I have a slightly different take. Personally, in a bid situation, I think that all bidding contractors should be researched enough that your client feels comfortable with any of the bidders doing the project. If not, they shouldn't be allowed to bid in the first place. A competitive bid situation should be essentially saying, "if you've got the lowest price, then we'll pick you." (Assuming that start and completion times are acceptable.) Otherwise, a bid process just to keep the already-favored contractor "honest" is deceptive and unethical, IMO. (If the relationship is the most important factor, then a negotiated contract works better, which I prefer anyway.)
You shouldn't have to spend time analyzing the bids to figure out what is an apples-to-apples comparison; this is a sign that either the documents are incomplete, that you have allowed a breakdown, or worse, a recapitulation of the work (like the attached page), to be included. Exclusions or contractor-determined allowances are usually just laziness on the part of the contractor, and should not be allowed. (YOU should set any allowances, which should be used by all bidders.) While a breakdown (schedule of values) is useful for evaluating payments during construction, I don't really see what they add to a bid. Knowing that one contractor has included $21,000 for rough framing, and another has $19,500, is going to tell you what? How do you compare one contractor who bills laborers out at $75 per hour with a 5% OH&P with one who bills them out at $55/hour with a 15% OH&P?
If the low bid is really out of whack, though, then the low bidder should be given an opportunity to review the bid for completeness before disclosing any bid results.
There are many reasons a bid could be significantly lower than another, completely unrelated to quality. For example, more shopping of the subcontractors, better discount at supply house, lower overhead, urgency to get the project, desire to get established in a neighborhood, particular efficiency and knowledge in a project size/type, etc. If the contractors have been fully vetted, NOT going with the lowest bid is just throwing money away, and the low bidder -- who may have worked his/her butt off to get the price down to the bone -- has every right to feel cheated if not awarded the contract. Just my opinion. You may find some useful verbiage in the attached bid instructions.
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Richard Morrison, AIA
Architect-Interior Designer
Redwood City, CA
www.richardmorrison.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 09-04-2019 08:32
From: Stephanie Sola-Sole
Subject: Bid request format
I am about to send a residential addition project out for bid and I am reviewing my standard bid request letter. I would like to update it. Is anyone willing to share a bid process, outline or format that you use that you find successful? My biggest concern if that I often get bids that are not "apples to apples" and it takes me a lot of time to compare them fairly and equally.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Stephanie Sola-Sole
SOLA-SOLE ARCHITECTS LLC
e: stephanie@solasolearch.com