Reading a commercial construction bid line by line

Lay three bids side by side and the eye goes straight to the totals. We have sat on the owner's side of that table, and the totals are the least useful thing on the page. The bid worth signing is the one you can reconcile against the drawings, line by line, without finding a hole.

Read the exclusions before the price

Every commercial bid has a section, usually near the back, that lists what is not included. Read it first. Permit fees, utility taps, fire sprinkler design, low-voltage rough-in, signage, FF&E, final cleaning and dumpsters show up as exclusions on one bid and as line items on another, and that single difference can explain most of the gap between two totals. Make a list of every exclusion from every bidder, then ask the bidders who left an item out what it would cost to add it. Only after the scopes match should you look at the numbers again.

Allowances are questions, not answers

An allowance is money set aside for something nobody has chosen yet: the tile, the light fixtures, the door hardware, the countertop. A bid with a thin allowance looks cheaper and is not. Ask each bidder what the allowance would actually buy. If the flooring allowance covers a builder-grade carpet tile and your design calls for a large-format porcelain, the difference lands on you as a change order after you have already signed. We would rather price the finish you want and show you where to save than hide a low number in an allowance line.

Find the date inside the number

A bid carries a schedule whether it prints one or not. A contractor who plans to run the job with two crews and a superintendent every day prices differently from one who plans to visit twice a week and let the subs sort out the sequence. Ask for the schedule as part of the bid, with the milestones that matter to you: permit in hand, rough-in inspections, substantial completion, and the day you can begin moving furniture in. Then ask who will be on site to make that schedule happen. A low number attached to a vague date is a low number attached to a late opening.

Ask what happens when the plan is wrong

Something in the field will not match the drawings. A beam sits where the duct was supposed to run, the existing slab is out of level, a wall hides a pipe nobody drew. The bid will not tell you how a contractor handles that morning, but asking will. Find out how changes are priced, who approves them, how fast you get a number, and what the markup is. Ask for the change order log from a past project of similar size. A contractor with a clean log and a fair markup is worth more than a lower base bid.

Ask who assembled the number and whether that person will run the job. An estimator who never sets foot on site is pricing from a spreadsheet; a principal who will be walking your slab every morning is pricing from experience, and has a personal reason to get it right. We price the work we intend to run ourselves, with our own crews for framing, drywall, millwork, paint and tile filling in the lines that most often move, so the number and the date come from the same person.

How to normalize three bids in an afternoon

Build a simple grid: one row per scope item, one column per bidder. Fill in each cell with included, excluded or allowance, along with the amount if it is broken out. Add the missing scope to each bid at the other bidders' prices. Add the payment schedule and the proposed completion date as their own rows. When the grid is full, the real ranking is usually different from the one the totals suggested, and you will know exactly why.

We are licensed and insured. The principals bring over 20 years of combined experience, and the person who prices your job is the person who stands on it until you open. Send over the drawings and any bids you already have, and we will walk through them with you.