The Scope Gap Index / Division 05
Division 05 · Metals · Q3 2026
53 Division 05 packages across 24 projects, generated between 17 July and 30 September 2026 for Provision customers, ranked by how often each job got flagged. Model flags, checked by a person on fewer than one item in a hundred. Where to look, not proof.
Division 05 packages across 24 projects, 17 July to 30 September 2026
of 53 had at least one flag from Scope Agent
flags in total: 350 inferred, 463 coordination
of flags were coordination flags, work sitting between metals and another trade, second only to concrete
Inferred means Scope Agent judged the job necessary and found no scope naming who does it. Coordination means it judged the job to sit between two trades. Neither is a confirmed omission on that project.
Ranked
Scope Agent flagged an anchor, embed or connection in 46 of 53 metals packages, and blocking in 42, with 36 of those as coordination flags. Steel is the trade that bolts to concrete and gets bolted to by everybody else. The embed plate sits in the concrete sub’s pour, the railing post needs backing in the framer’s wall, the stair stringer lands on a slab somebody else finished. The documents show the connection and leave the two trades to sort out who owns it.
| Job flagged | Packages | Inferred | Coordination | Share flagged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchors, embeds and connections36 inferred · 33 coordination | 46 of 53 | 36 | 33 | 87% |
| Blocking, backing and support23 inferred · 36 coordination | 42 of 53 | 23 | 36 | 79% |
| Openings, cutting and patching18 inferred · 24 coordination | 33 of 53 | 18 | 24 | 62% |
| Penetrations, sleeves and firestopping10 inferred · 14 coordination | 22 of 53 | 10 | 14 | 42% |
| Hoisting, lifting and delivery19 inferred · 2 coordination | 20 of 53 | 19 | 2 | 38% |
| Sealants, flashing and waterproofing joints2 inferred · 17 coordination | 18 of 53 | 2 | 17 | 34% |
| Scaffolding, shoring and access17 inferred · 0 coordination | 17 of 53 | 17 | 0 | 32% |
| Tolerances, joints and trade interfaces17 inferred · 2 coordination | 17 of 53 | 17 | 2 | 32% |
| Temporary protection11 inferred · 9 coordination | 15 of 53 | 11 | 9 | 28% |
| Removal, demolition and disposal7 inferred · 2 coordination | 8 of 53 | 7 | 2 | 15% |
| Shop drawings and submittals4 inferred · 2 coordination | 5 of 53 | 4 | 2 | 9% |
| Testing, inspection and certification4 inferred · 1 coordination | 5 of 53 | 4 | 1 | 9% |
| Cleaning2 inferred · 1 coordination | 3 of 53 | 2 | 1 | 6% |
| Maintenance, warranty and spares2 inferred · 1 coordination | 3 of 53 | 2 | 1 | 6% |
| Utility and service connections0 inferred · 2 coordination | 2 of 53 | 0 | 2 | 4% |
“Inferred” and “coordination” count packages with that kind of flag, and a package can have both, so the two columns can add to more than the total. The generic supply-versus-install topic (50 of 53) is left out; see the method note.
Beyond the ranking
Across all 1,290 packages, inferred flags outnumber coordination flags by three to two. Metals runs the other way: 463 coordination against 350 inferred, and only concrete has a higher share. A steel or misc. metals package rarely leaves its own work out. It leaves out the hand-off, because every piece of it connects to something another trade built.
Scaffolding, shoring and access drew 17 flags, all 17 inferred. Tolerances drew 17, also 17 inferred against two coordination. Who provides the lift to hang the canopy, and what plumb tolerance the erector is held to against the anchor bolts the concrete sub set. Nobody is arguing. The documents are just silent.
The crane is often the biggest single number in a steel bid, and Scope Agent found 20 of 53 packages silent on who carries it, 19 as inferred. For structural steel the erector usually assumes it’s theirs. For misc. metals, stairs and railings arriving on a flatbed, the assumption runs the other way, and that’s the gap.
The items in detail
The six jobs flagged most often, after the generic supply-versus-install topic. Check your own documents before assuming a flag is right.
Embed plates and anchor bolts in the concrete sub’s pour, base plates and grout, the connection between the steel sub’s beam and the mass timber sub’s column, railing posts into a finished slab. Thirty-six inferred, 33 coordination. Put the embed schedule in both the concrete and the steel scope, name who supplies, who sets and who surveys, and say who grouts.
Backing for handrails and guards in framed walls, support for the misc. metals the framer or the mason has to build around, temporary bracing during erection. Thirty-six of the 42 flags were coordination flags. Say who provides backing for every wall-mounted metal item and who braces the steel until the deck is on.
Framed openings in the deck for mechanical, the opening the stair goes through, cutting and reinforcing existing steel on renovation work, and patching fireproofing afterwards. Eighteen inferred, 24 coordination. Decide who frames each opening, who cuts what the drawings missed, and who patches.
Penetrations through steel beams for services, sleeves through the misc. metals sub’s bulkheads, firestopping where the pipe crosses the steel. Ten inferred, 14 coordination. Say who drills or cuts the beam, who engineers it, and who seals the hole.
The erection crane, the lifts for stairs and railings, offloading and shake-out on a tight site. Nineteen of the 20 flags were inferred. State who provides the crane and for how long, and whether misc. metals ride on the structural sub’s crane or bring their own.
Seventeen of the 18 flags were coordination flags: the joint where the steel canopy meets the roofer’s membrane, the flashing at the lintel the mason sets, the sealant around the railing post on an exterior deck. Name the trade that seals every exterior metal interface.
Method
53 scope packages classified to MasterFormat Division 05, generated by Scope Agent between 17 July and 30 September 2026 on all 24 projects in the quarter’s cohort. Nineteen carried the trade label misc. metal, 17 structural steel, two metals and one cold-formed metal framing. Fourteen more carried a customer-specific label we couldn’t map to a standard trade; they’re counted here because the package itself was coded to the division. A package is one trade on one project, as it stood at quarter end, so a project typically contributes two metals packages. An item counts when Scope Agent flagged it as inferred or coordination. We grouped the items into sixteen topics by keyword, and one item can land in more than one topic.
53 packages on 24 projects clears our 20-package threshold for publishing a division, and one package moves a share by about two points. The bigger caution is composition: a structural steel package and a misc. metals package get flagged for different things, and this page blends them. These are Provision customers’ projects, and the numbers describe this sample only. A flag is Scope Agent’s judgment, checked by a person on fewer than one item in a hundred, so some flags will be wrong. We’ll update it every quarter.
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