Evaluate Bids
You will need to evaluate bids from each contractor interested in working on your project. Any contractor who does not return the bid documents by your deadline is not interested in your project.
You may find an additional document in the packet that you did not include in your invitation packet. This document, will become part of the contract, states the contractor’s exclusions, stipulations or conditions to his price. This ESC is the contractor’s method of reducing his construction risks.
How To Evaluate Bids
How to evaluate bids for a GREEN project has these additional steps necessary for you to ensure the work is complete with the certifications delivered prior to installation. This sample of estimated costs shows the items that may be important for your project. Your contractors may not need to write many of these items if you have already included them in your scope of work.
Combine this list with bid evaluation for a project without GREEN considerations. This will provide a total picture of how to evaluate bids for any project. This is your third step to control your construction risk:
• Are all the items on your scope of work included? Has the Contractor provided details for GREEN disposal of demolished materials? Are those details acceptable to you?
• Are there any changes to the
material you specified? GREEN
materials must have their certifications available when delivered to your home.
This is crucial if you intend to take advantage of any financial incentives
offered by local, state or federal governments.
Personal Experience
We bid on a project that required certified pipe material. I always called several pipe suppliers for comparative pricing. One company was half the price of the other suppliers. I called back to that company and asked them to verify the all the specifications and their price since their price was so dramatically lower.
They verified all the information. We bid on the project with that price and started the project soon after the award. When the supplier delivered the material the certifications were not with the pipe. We unloaded the truck and waited for the certifications. We did not receive the certifications. After several calls we learned there never were certifications and the pipe supplied never had certifications.
Our solution to the problem was to cut a piece of the pipe and have an independent laboratory test the material. Thankfully, our client accepted the material after much delay on the jobsite.
You cannot afford to accept material
until you see the certification. Make NO exceptions!
Additional Considerations
• Are alternate methods of installation acceptable to you?
• Will you be able to enjoy working with this contractor?
• You may learn the lowest price is not always the best price.
You now should be aware of how to evaluate bids from different contractors. Allow your self time to call any contractor for additional information about any item included on his bid. I will refer to a bid as an estimate and when placed in the format shown with the ESC it then becomes a proposal.
Return From Evaluate Bids To Construction Risk
