If you have a project that involves the manipulation of steel, sometimes you'll need help from an industrial steel fabricator. They can customize steel in all sorts of ways thanks to their specialty equipment and experience. There may be several of these contractors in your area to hire, but you can narrow down the options by considering this selection advice. 

Look at Past Work

Probably the most direct way to see if a steel fabricator is a good fit for your custom metal project is to examine their past work. This is often a good predictor of future capabilities. There are several ways you can approach examining past work. For instance, you could just look on their website and examine a portfolio of their work.

For an even more detailed assessment, you can visit past work sites in person. If you take this route, just make sure you bring someone who's knowledgeable on steel fabrication. They'll know exactly what aspects to focus on when assessing competency and professionalism. 

Have Plans Drawn Up

Before officially hiring a steel fabricator to work on your project, you should have them draw out some plans for the project you plan on having them work on. You can then see what sort of fabrication approach they plan on taking.

If the steel fabricator is experienced and competent, they should have no trouble drafting up exactly what you need built. If you like what you see, and the fabricator seems like they have a good grasp on the overall steel project, you can bring them on board and proceed to fabrication.

Don't Forget About Customer Service

If this steel fabrication project is lasting for more than a couple of weeks, then it's important that the steel fabricator is easy to get along with. Otherwise, this entire experience will be stressful to get through. 

To gauge a fabricator's overall customer service, you'll want to look at experiences of past clients they've worked with. You should be able to go online and track down customer testimonials, which will let you know how easy the steel fabricator is to work with. If you don't see a lot of bad feedback, chances are their customer service is pretty good.

Working with steel can be difficult at times, which means sometimes getting assistance from steel fabricators. As long as you know what areas of their practice to assess, you should be able to make a competent hire.