I might as well go into contractor estimating and bidding ethics.  That is confidentiality of the estimated cost or bid amount. It is against the law for two or more parties to let each other know the amounts they are bidding or agree to who will have the low bid.  This is collusion, also known as bid rigging. However, there is another just as unsavory, unethical bidding practice that is not against the law. consider it to be bid rigging too.  It is commonly known as bid shopping. Proving bid shopping may be difficult at best. 

If they were trying to do it now, they’d be in a bidding battle.” I read this in the New York Times today about Habitat for Humanity in Oregon who are building not just homes but full on communities. As you can read in the article below the idea was to take the idea of a Habitat Neighborhood further and build a larger scale community. The article goes on to state that Habitat has gone beyond the new build phase and are buying foreclosed/abandoned homes in those cities and locales badly hit by the financial crisis and are remodeling them to build new and happy homes and residents. John D.

I have brought up estimating and bidding ethics on previous occasions.  I am doing it again because it is extremely important that owners understand and know their costs before and at the bid opening. Experienced estimators know ethical estimating practices for owners ALSO include: Not releasing specific budget numbers prior to the bids being received. If receiving bids, have a public opening the contractors can attend. If not a public opening keep all bid amounts confidential until after the contract award. Identifying sole sourced specifications.

Instead, most owners - in the public and private sector - utilize antiquated procurement programs dependent on a bid / tender system that splinters planners, designers, constructors and trade contractors from the start, forcing each entity to operate in a legal silo. Current procurement programs REQUIRE designers submit 2D drawings of the building to the owner who tosses the drawings over the wall to construction community for bids / tenders. Sophisticated weapons systems are "Googlized" in this manner on secure networks. When change comes it will be very fast. James L.

The idea of estimating is to win bids at a price that will make money for the construction company. Toward that end, we decided to survey the construction estimating industry to find out whether estimating software actually helps companies win bids. ” Bidding California Construction Contracts Louisiana Oregon Washington Charts Company Size Construction Estimating Estimating graphs Guestposts Industry/Trade Over-Bid Projects Software Advice survey Under-bid Wolfe Law GroupAlso, if you have a tip to offer others in the industry, please share that as well.”

We usually prepare bid estimates and pre-construction estimates on their behalf.  Usually we prepare the budget and pre-construction estimates along the bid evaluation estimates. On a recent industrial project for an owner we prepared the bid evaluation estimate.  Three were substantially lower than the “pack” of four bids.  The three lower bids were 10% to 54% below the lowest bidder of this pack.  The bid format contained labor and material breakouts so this assisted us in the effort. We found the two lowest bidders were bidding below direct cost. 

Imagine bidding on homes as one does in an Art Auction. While the Banking Industry has been assailed, legislated and protested against for the great Mortgage recession of 2008, I have often wondered why (and blogged many times about) why Mortgage Brokers and their partners in crime, Real Estate Agents, have come away unscathed. assume that they are thought of us as only "victims" too as their business and livelihood suffered as a result. But in realty they were very much as involved if not necessary wingmen to the great fraud that perpetuated this country. They are salesmen.

In consolation for this change, the Virginia statute will require contractors bidding on projects valued at $250,000 – $350,000 to at least try  to obtain a bond. There’s always a public policy friction between protecting subcontractors and suppliers and making the bidding system more fair for smaller contractors. When you require a bond, you sometimes block out qualified small contractors from successfully bidding on the project, because they don’t have the same bonding capacity as bigger outfits. This works fantastically…if there is a bond.

One of my better clients, who does a substantial amount of design build work, disagrees with my opinion that design-bid-build is a cost effective construction delivery method.  I disagree with his opinion that design-build is more cost effective.  What I don’t disagree with is his method of implementing the services provides a significant value to his clients. . My client sets up three criteria that are important in their success as Construction Managers and to have a successful project.  These are: The Owner must hire us before or simultaneously with the hiring of the Designer.

This applies to their own and those of subcontractors or suppliers that provide them with numbers at bid time. Dealing with numbers on bids and proposals is a confidential process.  The estimate numbers used by the owner should not be released prior to bid time.  After all, these are confidential numbers used to evaluate the bids of the contractors.  And let’s face it; there are contractors out there that will bid to the owner’s budget without regard to the true cost of the work.  However, there is an important area that has yet to be brought up. 

For most contractors, winning a bid is about sharpening the pencil to the point of lost profits. Anyway… Instead of submitting bids that look like tax returns with numbers flying around all over the place, paint a picture. By getting your prospects excited about the end result, you remove the most common stumbling block I hear about why contractors lose bids…price. In the end, going the extra mile when prepping bids can help you wind more jobs and make more money in a down economy! But I have a better way. What the hell are you talking about Darren?

The more construction projects, the more bidding and work, which means companies used to scrapping by may accidentally over-extend themselves and experience cash flow challenges. See original article at Protect Your Cash In The Improving Arizona Construction Market This morning, I posted about a Los Angeles Times article about an “rebound” in commercial building throughout Southern California. Right after, I encountered an article from The Republic about a similar trend in the Arizona construction industry, in an article title “ Good News For Construction Jobs.”

Get Bids – if you have the luxury, get multiple bids from several contractors. Don’t always assume that the lowest bid is the best, because that contractor may be desperate for work or might cut corners on the job. While reading through a DIY site today I noticed a “ Contractor Checklist ” and thought it would be an interesting topic to talk about here. If this is what consumers are being taught to look for when selecting a home improvement contractor , then you should be aware so you know how your company stacks up. From the site: Got License? See if the site is messy.

bidding process is currently open to any firms that are capable of delivering housing developments, raising sufficient finance and improving community facilities. In a drive to boost the housing market and accelerate the building of new properties in the capital, the Greater London Authority (GLA) is seeking developers to join a new £5 billion procurement panel which will open more work for external contractors and building developers, Construction News reported today. This could provide more employment opportunities for trade professionals.

bidding process is currently open to any firms that are capable of delivering housing developments, raising sufficient finance and improving community facilities. In a drive to boost the housing market and accelerate the building of new properties in the capital, the Greater London Authority (GLA) is seeking developers to join a new £5 billion procurement panel which will open more work for external contractors and building developers, Construction News reported today. This could provide more employment opportunities for trade professionals.

Even though the estimator’s company may not be self-performing the work, it is important to know if a bid is too low or too high.  Deciding which one is right is difficult at best in a bid day environment. Another of the primary abilities required of an estimator is the ability to make the right judgment or decision.  This involves determining the amount of time required to install given items, which subcontractors to use and a wealth of other points in the estimate preparation process. The estimator needs to make the determination of hours in a balanced or reasoned manner. 

A new £50 million building scheme, close to already proposed Vauxhall Square Development worth £400 million in South West London, has attracted bids from major building contractors including Sir Robert McAlpine, Shepherd, Vinci and Watkins Jones, Construction Enquirer reported today. Developer of the project, CLS Holdings , will build a new hotel and flats which will include 408-bed student accommodation, shopping units and a community centre. Building construction work on the project is expected to begin this summer. The 180,000 sq. Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below: .

A new £50 million building scheme, close to already proposed Vauxhall Square Development worth £400 million in South West London, has attracted bids from major building contractors including Sir Robert McAlpine, Shepherd, Vinci and Watkins Jones, Construction Enquirer reported today. Developer of the project, CLS Holdings , will build a new hotel and flats which will include 408-bed student accommodation, shopping units and a community centre. Building construction work on the project is expected to begin this summer. The 180,000 sq. Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below: .

Slight changes in budget and bids will place you on top. It’s Saturday afternoon around 2:00 – doing my thing at the coffee shop listening to some Bob Marley and my clients have already generated a total of 87 inbound calls so far through paid search and local SEO executions. love Saturdays. Most inbound activity in any service business I have managed happens on Saturday. And it is one of the only days throughout the week where the cost to make the phone ring is extremely low. Plumbing lead: $18.74. Electrical lead: $16.92. Your ROI will be there.

Once you obtain your certificate of registration, you are ready to submit bids and perform work. Your car needs one, so does every contractor. The construction industry slows from time to time. Despite the fading of work, new contractors show up to the scene each and every day. Perhaps these new contractors are doing something new, something innovative or something efficient; that niche is what makes their decision to go it alone attractive. Well, taking that plunge can be made easier on you if you don’t have to pay thousands in legal fees. . You will need to also pay a $113.40

The best companies, regardless of the market and competition, have moved past low bid and to the value of expertise, time, and experience. MMC is truly an employee owned company from the bottom up. All month we’ve been discussing Brand Ambassadors and I purposely held off on this final week of March to see a presentation at SMPS SERC (Southeastern Regional Conference) entitled “Creating Brand Ambassadors”– and I’m glad I did. Robin & Erica got their principals on board and dove in deep. Happy customers make for a happy bottom line.

At the end of this month (3/30/12), the State of Washington will begin taxing the bids of out of state contractors whose home states likewise tax Washington contractors. But, it is fairly straightforward: Whatever your home state would add to a Washington bidder’s bid, will be added to your own. Currently, Currently, there are four states known to provide a bidding preference to resident contractors who bid on public works contracts: Alaska, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming. A new law may level the public contracting playing field.

We were awarded the contract on the project where I was the second bidder by over 10% and third bidder was less than.25% higher than my bid.  Our bid did not take any exceptions. The bids came in within 1% of our estimated cost, which was the 30% under budget figure. At bid time the numbers came in far over budget.  I was the lead estimator on a good size project.  The low bidder and third bidder both had a number of exceptions to the contract terms and conditions.  This involved reporting to the owner on budget variances.  The architect ignored our warnings. 

The low bid process has driven everyone to expect average as the norm instead of valuing the experience, expertise, and long-term costs. This is changing though with value priced bidding, sustainability in the forefront and customers being able to pick from 30-50 companies for any given project. We’ve been talking about brand ambassadors this month and defined a brand ambassador as everyone in your company including vendors & sub-contractors because they all impact your customer’s experience with your brand. Look at your typical employee at Walmart versus Target.

Bidding process – this is usually 2 weeks. And it is during the bidding process when the best general contractors will perform exploratory services to see if a roof needs to be replaced, if bathrooms aren’t up to code or if there are any serious construction demons – all of which will affect your commercial construction budget and schedule. To ensure your restaurant opens on time and within budget, make sure you have your delivery dates nailed down and align yourself with an experienced restaurant construction firm. The amount of equipment in the back of house. Chuck Taylor.

This is due to decades of low bid jobs, a surplus of projects where companies didn’t really need to compete, and the blue collar nature of construction workers turned executives. do see this changing drastically with the recession causing companies to truly compete for the first time ever in some cases as well as the movement to best value bids. While reviewing a few discussions in my LinkedIn groups, one in the Construction Marketing Association’s discussions caught my eye. ” Unfortunately this is all too true in many cases.

However, a recent high profile controversy has threatened to remove the company from the bid lists for public [.] Triangle Grading and Paving is a Triad-area company with multiple public contracts, 18 since 2000 from the NC Department of Transportation alone. Frequently the low bidder, Triangle Grading has a long history of performing work for the state. No related posts. law notes news notes bidder construction contractor public projects

To see examples of the most talked about estimating and bidding software in the landscape industry, click here to check out the website Spell-checking your work can and will make a difference in the eyes of your customer. Spelling – in every presentation you make to potential customers – makes a difference, but especially on an estimate. An estimate is your ‘final presentation’ – the very last thing you leave in your customers’ mind before asking them to invest their hard earned money in your company. We rush our work. They are free.

Last month we wrote in this space about how AT&T was making a bid to green-ify its commercial fleet of work vans by purchasing over a thousand Chevy Express vans that had been converted to alternative-fuel vehicles. Well, last week fellow telco goliath Verizon took a big step of its own toward eco-friendliness when it announced a new deal to start testing plug-in hybrid electric/gasoline trucks and cargo vans. The three-quarter-ton vans are powered through a proprietary power train system called eREV , which Via installs in the body of a typical, 4.3-liter, V-6 G.M. G-2500 cargo van.

The high level of interest we received by providers bidding to participate in this programme demonstrates just how important of an issue this is. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has granted £70 million to local authorities, housing associations and other home providers in the UK to bring empty properties back into use. This will deliver more than 5,600 new affordable homes, boosting the building construction industry and creating new jobs. The £70 million investment will fund the refurbishment of properties which have been standing empty for a minimum period of 6 months.

The high level of interest we received by providers bidding to participate in this programme demonstrates just how important of an issue this is. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has granted £70 million to local authorities, housing associations and other home providers in the UK to bring empty properties back into use. This will deliver more than 5,600 new affordable homes, boosting the building construction industry and creating new jobs. The £70 million investment will fund the refurbishment of properties which have been standing empty for a minimum period of 6 months.

The bid date was on a Tuesday and the work needed to start on Wednesday and be complete in three weeks. After I talked to my client about the pitfalls of the project, he understood that there were too many risks to take and that it was not worth his time, effort, and money to bid this job.  What are some jobs that you have run away from at the bidding phase? Friday Tips bid date Construction construction documents contractor Estimate estimating help estimator plans project schedule scope of work specifications takeoff

With 70,000 vehicles in its nationwide fleet, AT&T’s cars, vans, and trucks leave quite the carbon footprint — not the mention quite the gas bill. But thanks to a new deal with General Motors, both of those should shrink a little. That’s because the giant telco recently purchased 1,200 new compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered Chevrolet Express vans, apparently the largest CNG vehicle order GM has ever received. The van purchase is part of AT&T’s broader 10-year plan to replace more than 15,000 of its vehicles with alternative-fuel models by 2018. AT&T is also part of a U.S.

Friday Tips budget Competitive bidding practices Construction contractor Don Short Estimate estimator Owner Project costs Tempest CompanyGetting the right budget on a project is not a difficult process.  In fact, it can take some serious effort to get it prepared incorrectly. It doesn’t matter what size the project may be. On a recent assignment we were assisting the owner/developer to prepare the project budget.  Our role was the oversight, gathering and checking the reasonableness of the cost information from the various parties involved on the project.  The other had not. 

Knowing exactly when we can get either very aggressive or very profitable pricing work has allowed me to bid jobs lower than I would normally price them, but at a higher-than-normal profit margin, since my overhead was paid down on other work.  Many of us have witnessed a shift recently in customer and commercial spending.  Customers were more price-sensitive, got more quotes, shaved their budgets, delayed their projects and pitted more contractors against each other when quoting their projects. Get The Right Equipment For the Job. Choose equipment dealers who offer excellent support. 

There may be publicly available bid tabulations. Success in estimating is in the detail.  When preparing estimates, the more detail the better! Detailed estimates at the early milestones of the project concept enable better budgets. Comprehensive estimates during the course of design will yield superior results to parametric estimates. Of course this all relies on having experienced estimating staff. At the concept stage of a project it may be well and good to bandy about costs per square foot, cubic foot or per ton of capacity. Cost information can come from many sources. Construction

believe I’m like most other estimators, in that after I bid a project I “purge” the information out of my brain.  If an estimator had to memorize every minute detail of every project they bid, they would go crazy. Not only does good documentation need to done on the project but also during the estimating process. I don’t know how many times I have been asked questions about a project that I had estimated sometimes up to several years before.  Without good documentation, it would be impossible to track down the answer.

Can I adjust my bidding methodology to employ better safety mechanisms? Let's not fight over risk. Let's appreciate risk. never thought that I would get the type of response that I received on my post on LEED job safety. From my perspective, the study was simply a well-resourced point of view (and perhaps a very important one) worth the eyes of the legal community. But to most of the building world, the study was an undeserved black eye on green building. Perhaps we are both right, or perhaps we are not truly appreciating the word “risk.” Let me explain further.

Mr Clegg said: “There have been over 170 successful bids to the fund, leveraging around £7.5  . The government has made an extra £1 billion investment to the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) which will help firms in the building construction sector to create new jobs. With the increased funding, the total amount available to firms that are looking to create new jobs will reach £2.4 billion. The scheme is expected to make a significant contribution to the manufacturing and construction industry. billion of private sector investment and set to create and protect 330,000 jobs.

Mr Clegg said: “There have been over 170 successful bids to the fund, leveraging around £7.5  . The government has made an extra £1 billion investment to the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) which will help firms in the building construction sector to create new jobs. With the increased funding, the total amount available to firms that are looking to create new jobs will reach £2.4 billion. The scheme is expected to make a significant contribution to the manufacturing and construction industry. billion of private sector investment and set to create and protect 330,000 jobs.

Doing so under a traditional Design-Bid-Build procurement model involves pounding a series of Green Pegs, the sustainable / high performance specifications, through a series of Brown Holes, represented by the antiquated procurement mechanisms that force stakeholders to operate in a series of silos. Owners - and their partners in the built industry - are exploring alternatives to the traditional Design-Bid-Build model with renewed interest as they discover how difficult it is to hammer these round green pegs through the square brown holes at the top of each silo. James L. James L.

How your team interacts with the community will impact the quality of people applying for jobs, the amount of claims & lawsuits against you, and the number of projects you’re asked to bid. I want to talk about one of the biggest missed opportunities for branding on your construction site – your employees. Yes, those people walki ng around wearing your logo on their hard hats and safety vest, driving trucks and machinery with your brand all over it and standing underneath that large sign with your name on it. brand marketing attitude construction site

If the project owner/developer is unfamiliar with the design and construction process, the first warning flag for bad communications will be in the bid period.  This will lead to problems on the project if not corrected prior to the bid. Construction architect attorney bid blue prints construction documents contractor design developer documentation Don Short Owner plans project scope of work specifications specs Tempest CompanyCommunications on a construction project are crucial in the success of a project. This could be a problem with the owner or design team.

What do you do if you have to hold your bid for an extended period of time? billion project that you bid on in a joint venture. In the bidding documents it states that you have to hold your price for 120 days after the bid before the award of the contract.  You will make sure that your bid amount reflects that fact that you have to hold your bid and what you will do if the material prices fluctuate.  No let’s say that during the 120 days you are told that you have to hold your bid for an additional 40 days. Let’s say that there is a $1.2

Once you know what you want and what your industry partners can deliver vis-a-vi IPD & BIM work with those partners to craft an RFP that enables your organization to call for bids from integrated BIM enabled teams. Leverage the vast river of information rich data flowing through your existing procurement, operations and maintenance processes and compare IPD, Design-Build, Design-Bid-Build, with P3 and other procurement models to identify the best mechanisms for delivering the best value in light of the business purpose of the sustainable BIM enable infrastructure you procure.

I sound really old but there is a basic bidding knowledge that is missing in today’s construction industry! IT USED TO BE: Contractors relied upon estimators and their bid managers that would not blindly accept the goofy low subcontractor’s bid.  Contractors had estimators and bid managers on staff that knew how to evaluate subcontractor bids for all disciplines. The contractors and subcontractors estimators and bid managers would not bid a project if there was not enough time to bid it right. They knew there was a problem.

Design-Bid-Build isn't working is it? The ENR article linked below reiterates the need to modernize procurement of planning, design and construction services in a way that will enable owners of infrastructure to leverage intelligent and fully functional digital assets in operations and maintenance over time. New procurement models - including Design-Build, CM at Risk, and Public Private Partnerships (P3) - have been deployed in recent years with varying degrees of success. Neither IPD nor BIM represent silver bullets for all that ails the industry. It accounts for 9% of U.S. James L.

bid was won that they later discovered had a substantial downside error. There was a debate about throwing in the bid, but a decision made to just live with the numbers and manage it as intensely as possible. I read an ENR article about some design flaws in the World Trade Center NYC projects adding millions of dollars to the cost. I’m always curious about how those type problems arise and get resolved. Apparently One World Trade Center will be a 104 story tower developed by the Port Authority of NY and NJ. The future Manhattan skyline is shown below.

I have seen where a math error resulted in a low bid that was less than.1% The contractor pulled their bid. They will take the subcontractor bids and reduce them by 5 to 10% hoping to shop them later at the prices they have used.  Remember it takes two to play the bid shopping game so don’t just point the finger at the prime contractors! This is why it is called estimating, not accounting to prepare a bid.  They are not considering that the profit margins in the bid are not what the profit margins are at the end of the job. below the second bidder. 

Welcome to the Collaborative Revolution! The Humpty Dumpty analogy aplies equally to information generally. Too often project failure strolls hand-in-hand with the failure to communicate. Effective integrated teams share information in collaborative and cooperative environment. Integrated teams openly and honestly communicate pursuant to legal instruments that support, enable and reward desired behaiviors and discourage detrimental behaviors. Behaviors that increases the efficiency with which team delivers planning, design and construction services should be encouraged. James L. Salmon, Esq.

the winning firms will be bidding for individual site projects across all of the 10 Magnox sites to provide access systems from scaffolding to powered access systems. Six scaffold firms have been shortlisted for Magnox £300m scaffolding and insulation framework for its decommissioning programme. Magnox, owned by Energy Solutions , is the management and operations contractor responsible for 10 nuclear sites and one hydroelectric plant in the UK. The shortlisted firms are as follows: Cape. Deborah Services. Hertel (UK). Kaefer C&D. Keltbray. Kitson Environmental.

They bid on projects and enter into construction contracts where conflict is inherent and the terms are loaded against them. These pages should be reviewed carefully prior to submitting the bid on the project.  If there are objectionable terms the contractor needs to ask questions to see if they can be changed prior to the bid being submitted. If it is not acceptable, they should pass on bidding the project. Yet, contractors keep on bidding.  Construction firms are the most optimistic companies in the world.  When these two don’t meet – here come the problems.

Mrs. Jones asks you for a bid for her kitchen, you come in thousands higher than the next guy and lose the job. If you had her email and you put her on a drip campaign of how-to’s and DIY stuff throughout the year, then you might have a shot at getting to bid on her next project. I spoke to a friend of mine the other day about how to better promote his business. Now, he is not a contractor, he is in the financial services sector and he has a lot of rules and regulations as to how he can promote his name, his products and his business. Think your job is hard? Tough break.

When you try to bid with a new GC, what happens if they have never heard of you? You either need to be super cheap, so they will take a risk with you, or your bid gets trashed. If a GC knows your company because he’s seen your signage, then he is more likely to use your bid or possibly even seek you out to bid on future jobs. One of the easiest, biggest impact ways to market a construction company, general contractor (GC), or sub-contractor, is to have signs and banners on construction sites. Multiple job sites have an even bigger impact. What goes on the sign?

FiSoAp is a system that helps site owners to manage advertisement offers, avoiding charge backs and enables them to get the highest bids. As many of us market our businesses on the web we are always looking for ways to generate attention and thereby traffic to ultimately grow our business. One such agency can assist you in accomplishing that goal. BizzClick.com Bizzclick is a Pay Per Click agency. They offer ways to both advertise in their network and/or monetize traffic. Check out their Advertiser page or Publisher page for more information.

They also set diversity goals for bidding opportunity, participation and awards and exceeded government goals by 30%. I got the following news release from the folks at Engineering News Record about the contest I helped judge. It was a fascinating process. Engineering News-Record (ENR) is pleased to announce the winners of its fourth annual Best of the Best Projects Awards, a national competition that recognizes design and construction excellence based on regional winners of ENR’s seven regional publications’ Best Projects 2011 Awards. submitted to ENR California by Facebook. of State.

Because of that, many subcontractors find that after managing the bidding process, negotiating alternative bids, locking down labor and materials, and other painful steps, you develop a “just get it signed” mentality. Read and revise that contract before getting started. Subcontractors: Do you really read your contracts? Its ok, if you say no. Probably 50% (or more) of the contracts that I review after a dispute arises were never negotiated by the subcontractor. Heck, on most occasions, the subcontractor never read past their name on the front page.

At bid time, when a competitive advantage develops, the smart contractor will price out the customary or conventional process and evaluate it against the “unconventional” process.  In my bidding, I have been “beat’ by others using this type of competitive advantage.  Construction architect bidders Competitive bidding practices Don Short engineer ENR labor costs low bidder mentor Owner plans project specifications specs Tempest CompanyPerhaps the title on this one should be the Competitive Advantage Everyone Needs. If they have one, keeping it secret was one option. 

You may be in charge of evaluating bid proposals and/or in reviewing projects for value engineering possibilities.  As a design professional, you have likely seen your share of construction estimates.  You Of course, you are almost certainly involved in submitting your own proposal estimates for architectural or engineering services on a project. saw a recent blog discussion on construction estimates, and how owners [.]. tips estimating marketing payment issues

Think about the project where the potential contractor has received his bid set only to see a lot of notes like “to be confirmed by the architect the field” or “as directed by the architect once the samples are received” or a generic statement that says “provide wood doors, jambs and hardware to our standards” that don’t mention that the products in question are expected to be hand laid up and lacquered sapelle with hand wrought door handles and hinges (haven’t you seen our brochure – that’s our trademark). Nick is an architect licensed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. license.

In a bid to learn more about MIG and TIG welding, Jay hooked up with Airgas engineer Ken Kosiorek on Under the Hood, an online video series with Bernard Juchli, Leno’s top guy. The man has over 100 cars, about 90 motorcycles and enough “Benjamins” in his pockets to continue buying more. Treasures aside, what Jay Leno doesn’t have is extensive welding knowledge. This video is one of many on Jay Leno’s Garage, a website featuring articles, blogs, photos, videos and more on Leno’s extensive auto collection. Transcript follows Jay: Hi. Today’s Under the Hood segment is going to be.

However too short bid periods, pride of authorship and other factors tend defeat this mechanism.  If this happens the contractors still need to bid to meet the specifications. After the bid, the contractor can then re-approach the designer and owner about the substitution.  Construction architect bidders Competitive bidding practices construction industry contractor designer Don Short engineer ENR enr.com Owner specifications specs Tempest CompanyMy recent blog on The Competitive Advantage Nobody Needs generated some interesting responses on ENR.com. 

For more information on how you can express an interest and put your bid forward please visit Tenders website. Do you think that your (business’s) bid could be a successful one? construction jobs construction news Infrastructure t4ts train4tradeskills Bidding builders building sector Construction Engineer Contractor Critical Care Unit Department of Health Employment General contractor health King's College National Health Service new jobs NHS Trust South London Sweett train 4 trade skills newsKing’s expects the contract will be at its final stage by August this year.

For more information on how you can express an interest and put your bid forward please visit Tenders website. Do you think that your (business’s) bid could be a successful one? construction jobs construction news Infrastructure t4ts train4tradeskills Bidding builders building sector Construction Engineer Contractor Critical Care Unit Department of Health Employment General contractor health King's College National Health Service new jobs NHS Trust South London Sweett train 4 trade skills newsKing’s expects the contract will be at its final stage by August this year.

I would tell them if the project that they are looking at bidding is a good one for them to go after.  Over the years I have had to be very honest with some of my clients.  I have told them that whoever is awarded this job will need to be careful due to notes on the drawings that can be a big “gotcha”.  Sometimes it is telling the client that they just need to take the money from a claim settlement and be happy because it will cost way more to try to get more. Sometimes what I have to say may not be what they want to hear – but being honest with clients is the only way to do business.

It helps contractors win more bids, improve their job profitability, bid on more jobs and more. For this mid-week Guest Post Friday post, we welcome Houston Neal.  Houston is the Director of Marketing at Software Advice, a website that presents reviews and comparisons of construction software. Houston joined the company in 2007, just shortly after it was started. He spends most of his day getting the word out about Software Advice’s resources. He enjoys researching and reporting trends in software and technology. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, let alone improve it.

This paralles a budding company doing all it can to land that very promising bid for a substantial project. Growing up in South Louisiana, originally from Baton Rouge and now residing in New Orleans, I’ve had a really rough week being a sports fan. After LSU laid an egg in the BCS Championship game and the Saints came up seconds short in the NFL playoffs , I began to ponder, what can we learn from this? Being a construction law attorney , I wanted my clients and readers to learn form the mistakes and shortcomings of my favorite teams. WRAP UP. There are lessons to be learned here.

The New Tyne West Development Company, the private-public partnership formed by the builders and the city council, will be running workshops in coming months to help local firms and builders to bid for work on the development. Businesses and building companies interested in the bidding process can contact Amanda Senior on 0191 226 7943 or email Amanda.senior@ntwdc.co.uk Planning permission has been granted to the biggest North East housing redevelopment on the banks of the Tyne which will create hundreds of jobs in the building construction industry. for further information.

The New Tyne West Development Company, the private-public partnership formed by the builders and the city council, will be running workshops in coming months to help local firms and builders to bid for work on the development. Businesses and building companies interested in the bidding process can contact Amanda Senior on 0191 226 7943 or email Amanda.senior@ntwdc.co.uk Planning permission has been granted to the biggest North East housing redevelopment on the banks of the Tyne which will create hundreds of jobs in the building construction industry. for further information.

Recently I was asked if design-bid-build yields the “least expensive market” factor in change orders and/or any subsequent claims/litigation.  By its very nature the design-bid-build procurement process is a competitive one where all of the competitors are bidding on the same scope of work.  The competitive nature of the design-bid-build market is such that the prices are the “best” each contractor, subcontractor and vendor can develop in order to win the job with the lowest price.  This applies across the board to design-bid-build and design build contract formats. 

If your company views losses due to theft as an overhead cost, this will raise your overhead cost during the bidding process.  One way or another an estimator has to increase their bid to compensate for the loss whether it’s decreasing the productivity rate (compensate for time card padding) or increasing line items in the estimate such as small tools allowance, overhead, or material costs.   Construction site thefts are always a problem, but I have noticed a significant increase in news media coverage lately.  Another form of stealing is an employee padding their time cards.

Cornell’s bid was further sweetened by a $350M donation from the Atlantic Philanthropies (the largest donation in Cornell’s history). Michael Bloomberg was a tech entrepreneur prior to being mayor of NYC. Last year Bloomberg solicited RFPs from universities to develop a high tech campus on city owned land with $100M of public money thrown into the mix. love that kind of big thinking, it’s part of what made America great. Within 15 years, the NYC port became the largest in America by far. NYC hopes the high tech campus will be another Erie Canal moment.

I am not an owner – I am an estimator and during the bidding phase of the project I could care less about how pretty the fly-though looks and I would just be happy if the design firm would be able to put out a decent set of drawings on time and with no addenda. If I were an owner I would love Building Information Modeling (BIM). love looking at the nice 3D modeling, watching a fly-though on the computer screen.  BIM is great being baffled with the brilliance that is pretty pictures.  I would like to get a feel for how my project is going to look I would want to have BIM utilized. 

Just because you have hired a BIM staffer shouldn’t mean you go out only bidding projects with BIM requirements. Business must always play to their strengths so the bulk of you projects should still be bid in the areas where you hold the most expertise. You wouldn’t bid a nuclear power plant if you never worked on any power plant before. Don’t let BIM stop you from bidding. What questions do you have on BIM outsourcing and bidding do you have? As more Construction owners reap the benefits of BIM, more projects add a modeling component.

Did it result from the low bidder cutting vendor and subcontractor prices with the intent of bid shopping after getting the job? Oh, By the Way… I am an advocate of competitive bidding and pricing.  However when less than astute business practices overrules basic sound bidding principles, it then degrades the entire industry. Construction Competitive bidding practices Construction costs construction economy construction industry contractor Don Short Tempest CompanyIs there room in the construction market for cheap? After all, cheap really has a couple of meanings.

Starting out small will give you a sense for the competitive landscape, average bids and will give you a feel for traffic volume. It is quite possible to bid less on a keyword and receive a better position than your competitor if you follow these best practices: Place your keywords into an adgroup that is very specific to the campaign. When managed correctly and to best practices, paid search is one of the only advertising vehicles that delivers one of the best returns on your monthly marketing investment. Start with Google. They own close to 70% market share.

Related Musings: The Insider’s Guide to Finding a Surety Company Deadline Nears for “Green Performance Bond” Implementation Bid Bonds: The First Preventative Measure for Your Project Building Green: What it Means for Your Business Dealing with Mechanic’s Lien Priorities. For this week’s Guest Post Friday here at Musings, we welcome Alex Levin. Alex is a writer for several surety organizations. Although much is unknown about them, surety bonds are a necessary requirement for many small businesses to open and are required on almost all major construction projects.

One of the most famous LEED Certified failures is on the mend and four contractors have submitted bids to bring it back to glory. The Statesman Journal reported this week that a total of four contractors have submitted timely bids to resurrect the Salem Courthouse Square Building. My earlier article on the RFP stated that a mandatory pre-bid meeting was scheduled for earlier this month. Interested bidders were asked to submit a Letter of Intent to Bid by last week, and four bidders did so, according to the Statesman Journal. But how about LEED for Existing Buildings?

It takes someone with an IT system background who has "on the job" operations experience ( estimating, bidding, job management, cost tracking, etc.) By Sheldon Needle. Benefits of Hiring a Consultant. In most cases, contractors think that they know their business processes but there are many things that they don’t really understand. business consultant has the time and vision to force contractors to think through their business processes. When companies are busy running their day to day operation, documenting business processes is usually pretty low on the list. Summary.

LOW – Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones receiving drawings to bid on new commercial construction projects. didn’t think the number of commercial general contractors bidding on one job could be higher than what we saw in 2010. Developers and retailers that would normally go 2 deep in bidding went 4 deep. And some firms had 11 GCs bid on jobs. The quality and reputation of some general contractors allowed to bid on jobs was questionable at best. Happy Holidays from the Hard Hat Chat team -- Chuck Taylor, Kim Sawyer and Bill Di Santo. was wrong. President.

In the latest development in what’s been one of the biggest tech stories of 2011, telecom giant AT&T has finally withdrawn its bid to acquire T-Mobile. Amidst mounting criticism from nearly all sides and antitrust tangles with the Department of Justice and FCC, AT&T acknowledged its $39 billion bid was simply not going to happen. While AT&T’s decision to withdraw its bid for T-Mobile might be a win for customers in the near term by keeping prices down, it appears the “spectrum wars” will claim casualties of their own. In an effort to solve this problem, the U.S.

When the roofing work dried up, we had the opportunity to bid on some Public Works concrete jobs. Come to find out, those public works concrete jobs are going at a fraction of what he would have bid them for, so we decided to bid on some other public works landscaping jobs. The other day we had a chance to bid on the demolition of a burned out home. And there they sit, unable to bid on this project because they need another license, and the state of California won’t let them apply. I received this note from a client recently. Real Life Issues

If the contractor and subcontractors do not understand what they are bidding on and do not know how to estimate the costs correctly, there will be problems on the job. Construction architect attorney bid contractor designer Don Short engineer Estimate estimator Owner plans project specifications subcontractor Tempest CompanyI recently attended a breakfast educational meeting.  It involved a panel discussion on construction. The panel members were an architect, contractor, subcontractor and an attorney.  will create problems that last for the entire project. 

RFP out for bids. Courthouse Square gets new life! Remember, Salem Courthouse Square? If you read this blog, its hard to forget. One of the nation’s most infamous LEED projects is back in the news. But this time its because agency heads have decided to rebuild it! This month’s Solicitation of the Month has a history, so lets discuss. Historically, my SOTM pick has been a new topic on this blog. But Courthouse Square has been a frequent talking point on Builders Counsel. Now we have something good to talk about when mentioning Courthouse Square – its rebuilding. 7, 2012.

It seems in their bidding practices they priced materials/equipment items that were not approved in the specifications.  They would not request these items to be approved in the bidding period.  They did not want to give away their bidding advantage to their competitors. The first one is they are not bidding on the project scope the owner wants.  The next is there is customarily a provision in the bid documents that substitution requests must be submitted prior to the bid so the materials can be evaluated.  This caught my attention.  So I listened.

I was also doing hard bid, high risk work. With all this said, the pressure of hard bid contracts certainly doesn’t help the movement of trying to get some more emotional competence in construction projects.  In bad economies, margins slim down and hard bidding increases.  I received an email a few weeks ago from Brent Darnell telling me and a number of his other LinkedIn contacts that ENR magazine published a review of his book, “The People Profit Connection.”  This isn’t the first time I’ve made a mention of Mr. Darnell on this blog. 

Bidding process has opened for £10 million local energy assessment fund and another £20 million extra money in Salix loans for public sector in energy efficiency projects. The government has announced a £10 million boost for local community energy projects, and a £20 million fund to the existing public sector energy efficiency loan scheme which will give extra confidence to businesses in the renewable sector. If you want to find out more about the programme and the methods of applying for it please refer to the Energy saving Trust website.

Bidding process has opened for £10 million local energy assessment fund and another £20 million extra money in Salix loans for public sector in energy efficiency projects. The government has announced a £10 million boost for local community energy projects, and a £20 million fund to the existing public sector energy efficiency loan scheme which will give extra confidence to businesses in the renewable sector. If you want to find out more about the programme and the methods of applying for it please refer to the Energy saving Trust website.

Exactly what data should be sent to what applications beginning with an estimate, a bid, then creating a job ledger with the specific cost details needed for the customer, and how and when data should be updated as a result of change orders pending and approved. By Sheldon Needle. Of all of the products one can buy, purchasing construction software is possibly the most complex and problematic. Think about it. When it comes to purchasing construction project management software for your construction company you have to truly understand the requirements for all phases of your business.

These markets generally are the open competitive bid, invited competitive bid, competitive negotiated, sole source negotiated and specialty bid market. The least expensive market for owners today is in the open competitive bid market.  A set of plans and specifications is developed and issued for firm price bids.  Presuming the project is bid by contractors that can bond the project and staffed by competent owner personnel or representatives, this is the best value. The invited competitive bid is the next best value.

Six joint venture teams recently bid on a $500+ million government project.  There were over 10 amendments during the bid period.  Each bid set cost over $4,000 and the amendments were extra!  None of them can get back the time or lost opportunities to bid other work, not that there were many opportunities out there anyway. None of them can recoup the expenses associated with bidding on a project of this size. Bidding a project this size is not inexpensive.    I would not doubt that each team spent or can account for the effort costing in excess of $1 million.

So I’m having fun learning, even as I watch the hours melt away and know I should be evaluating bids and writing contracts. I’m spending many hours judging the ENR Best Projects 2011. The 80 nominated projects spread between categories: civil works – infrastructure, cultural – worship, green projects, industrial – manufacturing, residential – hospitality, retail – mixed-use, projects under $10M, sports – entertainment and transportation. So they studied the transformer failure with a millisecond by millisecond analysis.

We’ve compiled the list below based on conversations with clients and fellow commercial construction experts, upcoming bid work, economic projections and observations in the field. The future home of an hhgregg in Joliet, Ill. Value-based retailers like hhgregg, Ross Dress for Less and Savers should experience construction growth in 2012. It’s that time of year when our team predicts the 2012 commercial construction trends – from what’s on tap for Chicago retail construction to national restaurant construction and hospitality construction. Bill Di Santo. President. Questions? Comments?

The concept is great; the pen provides a digital document of your notes that can be dropped … Continue reading → Product bidding digital pen estimating holidays jobsiteDigital gadgets — there are a million of them, especially during the holidays. One that’s come to my attention is the digital pen.

I can’t see many of my blog’s readers forking over this type of dough when many of us are rushing to review plans and submit bids for “lowest price” wins tender opportunities (and worse, in some cases, engaging in “bid peddling” to see if they can find a way to revise their bids to come in lower than the lowest-posted bid). The LeveragePoint website. Over the weekend, LeveragePoint’s Twitter feed picked up my posting Pricing, value and marketing — is there a common denominator? Pricing

They run the gamut, including public project bidding requirements, building permits, code issues, and the use of design-build building methods.  Today’s Tip is a big one… a turkey-sized offering in advance of Thanksgiving.   At At least 19 new North Carolina laws that effect construction professionals were past this legislative season.  For a complete listing of each bill that may effect your practice, check out [.]. law notes tips architect construction engineer public projects

Despite efforts to clamp down on abuse and fraud, advertisers just aren’t seeing the results they expect, and with seemingly unlimited inventory, the online auction bids are dropping to a level previously unseen.  Outside one of the Google headquarters building. Yes, there is lots of food inside. Some readers here know that I volunteer in spare times moments as a “Top Contributor” on one of the Google help forums relating to online advertising.  We aren’t paid for this work, but Google provided us an all-expenses trip to Mountain View in September for a summit.

Boils down to a whole lot of work to bid on a 3 week project I will only get nickled and dimed on. Our mid-month newsletter published last Wednesday talked about clients using contractors. Specifically, asking for full disclosure so they can reduce the cost of their project. reader sent this email in response, telling us about his recent experience: Hello Michael, thanks for the newsletter. It is always insightful and very informative. Here is an other example of a client taking charge, I received this one last week. Here it is: Please could you provide: 1. Also details of license.

Construction Competitive bidding practices construction documents contractor documentation Estimate estimating help estimator project scope of work specifications specsI was working on a project recently.  When doing the review there was a note that was on the civil drawings – about work that the electrical contractor was supposed to perform.  There was no symbol on the civil drawing just a note and there was no reference to the work on the electrical drawings. This should never happen, but I am seeing more and more of it. 

Construction Competitive bidding practices Estimate estimating estimating help estimating process estimating software estimator project rolling scales Tempest CompanyI was talking to an estimator and he said he had to train his new estimators how to use a scale and roller! It seems they only had a paper copy of the drawings instead of on-screen take-off. With the advent of new technology, what do you think will be the next thing that will go by the wayside due to new technology?