, you will have Special Plates (SP on Parts List) and Lean-To Clips (LTC on Parts List) included.  Count all items on this page as soon as you receive your UPS shipment and let us know if anything is missing.

Don’t Worry, You’ve Got This!

We realize this was a lot of information and you may feel a little overwhelmed, but don’t get discouraged. Keep it simple. Have your Parts List, BOL, and the Erection Manual handy to reference, take plenty of pictures, and break those bundles apart and make sure the quantities and sizes are accurate. If you run into missing items, mistakes, or damaged pieces, we want to know as soon as possible so we can help rectify the situation. Doing this inventory process up to 10 days post-delivery will ensure that you are set up for success when you get ready to erect the building and will help avoid delays caused by inventory issues.  Simpson Steel Buildings is here to help, so call or email us with questions or issues.