Electrical Bid

[jraymond]

Hey guys, I just became a master electrician and electrical contractor in May and have been doing mostly residential projects, service upgrades, things like that. I just got asked to give a bid for a Grow facility in Traverse city, MI. It’s currently just me in the company but would be open to hiring someone to help me. The point of this thread is that I have no idea where to start with bidding this project. I have attached the electrical prints for the job and was wondering if someone could help me bid this. Let me know if the prints are legible. Apparently it’s 160 grow lights total, 600 amps total with three 200 amp panels 120/208. 10 A/C units and 6 furnaces. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[LarryFine]

My honest opinion is that it's way too large to take on as your first commercial job.

 

[petersonra]

I don't think this is a one or two person job. And even if it was, where are you going to get the money to front load buying the parts and paying your help while you wait months to get paid.

 

[jraymond]

I don't think this is a one or two person job. And even if it was, where are you going to get the money to front load buying the parts and paying your help while you wait months to get paid.

Good point. Normally with smaller jobs I get half the money upfront and the remaining when I’m finished. Could I do that with this too? I’d need to find help for sure but I’m thinking I could hire a couple of guys.

 

[jraymond]

My honest opinion is that it's way too large to take on as your first commercial job.

My honest opinion is that it's way too large to take on as your first commercial job.

Im probably going to take the job, just looking for help bidding it. Was wondering if I could get some help on here but I may pay to sit down with someone to help me if I can’t find it here.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

First thing is, you must know your own numbers. That’s your yearly overhead, what you want to make per year, and your taxes.

With this information, you can divide your yearly OH by how many projected working days you’ll have in the year, and take that figure and multiply by how long you think this job will take.

Then figure out how many guys you’ll need to hire, and what you will pay them, plus labor burden, which is taxes and insurance on them, plus a percentage as profit for you for taking on the risk of hiring employees.

Then, you will have to sit down with the plans and make a detailed materials list, of every item that is going onto the job, and, what I do, is add a percentage for incidentals.

With this information, you can come up with your total bid price.

In theory, this is all very straight forward and simple, and it is to an extent, it’s also a great deal of hard work. If you don’t yet know your own numbers, you’ll have to learn that before you can even think about giving an accurate bid. Unfortunately there is no shortcut to accurate bidding.

If you’ve learned one the oft spouted and unfortunate methods of “bidding”, like doubling materials, unlearn that as fast as you can, because that is a fast track to going out of business.

Check out my other threads here on the subject:

Pricing A Job….

This is my method, and this is the other sort of lengthy post I put together for the FB Group. I am a General Contractor as well as an Electrical Contractor, and as you will see, it was more geared towards the General’s, but I think it would apply equally to any type of Contractor. Many ways...

forums.mikeholt.com

Figuring And Applying Overhead……

This is a little thing I put together for a Contractor's FB group I’m on. FIGURING AND APPLYING OVERHEAD: First thing to understand is, figuring overhead is an ongoing task, and it deals with some projections. As the year progresses, projected figures will become actual figures, and you will...

forums.mikeholt.com

 

[jraymond]

First thing is, you must know your own numbers. That’s your yearly overhead, what you want to make per year, and your taxes.

With this information, you can divide your yearly OH by how many projected working days you’ll have in the year, and take that figure and multiply by how long you think this job will take.

Then figure out how many guys you’ll need to hire, and what you will pay them, plus labor burden, which is taxes and insurance on them, plus a percentage as profit for you for taking on the risk of hiring employees.

Then, you will have to sit down with the plans and make a detailed materials list, of every item that is going onto the job, and, what I do, is add a percentage for incidentals.

With this information, you can come up with your total bid price.

In theory, this is all very straight forward and simple, and it is to an extent, it’s also a great deal of hard work. If you don’t yet know your own numbers, you’ll have to learn that before you can even think about giving an accurate bid. Unfortunately there is no shortcut to accurate bidding.

If you’ve learned one the oft spouted and unfortunate methods of “bidding”, like doubling materials, unlearn that as fast as you can, because that is a fast track to going out of business.

Check out my other threads here on the subject:

Pricing A Job….

This is my method, and this is the other sort of lengthy post I put together for the FB Group. I am a General Contractor as well as an Electrical Contractor, and as you will see, it was more geared towards the General’s, but I think it would apply equally to any type of Contractor. Many ways...

forums.mikeholt.com

Figuring And Applying Overhead……

This is a little thing I put together for a Contractor's FB group I’m on. FIGURING AND APPLYING OVERHEAD: First thing to understand is, figuring overhead is an ongoing task, and it deals with some projections. As the year progresses, projected figures will become actual figures, and you will...

forums.mikeholt.com

Thank you so much. Such valuable information and I appreciate it very much!! Very helpful

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Good point. Normally with smaller jobs I get half the money upfront and the remaining when I’m finished. Could I do that with this too? I’d need to find help for sure but I’m thinking I could hire a couple of guys.

Very unlikely.

 

[jraymond]

Very unlikely.

We’ll see. I’ll work something out. Shouldn’t be a problem

 

[Tulsa Electrician]

Have you looked at the plans closely. If not maybe you should prior to bidding.

I took a quick look and did not like what I see.

An example would be a lighting circuit at 2040.
2040/120=17
Why the different va for lights?
1920 and 2040 for same qty on circuit.
Notice it does not list breaker size for lighting.
Also look at the light spec.
No 0-10 control, what's controlling the lights. Turn on breaker and walk away?

Any hazardous locations?
Most grow uses chemicals.




Look at your HVAC connected on the one panel
5240*20
So does this have ele heat and in the HVAC air handler units.
Why 15 HVAC units and only 8 AC units. All the same VA

What if the HVAC is ele heat all 15 units from same 200 amp panel




Showed three phase says single phase. So on and so on.
May be a reason there sending plans your way.

Site have 3∅ available.
Hate to have to convert to single phase. Be sure to have plenty of exclusions.

Then read the note on it's a Design build. The design may change based on HVAC equipment alone. Got HVAC specs? Got an HVAC set of plans? May have 16 heaters not 15.

The best one could supply is a prelim price based on print provided.

For your first one be very careful.
Hope there is a plan reviewer.

Good luck

 

[jraymond]

Have you looked at the plans closely. If not maybe you should prior to bidding.

I took a quick look and did not like what I see.

An example would be a lighting circuit at 2040.
2040/120=17
Why the different va for lights?
1920 and 2040 for same qty on circuit.
Notice it does not list breaker size for lighting.
Also look at the light spec.
No 0-10 control, what's controlling the lights. Turn on breaker and walk away?

Any hazardous locations?
Most grow uses chemicals.




Look at your HVAC connected on the one panel
5240*20
So does this have ele heat and in the HVAC air handler units.
Why 15 HVAC units and only 8 AC units. All the same VA

What if the HVAC is ele heat all 15 units from same 200 amp panel




Showed three phase says single phase. So on and so on.
May be a reason there sending plans your way.

Site have 3∅ available.
Hate to have to convert to single phase. Be sure to have plenty of exclusions.

Then read the note on it's a Design build. The design may change based on HVAC equipment alone. Got HVAC specs? Got an HVAC set of plans? May have 16 heaters not 15.

The best one could supply is a prelim price based on print provided.

For your first one be very careful.
Hope there is a plan reviewer.

Good luck

Thanks so much for your advice I appreciate it

 

[Tulsa Electrician]

Your welcome, congrats on passing and starting your business.

 

[petersonra]

Good luck.

 

[TwistLock]

If you don't mind me asking, I'm curious to know how the job came your way. Unless I have a relationship with the person ultimately signing the checks, or at least someone in their organization, I like to do a little background first on larger jobs.

 

[roger]

Good point. Normally with smaller jobs I get half the money upfront and the remaining when I’m finished. Could I do that with this too? I’d need to find help for sure but I’m thinking I could hire a couple of guys.

Look up AIA Schedule of values and progress billing. There is a mobilization line that you can probably use but it will be nowhere near half the contract. There may also be a retention held

 

[Fred B]

If you don't mind me asking, I'm curious to know how the job came your way. Unless I have a relationship with the person ultimately signing the checks, or at least someone in their organization, I like to do a little background first on larger jobs.

Agreed

I just got asked to give a bid for a Grow facility in Traverse city, MI. It’s currently just me in the company

My experience with this type, is the person or organization looking for the bid to an unknown or startup such as yourself, is just looking to fill a quota of another bid, as they've already decided on another company. And if you are not already familiar with the level of work to make such a bid you're just spinning your wheels unless you're just looking at it as an exercise and to gain experience in writing such bids. And are unlikely to even hear back on an unsuccessful bid or reason why.
Other danger is they are looking to get a very low bid (too low to even do without loosing money) and you are left holding the bag and lucky to get out with even material costs being covered, let alone labor.