What to send a GC when you're requesting a bid

The quality of a bid is capped by the quality of what you send to get it. If you want a fast, accurate number you can compare against others, give the contractor enough to price the real job instead of guessing at it.

The short list

1. Drawings or a plan — even a preliminary space plan beats a verbal description. If you do not have drawings, say so; a good GC can help scope from a walk.
2. The lease exhibit or landlord work letter — this defines who pays for what, and it changes the scope more than anything else.
3. Your target date — the schedule is part of the price. A tight date and a loose date are different jobs.
4. Any hard budget — if there is a number you cannot exceed, saying so up front lets the GC value-engineer toward it instead of past it.
5. The use and any brand or tenant standards — a finish package or franchise spec tells the GC what "done" actually means.

Why it pays off

Every gap in what you send becomes an assumption in the bid, and assumptions are where bids diverge and change orders are born. The half hour you spend assembling the scope is repaid in bids that come back faster, closer together, and far easier to compare.

Send us what you have and we will tell you what else we need to give you a real number. Call us or send over the scope.