Terms and conditions for a welding and fabrication business

A fabrication business needs terms that deal with the drawing that changes after the steel is cut, the customer who supplies their own material and then blames the weld, the main contractor who pays when the client pays, and the repair on a worn machine that fails again six months later. I draft those terms around your shop and your site work for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Welders, structural steel fabricators, sheet metal and stainless shops, mobile welding and on-site repair businesses in England and Wales, trading as sole traders or limited companies. Most of you sell to main contractors, engineering firms, farms and facilities managers, and also take bespoke gates, railings and balustrades from homeowners. Business and consumer customers are treated differently in law, so both need to be covered.

What matters in welding and fabrication terms

Drawings, approval and design responsibility

The single biggest risk in fabrication is being blamed for a design you did not do. Your terms should say whether you are working to the customer's drawings or producing your own, and should make the customer responsible for the accuracy of dimensions, loadings and connection details they give you. Where the customer approves a general arrangement or a cutting list, the terms should treat that approval as final and price any later change as a variation. Once plate is profiled and sections are cut, a drawing revision is not a correction, it is a new order.

Site dimensions, tolerances and finish

Steel is made to tolerances, and galvanising pulls things out of shape. Terms that promise nothing about tolerance invite an argument with a customer who expected furniture-grade work. Say what standard of fit and finish you work to, that weld spatter, grinding marks and mill scale within your stated tolerance are not defects, and that colour and texture of hot dip galvanising, powder coat or brushed stainless will vary between batches. Where the customer takes their own site dimensions, the terms should put remedial work caused by wrong measurements at their cost.

Payment, deposits and ownership of fabricated goods

Shops carry the material cost long before delivery. Terms should take a deposit against material, allow stage payments on longer contracts and charge for storage where the customer cannot take delivery. Retention of title over finished steelwork is worth having while it sits in your yard, but under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 it is of little use once the frame is bolted into a building or welded into other goods, so payment timing matters more than the clause. For business customers the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives interest at 8% over base rate plus fixed compensation per debt.

Site work, hot works and construction payment rules

Erecting or welding steelwork that forms part of a building is a construction operation, so business contracts for it fall within the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996: adjudication, payment and payless notices, staged payments where the work runs forty-five days or more, and no pay-when-paid. Your terms need to sit alongside those rules rather than contradict them. They should also require the customer to provide safe access, power, a hot works permit where the site operates one, and a cleared area, and should make fire watch and combustible removal the customer's responsibility unless you have agreed otherwise in writing.

Repairs, customer-supplied material and liability

Weld repairs to worn plant, cracked castings and unknown parent metal cannot be guaranteed like new fabrication, and terms that pretend otherwise will be read against you. Say that you do not warrant material you did not supply, that hidden cracking, fatigue and previous repairs may only appear once you start, and that a repair is a repair. For business customers the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 allows liability caps and the exclusion of consequential loss such as lost production, provided they are reasonable, which is usually a question of insurance. Liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence cannot be excluded at all.

Homeowners ordering gates, railings and balustrades

Bespoke metalwork sold to a homeowner is a consumer contract. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, the fitting must be done with reasonable care and skill, and none of that can be excluded. Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 an order taken at the customer's home or by email carries a fourteen-day cancellation right, although goods made to the customer's specification are an exception. Your terms and your order form need to record the specification properly for that exception to be worth anything.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

The main contractor sends me their own subcontract order. Whose terms win?

Usually the last set sent and accepted before work starts, which is why so many fabricators end up on the contractor's paper without noticing. Your terms should state that they apply to every order and that acknowledging a purchase order does not accept the buyer's conditions. If the contractor insists on their document, have it read before you cut steel.

Do I own the fabrication drawings and jigs I produce?

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 work created by a contractor stays with the contractor unless it is assigned in writing, so your detailing and jigs remain yours by default. Customers sometimes ask for the files so they can have the next batch made elsewhere. The terms should say whether they get a licence, and at what price.

Who keeps the offcuts and scrap?

Whatever the terms say, and they should say it. Most shops treat offcuts and scrap from their own material as theirs, and price accordingly. Where the customer supplies material, agree in writing whether surplus is returned or retained. If you carry scrap or waste away from a customer's site you must be registered as a waste carrier with the Environment Agency.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a builder doing commercial work
• Terms and conditions for a window and door installer

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.