You email a Vancouver fab shop on Monday morning with a sketch. Tuesday goes by. Wednesday goes by. Thursday at 4:47 PM you finally get a number back, and the framing crew is already on site looking for the parts. By the time the quote lands, your trim install is two days behind and the GC wants to know why nobody can quote anything in this town.

A metal fabrication quote in Vancouver doesn't have to take three days. The reason it usually does has nothing to do with workload. It has to do with how the RFQ shows up at the shop. Most of the back-and-forth, the questions about gauge, the photos of the elevation, the "how many of these did you say again," could have been answered in the first email. When it isn't, the quote sits in a pile until someone has 40 minutes to chase down the missing pieces.

I've been in BC sheet metal shops for 20+ years. Most of the slow quote turnarounds I've seen weren't slow because the estimator was lazy. They were slow because the takeoff was incomplete, the drawings didn't dimension what mattered, or the material spec was missing entirely. Fix that side of it, and the same fabricator who took three days now turns a quote in four hours.

This is what's actually happening at a Lower Mainland shop during those 72 hours, and what you can put in front of an estimator to get a same-day number.

What 3 days of quoting actually looks like

Walk into a Burnaby or Port Coquitlam fab shop on a Tuesday afternoon and the estimator's desk has six RFQs on it. Two of them are clean: drawings, dimensions, gauge, finish, quantity, deadline. Those get priced inside an hour. The other four are some combination of "photo of a wall," "rough hand sketch with no dimensions," "we need a few flashings for this job," and "can you do this kind of trim?" Each of those takes 30 to 90 minutes of email back-and-forth before pricing can even start.

The three days break down roughly like this:

Day one. RFQ lands. Estimator scans it, flags missing info, sends a clarifying email. Customer is on site or in a truck, doesn't see the email until end of day. Replies that night with one of the three missing items but not all four.

Day two. Estimator gets the partial reply midmorning, sends a follow-up. Customer's project manager is in a meeting. By the time the back-and-forth resolves, it's after 4 PM and the takeoff hasn't started.

Day three. Actual quoting work happens. Material lookup (current coil pricing, gauge availability, finish lead time from the supplier). Takeoff (LF, sheets, pieces). Labor estimate. Markup. Quote sent.

The pricing work itself is maybe 45 minutes on a typical small flashings package. The other 23 hours and 15 minutes are calendar time waiting for missing information. If the RFQ had been complete on Monday morning, the same quote could have gone out by 3 PM the same day.

The "ready to quote" RFQ: what's actually in it

A ready-to-quote RFQ has six things. None of them are exotic. All of them get skipped at least half the time on the RFQs that bounce back with questions.

  1. Drawing or sketch with dimensions. Phone photo of a hand sketch is fine. What matters is that each leg has a number. A flashing drawing without leg lengths is just a picture of a flashing. Bend angles too: if it's not 90°, write the angle on the drawing. If you're not sure what to put on your drawing, start there.
  2. Gauge and material. 24ga prefinished Galvalume. 26ga prepainted aluminum. 22ga galvanized. Without this the shop has to guess what coil to price against, and the guess is usually wrong. If you don't know the gauge, write what application it's for and the shop will recommend, but say "you choose, this is for a coastal North Vancouver rebuild" rather than leaving it blank.
  3. Finish and color. PVDF in a specific color code (Kynar 500 / Hylar 5000, manufacturer code like AkzoNobel or PPG Duranar). Polyester in a stock color. Mill finish. Pre-weathered. Each one has a different per-LF cost and a different lead time from the coating supplier. "White" is not a color. "Tundra" or "Cambridge White" matched to the existing siding panel, that's a color.
  4. Quantity and length. Total linear feet of each profile, or piece count if it's individual flashings. For panels, give the run lengths. A line item that reads "approximately 200 LF, give or take" prices very differently from "186 LF total, broken into 12 pieces between 8 and 22 feet."
  5. Job site and delivery. Surrey townhome row vs heritage Mount Pleasant rebuild vs commercial in Port Coquitlam tells the shop what's likely, what gets inspected, and what the install crew is going to do with the parts. Delivery to site or pickup. Address if delivery.
  6. Deadline. Real one. "Needed by Friday for install Monday" or "framing closes Tuesday." Don't say "ASAP." Every shop's queue has six ASAPs in it. A specific date lets the shop tell you honestly whether it fits.

That's the whole list. An RFQ with these six items in it gets quoted same-day in most BC shops that aren't backlogged. Without them, the quote sits in the pile until somebody has time to chase the missing pieces.

What the shop is doing during that 45 minutes of actual quoting

Even on a complete RFQ, there's real work happening before a number goes out. This is worth knowing because it sets expectations on what the shop can squeeze and what it can't.

Material pricing. Coil pricing moves. Galvalume 24ga prefinished was running $145-165 per 100 LF of 48" coil through spring 2026, depending on color and quantity. Aluminum 0.040" prepainted was sitting around $4.20-4.80 per LF of 24"-wide coil. The estimator checks current with the supplier on anything that's not stock. If it's a custom color that has to be coil-coated to order, that's a phone call to the coating house and a lead time check.

Takeoff math. Each flashing profile gets converted from LF of finished product to coil width needed. A 6-bend J-channel with a 2" face takes a different coil width than a simple drip edge. The estimator nests the parts on the coil so the price reflects actual yield, not theoretical. On a complex profile, this is where the 45 minutes turns into 90.

Labor estimate. Setup time on the press brake, run time per piece, finishing (deburring, hand-correcting any tight bends), packaging. For panels off a roll former, it's machine time plus changeover. A short run of 12 custom flashings has more setup per piece than 200 LF of one profile.

Markup and final. Shop overhead, margin, delivery if quoted. Number gets typed up and sent.

The whole sequence is fast on a clean RFQ. The thing that slows it down is the front end, not the math.

Real BC pricing ranges, so you know what "fast and reasonable" looks like

A few benchmarks for what a same-day quote on common work should land in. These are 2026 Lower Mainland numbers, ranges, not promises:

  • Standard flashings, 24ga prefinished Galvalume, stock color: $4-6 per LF for simple profiles (drip edge, J-channel), $6-9 per LF for complex multi-bend profiles
  • Custom step flashings: $3-5 per piece for stock dimensions, $5-8 per piece for custom sizes
  • 24ga prepainted aluminum, custom color (PVDF): add $1.50-2.50 per LF over stock-color Galvalume
  • Continuous panels, 22-24ga, snap-lock standing seam: $9-14 per square foot for panels only, before flashings and accessories
  • Small job minimums: most BC shops have a $250-400 shop minimum for any custom flashings order, regardless of LF

If a shop quotes wildly outside these ranges on a clean RFQ for a standard profile, something's off. Either the spec is more complex than it looks or the shop is too busy to want the job. Get a second quote.

How to send an RFQ that prices in 24 hours

Practical version of the six-item list, formatted for an email. The shop doesn't need a pretty document. It needs the six items in one place.

Job: 1,500 sq ft single-family rebuild, North Vancouver, framing closes Friday
Need: custom J-channel, drip edge, and 3 corner pieces
J-channel: ~120 LF, 24ga prefinished Galvalume, Tundra color (matching existing Cambridge product), 5/8" face, 1" return
Drip edge: ~80 LF, same material and color, 1-1/2" face, 4" leg
Corner pieces: 3 of, sketch attached, same gauge and color
Delivery: to site, address below, by Thursday
Contact: 604-XXX-XXXX

That email gets a number back the same day from any BC shop that isn't backlogged. If a sketch is needed, a phone photo of a napkin sketch with dimensions and bend angles is enough. CAD isn't required for flashings. For forming work or panels with tight tolerances, drawings help, but pencil-on-paper with dimensions is workable for most jobs.

When even a clean RFQ takes longer than 24 hours

A few things add real time and it's not the shop's fault. Worth flagging so you can plan around them, and around the lead times in Vancouver they add.

  • Custom-coated material. PVDF in a non-stock color usually means the coating house has to run the coil. Lead time from the coater is 2-4 weeks. The quote can still come back same-day, but production starts when the coil arrives.
  • Special gauge or width. 22ga prefinished in a non-stock color, 60"-wide coil, copper or stainless. These aren't always on the shelf. Quote turnaround can be 24 hours if it's available, longer if the shop has to source.
  • High-mix small-run with no drawings. If the job is 47 different small flashings and the RFQ is 47 photos, the takeoff alone is half a day. Drawings help.
  • Material back-orders. Aluminum supply was tight through late 2025 and into spring 2026. Lead times for 24ga aluminum in less common colors stretched to 6 weeks at some BC distributors. Shops can't quote what they can't price.

Most jobs aren't in these categories. Most jobs are standard flashings or a panel package on stock material, and those can be quoted same-day if the RFQ is clean.

The shop side of fast turnaround

This is the part contractors don't usually see. Fast quoting isn't only a customer-side problem. The shops that consistently turn a metal fabrication quote in under 24 hours have a few habits in common.

The estimator has direct access to a current material price list, updated weekly with supplier sheets. No "let me check and get back to you" on coil pricing. Standard profiles have pre-built takeoff templates, so a J-channel quote on 24ga Galvalume is a fill-in-the-blank, not a from-scratch calculation. Customer relationship management is tight enough that returning contractors don't have to re-explain who they are or what gauge they usually run.

The shops that take three days on everything usually don't have those systems. They quote whatever lands in the inbox in the order it arrived, and a clean RFQ from a regular contractor waits behind a confused one from a new customer because nobody triages.

If a Vancouver fab shop won't quote within 24 hours on a complete RFQ, that's a signal about how they'll handle the rest of the relationship. Lead times, production scheduling, change orders, deliveries: all of it tends to follow the same pace as quoting.

What to ask for next time

Two practical asks for any contractor planning to use a BC metal fab shop more than once.

Ask the estimator what info they need to quote without follow-up questions. Every shop has a slightly different template. Get the list from them and use it on every RFQ from then on. The first quote takes the longest; after that, it's repeat.

Ask about a contractor account. Most BC shops will set up a customer file for repeat partners: saved color preferences, standard gauge, default delivery instructions, payment terms. Quotes come back faster because the shop doesn't have to ask the same questions twice.

If you're sending an RFQ today and want a same-day number on it, send the six items above and a deadline. If you need to talk through a job before you have all of it, send what you have for a quote and we'll come back with what's missing and an estimated turnaround. Same shop, same week, custom metal fabrication priced the same day you ask.