Hiring a Contractor? Jodi Solicits Bids with Specifications
Fitzpatrick-So I’m hiring a contractor for a new block wall fence so I solicit three bids from three licensed contractors. The first thing I do is decide--in consultation with my neighbor--what materials we’re going to use and stick to them throughout the bidding process to ensure we get apples-to-apples bids. So remembering that I know interiors--not structures that sit out in the wind and sun all year--how do I know what materials we’re going to use? I researched, and then I guessed. Given that my neighbor and I have four Chow Chows between us (and always have, replacing the deceased with puppies in record time), and given we never want to attend the Inner Breed Smack Down again (see previous post), we chose concrete block as our fencing material; with the intent to face it with stone veneer or coat it with plaster or stucco in the future. Our specification read:
50 lineal feet of beige, split-faced concrete masonry fence block fencing, 6’ high, with footing and concrete fill.
Here’s what we learned on the first round of bids; beige was a special order color, requiring a lead time and possibly a set-up fee (depending which of our three victims…er…contractors that we spoke with) and split-faced--the textured block--was a third more than a smooth-faced block. So our next specification read:
50 lineal feet of gray, smooth-faced concrete masonry fence block fencing, 6’ high, with footing and concrete fill.
By now, we began to see who was going to be our low bidder and our high bidder. The middle guy we threw out because he was a Type A contractor and both of us are by-the-book types (covered in the next post). So we addressed our questions and revisions to these two and here’s what we added:
Concrete masonry fence cap (along the top, since the drawings we received showed the filling of the fence block rounded over and left exposed) and demolition and haul-away of the existing (such as it was) fence.
After a week of calling and faxing bids, we arrived at our winner:
55 lineal feet of gray, smooth-faced concrete masonry fence block fencing, 6’ high, with footing and concrete fill, concrete masonry top cap to match existing on back wall and demolition and haul-away of existing fence.
The bids came back. Contractor Type C was fully two times the price of Contractor Type B-2. See why in the next post….
50 lineal feet of beige, split-faced concrete masonry fence block fencing, 6’ high, with footing and concrete fill.
Here’s what we learned on the first round of bids; beige was a special order color, requiring a lead time and possibly a set-up fee (depending which of our three victims…er…contractors that we spoke with) and split-faced--the textured block--was a third more than a smooth-faced block. So our next specification read:
50 lineal feet of gray, smooth-faced concrete masonry fence block fencing, 6’ high, with footing and concrete fill.
By now, we began to see who was going to be our low bidder and our high bidder. The middle guy we threw out because he was a Type A contractor and both of us are by-the-book types (covered in the next post). So we addressed our questions and revisions to these two and here’s what we added:
Concrete masonry fence cap (along the top, since the drawings we received showed the filling of the fence block rounded over and left exposed) and demolition and haul-away of the existing (such as it was) fence.
After a week of calling and faxing bids, we arrived at our winner:
55 lineal feet of gray, smooth-faced concrete masonry fence block fencing, 6’ high, with footing and concrete fill, concrete masonry top cap to match existing on back wall and demolition and haul-away of existing fence.
The bids came back. Contractor Type C was fully two times the price of Contractor Type B-2. See why in the next post….
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