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How to read a fabrication quote, line by line
Compare fabrication quotes line by line, not total by total. A useful quote names the materials and finishes, splits shop labour from lighting and tech, prices crating and transport both ways, and says who pays overtime if load-in slips. Then read the exclusions: venue power, rigging, material handling, permits and storage often sit outside the number. Toronto's sign at Nathan Phillips Square, replaced in 2020 for up to $762,000 including removal and three years of upkeep, shows why.
In brief. Compare fabrication quotes line by line, not total by total. A useful quote names the materials and finishes, splits shop labour from lighting and tech, prices crating and transport both ways, and says who pays overtime if load-in slips. Then read the exclusions: venue power, rigging, material handling, permits and storage often sit outside the number. Toronto's sign at Nathan Phillips Square, replaced in 2020 for up to $762,000 including removal and three years of upkeep, shows why.
In July 2015, the City of Toronto put a 3D TORONTO sign in Nathan Phillips Square for the Pan Am Games. It was built as a temporary structure, meant to last a few weeks, BlogTO reported. People loved it, so it stayed. By 2019, water was getting into the electronics, decorative wrapping was being used to slow the decay, and City staff said ongoing repairs would cost more than a new sign (Global News).
The replacement went up in September 2020 with a City estimate of up to $762,000. That one figure covered three jobs: removing the old sign, making and installing the new one, and maintaining it for three years. Put it next to a quote that stops at install and you're comparing different things.
That's the habit to build before you compare two fabrication quotes. Brience is a Toronto-based custom fabrication and experiential design studio, and these are the lines we'd expect any quote, ours included, to show.
Shop Objects
Explore our curated brand essentialsThe lines a useful quote separates
Compare line by line, not total by total. A lower number that leaves out crating, install or venue power isn't lower.
Design development and shop drawings, and how many revision rounds are included.
Materials, by name. "3 mm brushed aluminium composite panel" can be compared. "Metal finish" can't.
Finishing: paint, laminate, edge banding and graphics. This is where lifespan gets decided. A build meant for a few weeks outdoors, like the first TORONTO sign, ends up needing wraps and repairs if it stays.
Shop labour: cutting, assembly, wiring and the test fit.
Lighting, AV and tech, including software setup and testing time.
Crating and transport, both ways.
Install and strike labour, and who pays overtime if load-in slips. Web Tonic's 2026 guide to Toronto experiential agencies lists that among the contract points to settle.
Validity and change orders: how long the price holds, and how a change is priced once fabrication starts.
Get a QuoteRequest your personalized projectWhat a big install adds to the list
In March 2014, for TED's 30th anniversary, Janet Echelman hung Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks across 745 feet between the Fairmont Waterfront and the Vancouver Convention Centre. Studio Echelman lists the net at 300 feet long, and the sculpture at about 860,000 knots and 145 miles of braided fibre, including Honeywell Spectra, weighing nearly 3,500 pounds. At night, people changed its lighting from their phones.
The studio's credits read like a quote. Beyond the sculpture itself, there's the interactive artwork (Aaron Koblin with Google's Data Arts Team), custom 3D software from Autodesk, sculptural engineering by Arup, building engineering by Glotman Simpson, projection and lighting, sound, a network, and install design. Each of those is a line. A quote that folds them into "installation" can't be compared with one that lists them, and you can't see which one is missing.
Get a QuoteRequest your personalized projectRead the exclusions before the total
The gap between two quotes is often in what each one leaves out. Ask which side of the quote each of these sits on:
Venue power and rigging. At the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, electrical services and rigging attached to the building go through Showtech, the venue's exclusive supplier, and The Buildings Show 2026 bars outside contractors from overhead rigging and electrical work.
Material handling. Moving crates from the loading dock to your space is often billed by the show's own contractor, not your fabricator.
Permits and insurance. The same show asks outside contractors for $5 million in liability coverage, with the organizer and the MTCC named as additional insured.
Storage and upkeep. Where the build lives afterwards, who pays, and what condition it comes back in. The City's sign budget carried three years of maintenance. Most event quotes stop at strike.
Neither approach is wrong. You just can't compare them until you know which one you're holding. Our guide to hiring a fabricator in Toronto has the questions to ask alongside this list. If you have two quotes that don't line up, send them to us for a second read.
Sources: Global News, "Crews begin installing new and enhanced 'Toronto' sign at Nathan Phillips Square" (September 2020); BlogTO, "A brand new Toronto sign is being installed and it's costing the city more than $760k" (September 2020); Studio Echelman, "Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks, Vancouver, Canada, 2014" (project page); Web Tonic, "Toronto Experiential Agencies: 2026 Read" (October 2026); Metro Toronto Convention Centre, rigging and overhead work policy; The Buildings Show 2026, contractor form.
