Steel erection and metal building erectors in San Antonio, Texas

You already bought the steel. What remains is the dirt work, a slab poured to the anchor bolt plan that shipped with it, a crane, and one independent contractor to stand the frame up and dry it in.

What a steel package includes, and what it leaves out

Your order is the only authority on that, and the line to find runs between material and labor. A package is steel and paper: main frames, purlins, girts, roof and wall panels, fasteners, trim, the framed openings you specified, and the drawings, anchor bolt plan included, that the foundation gets designed around.

What comes off the truck is not yet a building. Two quotes that look far apart are usually for two different jobs, so check the split below against your own order before comparing. Where each scope falls in the schedule: the start-to-finish San Antonio guide.

The common split on a package order. Your own order governs yours, and anything in the right column is its own scope unless the order says otherwise.
Normally shipped	Normally not shipped
Main frames, purlins and girts	Clearing, the pad and the dirt work
Roof and wall panels, fasteners and trim	The concrete and the anchor bolts cast in it
The framed openings you specified	The crane and the erection crew
The drawings, anchor bolt plan included	Insulation, gutters, electrical and finish-out
Nothing about the lot it lands on	The permit and every filing behind it

The erection crew's job, and the license question

They set steel. The crew checks the cured pour against the anchor bolt plan, stands the main frames, plumbs and braces them, runs purlins and girts, then sheets the roof and walls. On most packages one independent metal building contractor carries the dirt work, the concrete and the erection; on others the crew follows a concrete sub.

No erector license exists to check. Texas licenses no home builder or general contractor, and TDLR's list of regulated trades has no builder, remodeler, roofer or metal building program. Electricians, air conditioning contractors and plumbers carry their own licenses, so ask for those, plus the engineer's seal.

Checked at Sunset Advisory Commission, Texas Residential Construction Commission; TDLR regulated industries list, 2026-09-13.

You own the steel. Is a permit still needed?

Yes. A permit covers setting a structure on a piece of ground, not buying one.

Inside the City of San Antonio a commercial job runs plan review at Development Services, from zoning through inspections to a certificate of occupancy. In unincorporated Bexar County the Fire Marshal Office at 210-335-0300 decides when structures not for single-family dwelling use need building permits, and that permit reaches site clearing, so clearing waits on the permit.

The two do not even share a code edition: San Antonio adopted the 2024 International Code Council codes on January 30, 2025, and unincorporated Bexar the 2021 International Fire and Building Codes, in force January 1, 2024. Ask the seller which edition your package was engineered to. The other six counties differ again, so find yours on the county index and follow the path on its sheet.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, business and commercial projects, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Bexar County, building permits and fire marshal code enforcement pages, 2026-09-13.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, codes and ordinances, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Bexar County Fire Marshal, code enforcement and inspections, 2026-09-13.

Pour the slab to the anchor bolt plan, never the reverse

Bolts cast in the concrete hold the frame down, in the pattern and at the projection the package drawing calls for, and the column reactions on that drawing size the foundation. So: package drawings, then a foundation designed to them, then concrete, then steel. A slab poured ahead of the plan may need drilling, cutting or a second pour, and fixing it is an engineering call.

What the concrete sits on changes inside a single county: shallow or very shallow stony soil over Glen Rose and Edwards limestone in north Bexar, deep Houston Black clay that cracks wide as it dries on the east and west uplands, and loamy sand over a finer subsoil to the south (USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Bexar County, Texas, 1966, checked 2026-09-13). Rock changes the digging, clay changes the slab section, sand changes the compaction.

Whose stamp goes on the drawing turns on the office and the span. The City of San Antonio commercial project application guide requires every structural sheet, meaning the foundation and the structural framing, to be designed and stamped by a Texas professional engineer. Statewide, Occupations Code 1001.056 lets a building skip the state engineering chapter when nobody holds out to offer engineering services to the public and the building is one story, 5,000 square feet of floor or less, with no clear span wider than 24 feet across its narrow side, and past that span it asks for engineering or pre-engineering only on the roof framing. The pour: the slab and foundation sheet.

Checked at City of San Antonio Development Services, commercial project application guide, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1001, engineers and engineering, 2026-09-13.

Checked at USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Bexar County, Texas (1966), 2026-09-13.

Does steel you already paid for count toward $50,000?

Assume it does until the design professional filing your plans says it does not. Any building job with $50,000 or more in total estimated construction cost must be registered with TDLR, with the construction documents going to a registered accessibility specialist under Administrative Rule 68.50. TDLR lists what to leave out, not what to put in, and steel is not on its list: the land, fees for architects, engineers or consultants, furnishings, and equipment that sits outside the building mechanical systems.

The sequence catches an owner with steel on order: Government Code 469.102 keeps the owner from applying for a local building permit, or starting work, until the plans have gone to TDLR, and keeps a local official from taking the application without confirming the building is registered.

Checked at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Architectural Barriers frequently asked questions, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Architectural Barriers special project registration application, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Legislature Online, Government Code Chapter 469, elimination of architectural barriers, 2026-09-13.

The clock that starts ahead of dirt work in Bexar or Medina

The Edwards Aquifer plan, the longest wait on this sheet. On the recharge, transition or contributing zone, construction cannot start until TCEQ approves a protection plan, and for the San Antonio region TCEQ lists Bexar, Medina, Comal, Uvalde and Kinney counties. Only parts are regulated, and TCEQ's own map viewer settles a given lot. On the recharge zone, nothing regulated happens without an approved water pollution abatement plan, and TCEQ counts putting up buildings, clearing and digging among the regulated activities.

Hold it against your delivery date now: TCEQ sets administrative review two weeks after submission, with up to 30 days to finish; technical review then has 90 calendar days; and no regulated activity may start before approval issues. Stormwater goes by acreage instead, bringing in TCEQ construction general permit coverage at an acre or more disturbed, and that coverage does not free an aquifer lot.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application and review process, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, construction stormwater general permit TXR150000, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, general permit TXR150000, part II, 2026-09-13.

Septic, water and power on a bare rural lot

The steel can go up without them; the certificate of occupancy cannot, so start them while the frame is still on paper. Septic is a permit, not a plumbing line: no on-site sewage facility may be built without a permit and approved planning materials, the permitting office has 30 days to rule, and the rules count any building that is not a single-family home or a duplex as commercial. Rule 30 TAC 285.5 requires a professional engineer or professional sanitarian to seal those materials for all new construction on the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, and each county here has its own authorized agent, so TCEQ is not the office.

Power is a schedule with a deposit up front. Medina Electric Cooperative runs its own commercial application where a location never had power, takes a non-refundable $100 engineering fee before the site visit, and usually needs four to six weeks once a job goes to construction.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, getting a permit for an on-site sewage facility, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality publication RG-472, on-site sewage facility rules compilation, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, On-Site Activity Reporting System, authorized agent search by county, records read for Bexar, Medina, Wilson, Atascosa, Guadalupe, Karnes and Frio, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Medina Electric Cooperative, start or stop service, 2026-09-13.

Who should hire an erector, and what to get on paper

It suits an owner who already holds a package and wants one scope priced: dirt, concrete, erection. It does not suit an owner who has not ordered yet and is shopping erection labor to save money, since the frame, the foundation and the openings are one engineering decision, and splitting them early is how a slab gets poured twice. Still choosing? Start at commercial steel buildings, or at post-frame and pole barn buildings where posts in the ground suit the use better.

Get five things on paper: which anchor bolt plan the slab is poured to, who seals the foundation drawing, who pulls the permit, who files the TDLR registration if the job crosses $50,000, and who unloads, stores and insures the steel between delivery and erection.

No metal building company serving the San Antonio area posts a price, so erection gets priced on your ground, against the access a crane and a concrete truck need. What moves it: how wide and how tall, whether a crane and trucks can get in, the ground under the pad, and how much of the package you still have to buy.

Company price pages checked; none shows a figure. Checked at Four San Antonio-area metal building company websites, 2026-09-13.

What owners ask

What does a San Antonio metal building erector do?

An erection crew checks the finished slab against the anchor bolt plan, stands the main steel frames on the anchor bolts, plumbs and braces them, runs the purlins and girts, then sheets the roof and walls. Texas licenses none of that: the state issues no home builder or general contractor license, and no builder, remodeler, roofer or metal building program appears among the trades the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation lists. Checked at tdlr.texas.gov, 2026-09-13.

Already bought the metal building package: is a building permit still needed?

Owning the steel does not change who permits the structure. Inside the City of San Antonio a commercial job goes through plan review at Development Services. In unincorporated Bexar County the Fire Marshal Office at 210-335-0300 decides when structures not for single-family dwelling use need building permits, and that permit reaches site clearing as well as the build. The other six counties answer their own way, so confirm with the office that has your address. Checked at sa.gov and bexar.org, 2026-09-13.

Is an owner-supplied steel package part of the $50,000 TDLR figure?

Any building job with $50,000 or more in total estimated construction cost must be registered with TDLR, short for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, with the construction documents going to a registered accessibility specialist for review. TDLR lists what to leave out, not what to put in: the land, fees for architects, engineers or consultants, furnishings, and equipment that sits outside the building mechanical systems. A steel package on its own invoice is not on that list, so settle the figure with the design professional filing the plans. Checked at tdlr.texas.gov, 2026-09-13.

Whose seal goes on a pre-engineered building's foundation drawing?

Inside the City of San Antonio, a Texas professional engineer's: the city commercial project application guide requires every structural sheet, meaning the foundation and the structural framing, to be designed and stamped by one. Statewide, Occupations Code 1001.056 lets a building skip the state engineering chapter when nobody holds out to offer engineering services to the public and the building is one story, 5,000 square feet of floor or less, with no clear span wider than 24 feet across its narrow side, and past that span it asks for engineering or pre-engineering only on the roof framing. Checked at sa.gov, 2026-09-13.