Lawton Welding Company has spent more than four decades doing what many fabricators aspire to, but few achieve: controlling the steel process from concept to installation, at national scale, without losing the discipline of craftsmanship that defined its earliest days. What began in 1982 as a small welding operation has grown into a full-service structural steel and miscellaneous metals firm with fabrication, engineering, detailing, coating, and installation capabilities delivered entirely in-house. Today, with more than 150 employees, multiple fabrication facilities in Massachusetts, and crews installing steel across the United States, Lawton Welding Company continues to expand while remaining anchored to the trade itself.
The company was founded by Ray Lawton straight out of high school, continuing a lineage deeply rooted in metalwork. The trades, as Dan Lawton, Vice President of Lawton Welding Company, explains, are part of the family’s DNA. “Everyone’s really in the steel trade,” he said. Dan’s grandfather was a firefighter who welded on the side, his great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and his great-great-grandfather worked as a boilermaker. That lineage shaped not only the company’s technical direction but its culture.
In the early years, Ray Lawton took on small welding jobs, repairing trucks and fabricating railings. Over time, the work expanded into wrought iron rails, welding repairs, and eventually structural steel and miscellaneous metals. One of the first major milestones came when the company moved out of its original Quonset hut and into its first dedicated shop in Topsfield, Massachusetts, in the 1990s. “Going to a shop from a Quonset hut was a huge milestone,” Dan said, marking the transition from survival-driven work to a scalable fabrication business.
Over the decades that followed, Lawton Welding Company steadily broadened both its scope and its geographic reach. What distinguishes the firm today is the depth of services offered under one roof. The company fabricates and installs structural steel and miscellaneous metals, works with non-ferrous metals, provides engineering and detailing services, and coordinates BIM modeling for complex projects. It also operates a national field installation service using its own traveling crews, ensuring consistency between shop drawings and on-site execution.
Supporting that work is a comprehensive finishing operation. Lawton Welding Company provides sandblasting and coating services using a Blast Tec machine and operates a 5,000-square-foot temperature-controlled paint facility capable of handling two-part epoxy paint, primer, and a wide range of finish coatings. These capabilities allow the company to control quality and scheduling in-house, reducing dependency on third parties and minimizing risk on tight timelines.
Another major turning point in the company’s evolution was bringing engineering and detailing fully in-house. “Being able to have our own structural engineers [is a huge milestone],” Dan noted. That internalization of design expertise allows Lawton Welding Company to respond quickly to design changes, coordinate more effectively with general contractors, and manage constructability challenges before they reach the field. It also supports the company’s growing role on complex, high-profile projects where BIM coordination and precision fabrication are critical.
Among those projects is the Netflix House at the King of Prussia Mall, the first Netflix showcase to open in the United States. Lawton Welding Company provided the structural steel and miscellaneous metals package for the project, executing work within an occupied mall environment. According to Dan, the project’s complexity extended far beyond fabrication. “It was a very hard project as it was in an occupied mall, so a lot of the steel structuring and reinforcing jumbo beams we did were at night,” he said.
The scope included cutting open the existing mall roof and inserting jumbo beams measuring approximately 65 feet long and weighing around 100 pounds per foot. Lawton also fabricated and installed theater railings, staircases, steel framing around the bar, and shelving systems. BIM modeling and coordination were central to the project’s success, and installation itself posed significant logistical challenges. “It was a large project for us that was very in-depth with the detail of the BIM modelling and coordination,” Dan said. “Installation was just tough alone; the whole project was tough. But that’s all wrapped up now, and people are able to go there and enjoy themselves, which is great.”
“We’re always growing, always pivoting.”
The company’s national reach is further demonstrated by its work on solar canopies at Universal Epic Universe in Orlando. This was a supply-only project, but one defined by rapid fabrication schedules and high-paced deliveries. Lawton Welding Company produced several hundred tons of galvanized structural steel for the canopies, working for a California-based solar company, MBarC, with whom it has an ongoing relationship. Throughout the project, design changes occurred while fabrication was underway, increasing pressure on schedules and coordination. “This was a high-profile project,” Dan said. “We were able to overcome the obstacles, fabricate it here and deliver it to the complete other side of the country, to Florida, in a timely manner, which was great for us.”
Currently, Lawton Welding Company is engaged on what Dan described as its largest project for the coming year: the Equinix Data Centre in Georgia. The company is responsible for the miscellaneous metals package, which includes a substantial amount of light structural steel, dunnage frames, and associated components. The scope totals nearly 2,000 tons of steel for miscellaneous metals alone. “Huge,” Dan said simply, underscoring the scale of the work.
Across these projects, the company’s operational philosophy remains consistent. Lawton Welding Company controls the job from start to finish by keeping engineering, detailing, fabrication, finishing, transportation, and installation in-house. The firm owns its own cranes, scissor lifts, and equipment, and operates with an open-shop installation team. “Being able to have everything in-house, being able to design, detail, fabricate and install, then truck the material to the job site and use all of our own equipment, means we control the job from start to finish, which is definitely a huge key to success,” Dan explained.
Equally central to the company’s success is its workforce. Lawton Welding Company employs a large number of fabricators, welders, engineers, and installers, many of whom have been with the company for more than 25 years. The business remains deeply family-oriented, with multiple generations of the Lawton family involved alongside other families who have built long-term careers within the company. “I have guys that have worked here for 25 years, and now their sons are working here, then their sons’ sons are working here,” Dan said. “It’s definitely a big family culture for sure.”
That continuity supports the company’s ability to respond to challenges in fast-moving markets. “One of the biggest keys to success is being able to overcome the obstacles, the timeline and design changes,” Dan said. “We have a relentless workforce that pretty much just focuses on the quality and speed of each project we have. We have extremely and unbelievably talented fabricators and welders, and our installation team is amazing.”
Looking ahead, Lawton Welding Company shows no signs of slowing. The firm continues to pivot between markets as demand shifts, maintaining work across multiple sectors and regions. “We’re always growing, always pivoting,” Dan said. “Whatever market we’re in that might be starting to tone down, we jump into the next market.”
Expansion plans include opening new facilities in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, increasing production capacity through new equipment purchases, adding project managers and staff as needed, and continuing to invest in detailing and engineering capabilities. The company is also committed to advancing automation and robotics within its fabrication operations, using technology to streamline workflows and maintain precision at scale.
“Just keep moving forward as the technology comes out,” Dan said. “Our shop’s extremely automated, so we’re staying up with all the technology that’s coming out with the robotics, and just trying to streamline as best as we can.”
After more than 40 years in business, Lawton Welding Company stands as a rare example of a steel contractor that has grown nationally without diluting its trade identity. Built on family, sustained by craft, and reinforced by in-house control of every stage of production, the company continues to shape complex projects in steel, one weld at a time.
