Bought a Fabric Building at Auction?

The auction trade-off — and the fix

Thousands of fabric storage buildings sell through auction every year in Canada and the US. The prices are good. The support is nonexistent. When you win a building on IronPlanet or Ritchie Bros, what shows up at your yard is a crated pallet of steel trusses, a roll of fabric, a hardware bag, and maybe a PDF manual — sometimes for a different revision, sometimes in a language you can't read, sometimes nothing at all.

That's the trade-off: rock-bottom price, zero hand-holding. We exist to close that gap. You save money on the building. You hire professionals for the install. The total cost is still well below a factory-direct purchase with installation included, and the building goes up to spec.

Platforms we cover

What we deal with on auction builds

Missing parts

This is the number-one issue on auction kits. Buildings — especially used or refurbished ones — frequently arrive with missing bolts, tensioning clamps, anchor hardware, or full truss sections. We do a full parts inventory at the start of the build before any lifting starts. Most missing hardware is standard size and we keep common pieces on the truck. For the rest we source locally. Build doesn't stop because the auction listing was light a hardware bag.

No manual / wrong manual / overseas docs

A significant share of auction buildings ship with no documentation, a manual for a different revision of the kit, or a manual in a language you can't read. None of that matters to us — we don't work from manuals. We identify the building by its frame type, truss design, fabric weight, and bolt pattern. We've assembled enough budget-brand and unbranded fabric buildings that the bolt sequence and tensioning pattern are second nature.

Used buildings (relocations)

If you bought a used fabric building at auction or off a private seller, we handle disassembly, transport, and re-erection too. We inspect the frame and fabric condition before we pull it apart and flag anything that needs repair or replacement before we load. Used-building work is quoted on the same footprint-based pricing, with disassembly and transport billed separately based on distance and crew time.

White-label and unknown brands

A lot of auction buildings ship branded as "Storage Shelter," "Premium Storage Buildings," "Dynamic Shelters," or with nothing on the label at all. Most of them come out of the same handful of Chinese OEMs — Suihe and Gold Mountain are the two largest. The construction is fundamentally the same: galvanized steel trusses, PE or PVC fabric, bolt-together assembly. We know these platforms by frame design. Brand on the sticker doesn't matter.

What pricing covers

Base installation covers crew assembly of the frame, cover installation and tensioning, and anchoring to the agreed prepared base. Equipment rentals, travel, and lodging are assessed separately after discussing your project. The kit, site preparation, foundations, and permits are separate.

Pricing is set by footprint, not by where the building came from. An auction-bought 40×80 costs the same to install as a factory-direct 40×80. The full pricing table is on the homepage. For more on what to expect during the build itself, our installation guide covers the full process; the Hills Industrial page, Suihe page, and Gold Mountain page cover the brands you'll most likely have if you bought through auction.

Send the brand, dimensions, nearest town, and preferred timing. We will review the scope, separate expenses, and scheduling with you before confirming a booking.

Max Contractors is an independent installation company. We are not a dealer for, sponsored by, or affiliated with the manufacturers whose products we install — brand names are used only to identify the kits we work on. Where a commercial relationship exists, we disclose it.

Frequently Asked Questions