Invitations To Bid from out of state co.s??

[bradleyelectric]

yep. short of them having actual experience doing work in that locale any estimate they make might not be especially meaningful. if I am bidding stuff, I want as many hard numbers as I can get.

i estimate stuff all the time, and most of it is things that are very similar to things we have done before. we still go through the exercise of making sure our numbers are real.

Are you designing tenant spaces?

 

[dezwitinc]

Love those out of state tenant buildout contractors.
We are working with one right now that pays by direct deposit within 72 hours of receiving our requisition.
They haven't missed a beat yet.
Their customers just want the store open because in most cases, they are paying rent while we build out.
Changeorders can be a God send because due to the time constraints, there is no time to haggle.

 

[Minuteman]

What I hate is the bid shopper GC that has a number and nobody to do it at that price, so every EC in town gets an ITB, in hopes that they find their price.

 

[Minuteman]

I'm also not a big fan of the PDF file link sent to get some plans. I understand that they don't want to print a ton of plans and send out to subs, but the PDF version is not that fun to read and I don't want to get them printed unless I know I have a good chance at getting the job.

 

[Greg Swartz]

I'm also not a big fan of the PDF file link sent to get some plans. I understand that they don't want to print a ton of plans and send out to subs, but the PDF version is not that fun to read and I don't want to get them printed unless I know I have a good chance at getting the job.

I know, things look small, until you zoom in, then you can't see the whole thing...

Have you tried using adobe's measurement tool?
On acrobat (don't know if the reader can do it, but the retail version does), you can get good lengths very fast. That way, if you need conduit count, or wire footage, you can get numbers very fast.

 

[Greg Swartz]

What I hate is the bid shopper GC that has a number and nobody to do it at that price, so every EC in town gets an ITB, in hopes that they find their price.

I get a lot of those. I think a lot of the big ECs spot them a mile away, and do not bid the job. So, I get a call... "are you bidding on XXXX project?"

I don't usually like to do a job at a GC's price... it usually involves me having to:
1) Bend over backwards to meet their scheduling.
2) Do the job for less than I wanted to do the entire thing before I found out I needed to bend over backwards!

 

[lbwireman]

I know, things look small, until you zoom in, then you can't see the whole thing...

Have you tried using adobe's measurement tool?
On acrobat (don't know if the reader can do it, but the retail version does), you can get good lengths very fast. That way, if you need conduit count, or wire footage, you can get numbers very fast.

The prints we received were sent in .dwf format with no explanation re: what application would open the file. A bit of research revealed that this is Autodesk's newly released version of Adobe's .pdf files. The .dwf files are created with AutoCad and readable with Autodesk's new "Autodesk Design Review" reader, which is a free download from Autodesk's website. We just got it for this particular set of prints so don't yet know if it incorporates a measurement tool. We'll play with it and report back later.:smile:

 

[Minuteman]

Got a .dwf set of prints for a Dollar General store we did. Was able to find a free down load version of DWG TrueView 2008 that opened it up, but don't recall any measurement tool.

 

[lbwireman]

BTW, thank you all for your input and feedback. It's always enlightening and appreciated.

 

[Minuteman]

Enlightening is what we do! :grin: