GC didn’t send the specs with ITB

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brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
Got a contract last week on a job I bid last year, then re-bid a month ago because it was over budget. I was told the re-bid was even more (my price went up), but the county decided to go ahead with it realizing the price is never coming down.

I asked for specs with the ITB, was told there were none. It’s a community center; wood framed, hard ceilings. I bid it with all NM cable and plastic boxes, and noted that in my proposal.

My fixture and gear submittals came back with a revise and resubmit stamp, and three pages worth of items they wanted submittals on. I called the PM this afternoon and asked if he was certain there wasn’t a specification binder. He said “oh yeh I forgot, there is one, the plumber and mechanical guys called today too asking about it.”

The specs called for the job to be hard piped. I am going to bet it called for copper pipe and hard duct too, and those guys probably bid with PEX and flex duct.

My proposal with romex was $100k. The GC started grading the site this week. I’m afraid they are about to be in a world of doo doo.


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Forgot to add, the PM told me on the phone tonight that he hadn’t seen anything in the specs “that would make it like a big commercial job. It’s more like a big house.”

This guy is a longtime friend of mine who recently moved into the PM role. I hate this lesson he’s about to learn.


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tom baker said:
Do with no specs and your bid for NM, and they want hard piped, where does that leave you?
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I’ll have to cancel the current contract and re-bid; I don’t think I’ll be the only one doing so.


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I was never an estimator on big jobs, just my small stuff but I would suspect that any government building would have specs.
 
brantmacga said:
I’ll have to cancel the current contract and re-bid; I don’t think I’ll be the only one doing so.


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So you haven’t signed a contract? Or you made sure your scope didn’t mention specs and acknowledged your bid scope?
 
rambojoe said:
That doesnt necessarily matter, changes equal diff prints and deltas, it legally voids the first contract.
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Changes from the contract. No contract, may be even worse because a verbal contact is subject to lies. But contract wording makes all the difference.
 
Strathead said:
So you haven’t signed a contract? Or you made sure your scope didn’t mention specs and acknowledged your bid scope?
Click to expand...

Yes the contract is signed, and the proposal is attached as exhibit A, and is noted that no specifications were provided. It’s not entirely unusual in this municipality to not have a specification binder. I bid on a remodel of their public works truck shop last year, and it didn’t have any specs attached either.

I’ve got the email chain starting with the ITB that includes the plans only, and me asking for specs, and them saying there are none.

I think ultimately the GC is going to have to eat this and possibly file an E&O claim; I seriously doubt the county is going to give them more money, unless for some reason the architect didn’t provide them the specs initially, but there’s likely no chance that happened. I’ve worked with this architect, and the engineering firm, and the GC on multiple projects over the years and they all have solid reputations. It’s just a huge foul up by the PM to have not sent those specs out. I almost wonder if because he answered that there were no specs that his boss forgot to send the complete package to forward to subs.

Im going to call the PM Monday and hope to get a better understanding of where this went wrong.


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