What to Send a Prefab Wall Panel Shop: A Builder's Checklist

When a panel shop receives an incomplete package, the first thing that happens is a round of emails. Each round adds days before layout can even start. A complete submission saves that back and forth and, more importantly, reduces the chance that a wrong assumption makes it into a built panel. This is the checklist we would want a builder to work through before sending drawings to any panel shop, including us.

The Drawing Package

• ✓Floor plans for every level, to scale and fully dimensioned on the exterior walls
• ✓Exterior elevations showing window and door positions and heights
• ✓Building and wall sections that show floor-to-floor heights, plate heights and floor system depths
• ✓Structural drawings: shear wall schedule, hold-down and strap schedule, header and beam schedule, post locations
• ✓Roof framing plan, so the shop knows bearing conditions at the top of the wall (trusses, rafters, or engineered beams)
• ✓Window and door schedule with rough opening sizes, not just nominal sizes

If any of these are not available yet, mark them clearly as pending. A shop can often start a preliminary layout and hold the unresolved items open, but it needs to know which ones they are.

The Wall Assembly You Want

Say exactly what the wall should be. A shop cannot guess your assembly from an architectural wall type tag alone. Provide:

• ✓Stud size and spacing, per your structural and energy drawings
• ✓Sheathing type and thickness, and whether it is installed in the shop
• ✓Whether you want open panels (framed only) or closed panels (framed, sheathed, possibly insulated)
• ✓Any air barrier or exterior insulation strategy that interacts with the panel, such as continuous insulation outboard of the sheathing
• ✓Special conditions: double-stud or deep-cavity walls, fire-rated walls, or party walls between units

The wall assembly often comes from your energy design. If the project is following the BC Energy Step Code, share the target with the shop so the layout does not fight the envelope design. See BC Step Code and framing tolerances for how the two interact.

Site and Delivery Information

• ✓Site address and the type of access: street width, driveway slope, tight turns
• ✓Where the truck and crane would sit, and whether overhead lines or neighbours constrain either
• ✓Your target dates for foundation completion and for wall erection
• ✓Who will be installing the panels and whether a crane is booked

Ask for a delivery plan early on constrained urban lots. Plenty of Greater Victoria infill sites have narrow streets and limited laydown space, and that can change how panels are sized. The delivery load planner helps you rough out how many panels fit per load before you talk to a carrier.

Project Details That Prevent Surprises

• ✓Permit status: issued, in review, or not yet submitted
• ✓Which revision of the drawings you are sending, with its date
• ✓The name of the person with authority to approve the panel layout
• ✓Repeated units or mirrored plans, which change how the shop organizes the work
• ✓Anything you know is going to change, even if it is small

What You Should Get Back

After review, expect questions on anything unclear, followed by a panel layout for you to approve. A quote request is a separate conversation from the layout, and OG Prefab does not publish prices because each job depends on its drawings. Use the quote page to start that conversation, or the order page when you have plans to submit.

Check the returned layout against your own drawings, not against the shop's assumptions. Wall heights, openings and hardware are the three areas where mistakes are most expensive to fix after fabrication.

Prefer a printable version? Use the panel order checklist and tick items off before you send your plans.