Five questions to ask any stand builder before you sign

Most stand contracts are signed on the strength of a 3D render and a total price. Both matter, and both are the wrong place to look first. After twelve years and a few hundred builds — ours and other people's that we have repaired at 06:00 on opening day — these are the five questions we would ask any builder, including us, before signing anything.

1. Can I see the engineered drawings, not just the render?

A render is marketing; a drawing is a commitment. Ask for a sample drawing pack from a past project: plan, elevations, sections, and a cutting list. If the builder cannot produce one, the “design” lives in someone's head and will be improvised on site. You want dimensioned drawings that a second carpenter could build from without phoning the first. Our own packs run 12–20 sheets for a mid-size stand; the count matters less than the fact that they exist and are dated before fabrication starts.

2. Who owns the structural calc note — and who signs it?

Anything above head height, anything suspended, and anything a visitor can lean on should have a calculation note: loads, fixings, tipping checks. The question is not whether one exists but whose name is on it. If the answer is “the venue checks that”, walk. Venues check paperwork; they do not engineer your wall. On our builds the calc note is produced in the Abidjan studio and the site lead countersigns it on raise-day — it is one of the three signatures on the raise-day sheet.

3. What happens when the venue changes the rules late?

It will happen. A rigging ban appears two weeks out; the power drop moves; your 4-metre back wall meets a 3.6-metre hall regulation nobody mentioned. Ask the builder to name the last time this happened and what it cost their client. The honest answer includes a number. Ours: a rigging rule changed eleven days before a Lagos show in 2025, the suspended element was redesigned as a floor-standing ring, and the client paid zero — redesign inside the window is our risk, materials already cut are the only negotiation.

4. Is the quote itemised — and what is not in it?

A single-line quote (“stand, 36 m², complete: X”) hides the two places projects go wrong: scope and exclusions. Insist on line items — design, fabrication, graphics, crew, strike — and a written list of what is excluded. Venue services (power, rigging permits, internet), screen hardware, and travel beyond a stated radius are the usual gaps. We publish our own exclusions in every quote; the full breakdown of a real invoice is in What a 12 m² stand really costs.

5. Who takes the stand down, and where does it go?

The strike is the forgotten half of the contract. Ask who dismantles, how long it takes, and what happens to the materials. If the answer is a shrug, budget for a surprise invoice or a hall fine. Our strikes are quoted up front (typically 8 % of the project), and timber panels are sorted for re-use in workshop fittings or recycled locally — partly principle, partly because storage in eight cities taught us to hate waste.

The pattern behind the five

Every question above is really the same question: does this builder document commitments, or perform confidence? Drawings, calc notes, change protocols, line items and strike plans are boring. Boring is what you want holding up your brand in a hall with 40,000 visitors.

Put us through the same test — file a brief and ask for the sample pack. The quote comes back within 48 hours; the drawings speak for themselves.