Builder guide

Gage gets your plans priced by steel fabricators near the site and lets you pick one. You pay the fabricator directly; Gage is not in the payment. This is what happens from the moment you submit.

#Submitting

Go to /submit. Three steps: who you are, the project, and your drawings as PDF. You confirm you have the right to share the plans, and they upload straight to Gage's storage.

When you finish, two things happen at once. You land on your project page, and you are emailed a link to it. That link is your account. There is no password; anyone with the link can see your quotes and message your fabricator, so share it only with your own team. If you lose it, the email is the way back, or a builder account (below) lists your projects.

#Choosing a shop

Gage finds the three nearest fabricators that are accepting work and can take the size, and shows you each shop's estimate as a range: steel, transport and engineering, with distance. Shops are shown by region until one is confirmed. Pick one.

If the range works, say so and the shop prepares a firm quote, usually within a couple of business days. If it is outside your budget, say that instead: the shop is told, and you are shown the other shops' estimates to choose from. If none of them work, Gage flags the project for a person to look at, and you can leave a target number in the messages.

#The firm quote

When the shop's quote is ready you are emailed. The project page shows the number broken into steel, transport and engineering, with the shop's notes. Approve it, or ask questions in the message thread first.

Approving tells the fabricator. They have 48 hours to confirm the job. Once they do, their real business name and contact details appear on your page. If they do not confirm in time, Gage moves the job to the next shop and emails you; the new shop gives its own quote, which you approve before anything is built.

#Production to delivery

You are emailed when production starts, when the frames ship, and when they are delivered. Each step shows on the project page. Anything short or damaged on arrival, say so in the thread so it is on the record.

#A builder account

You do not need one, but signing up gives you a dashboard listing every project under your email, a map of the fabricator network, and a price comparison for any job you type in. Projects you submit while signed in are tied to your account as well as your email. Forgot your password? Use the link on the sign-in page.

#Estimates from a fabricator's site

Some fabricators have a Gage estimator on their own website. If you saved an estimate there, it became a Gage project matched to that shop, and the same project page and email link apply.