Bidding an electrical project under different contractor's license classification

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jaraujo1

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California contractor licensing board issues different classifications for the contractors (see website).

I am the engineer in charge for an electrical job going to bid next week. I have requested contractor to bid with classification C-10, the client wants me to allow for classification A and B so the pool of bidders is larger and have a better chance to get a lower bid. The founder of the company does not like the idea because he has horror experience with contractor holding license classification A and B.

Does anyone know if the responsibility, liability and bonding is the same for all 3 classifications?

Should I hold construction observations more frequent with a classification A and B if I decide to allow classification A,B and C-10?

or any reason I should not allow contractors with classification A or B allowed to bid?

Any feedback is welcome.

Juan Araujo, PE
California, Nevada and Texas
 
jaraujo1 said:
... the client wants me to allow for classification A and B so the pool of bidders is larger and have a better chance to get a lower bid.
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The client gets what the client wants, within the law.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Yes, but not from me if I am not comfortable doing what the client wants me to do.
Don
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I am not sure I follow you here.

Do you quit your job?

Certainly the engineering firm in this case could try to bail out of the project but it sounds like the project has already been designed so bailing out would be costly and might damage their reputation more then simply allowing the larger bidding pool.

But Marc put it much better, a pay check is more meaningful then taking a stand on something that is really no big deal.
 
There are several stages to the engineering of a project. They are roughly divided among: (1) Design (2) Contract bidding, proposal evaluation, and award (3) Oversight of construction.

There should be no difference in the the engineering services cost for the first stage, and little or no difference for the second stage. It might be appropriate for the engineering firm to quote a higher price for the third stage if there is rationale for additional inspection.

Is your engineering fee based on a percentage of contract cost?

In my experience it is important to demonstrate early in the construction phase that engineering inspections to verify conformance to the plans will be close and critical, and to document any discrepancies for the owner.
 
jaraujo1 said:
I have requested contractor to bid with classification C-10, the client wants me to allow for classification A and B so the pool of bidders is larger and have a better chance to get a lower bid.
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In the end the contractor that does the work will have to have a C-10 license anyway ( to be legal ).

It's not important who gets to bid the job but who gets awarded the job. You should really check out any contractor before awarding a job. The low bidder may not be the people you want anyway. I would look for a good track record.;)

Edit: I guess all bids are worth looking at.
 
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You Go!

You Go!

Bob NH said:
There are several stages to the engineering of a project. They are roughly divided among: (1) Design (2) Contract bidding, proposal evaluation, and award (3) Oversight of construction..
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What type of package did the owner pay for from the EE ?

Bob NH said:
There should be no difference in the the engineering services cost for the first stage, and little or no difference for the second stage. It might be appropriate for the engineering firm to quote a higher price for the third stage if there is rationale for additional inspection.

Is your engineering fee based on a percentage of contract cost?.
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I thought Architects only did pertanage pricing ?

Bob NH said:
In my experience it is important to demonstrate early in the construction phase that engineering inspections to verify conformance to the plans will be close and critical, and to document any discrepancies for the owner.
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If you can get that "$" out of your customers in this, "just in time" era, You Go !!! :)

For the OP:
Anyone check the Dodge room or even the print store? Anyone asking any "?'s" of your plans ?
Call any of the big supply houses to get a total number of solications on your job?
Seems its a C-10 job...
"I hate Nervous Clients" ...:cool:
 
cadpoint said:
Call any of the big supply houses to get a total number of solications on your job?
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I know when I'm bidding against a good many people when I send an RFQ to the supply house on some special stuff, and I get my answer back in less than an hour.
 
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