latest bid results - getting worse?

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CopperTone

Senior Member
Location
MetroWest, MA
I think this latest bid result speaks volumes for our current economy - at least in eastern massachusetts anyway - I do think some EC's are starving out there. This job's estimated value was posted at 18K. 27 bids were submitted - I almost cried when i heard that. (the job was 10 - 100amp service changes single family houses - simple changes, no arc faults, Sq D QO panels, only 11 beakers in the panel, all copper wire and pvc conduit, water meter 5 ft away, 2 ground rods, permit $300, bond $360, dumpster $300. prevailing wage job - journeyman $50/hr. Things seem desperate around these parts.

7629
11330
11900
12460 :confused: our bid
12900
13500
13696.50
13870
13927
14498
14513
15700
15884
16100
16250
16400
17189
17430
18000
18210
19400
19500
20995
21000
22400
23997.97
24900
 
NolaTigaBait

NolaTigaBait

Senior Member
Location
New Orleans,LA
thats's about 1246 a service.....i know guys that would do a service for that (200 amps at that) for that price all day....i would think that a service change would be a flat rate job
 
brian john

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
The last 3 jobs we won in a fair bid after being awarded the job we were told we needed to lower or price from 10%-25%. Did not happen, we had a signed contract.
 
tkb

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
journeyman $50/hr
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The rate seems low for a prevailing wage job in Eastern MA.
Where was the job? Was there a rate sheet supplied for the bid?

How can someone bid so low on public work?
It may be that if the owner does the work them selves they don't have to pay themselves the prevailing wage. I think.
 
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dezwitinc

dezwitinc

Senior Member
Location
Delray Beach, FL
We have given up on the private work down here and are concentrating on pump stations, Everglades restoration, local water districts, etc.
It seems that many companies are afraid of this type of work so you only get 5 or 6 bidders and the numbers are all competitive.
There is still alot of private work in the malls, office buildings, and strip centers but every job has 12 to 15 bidders and you can't get low enough to get the job.
We can make more money fishing or playing golf than we can in the private sector.
 
cadpoint

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Is this a public works bid ? (speaking to OP)

I thought that this type of job (public work/city/county) is pre estimated if a public bid, and the owner, city or county, has a right of refusal if to low?
 
C

CopperTone

Senior Member
Location
MetroWest, MA
tkb said:
The rate seems low for a prevailing wage job in Eastern MA.
Where was the job? Was there a rate sheet supplied for the bid?

How can someone bid so low on public work?
It may be that if the owner does the work them selves they don't have to pay themselves the prevailing wage. I think.
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mansfield, ma (out of the boston ring)
rate sheets have to be supplied
you don't have to pay yourself prevailing wage if you own the company - the reasoning is that as the owner of a company you should be paying yourself at least that amount anyway - why work so much cheaper? that is just dumb.

on these types of prevailing wage jobs - low bidder wins unless the public entity feels the low bidder is ineligible to bid or didn't submit a responsible bid, or they may feel the company in not qualified to do the job - then they can skip over it - usually they don't.
 
electricmanscott

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
iwire said:
That will not keep happening to much longer, I think a lot of ECs are going to disappear around here.
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I agree. Part of my reasoning is the drop off in commercial work. From what I could gather in converstaions with the local suppliers commercial had stayed fairly strong.

Over the last few months with the whole credit fiasco it's almost daily that you read of a large commercial project that is dead in the water due to failure to get financing. We are talking about major downtown Boston projects here. Some have actually started and since been shut down.

This is bad for the "big guys" and very bad for the little guy.

The big guys may go after smaller stuff they might not have bothered with and you have a situtation like the op.

Even worse they dump staff who then collect unemployment and what do they do with their free time? "Side work" on the cheap that kills the little guy.
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
peter d said:
Just curious on why you believe this to be the case.
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Well besides Scott's excellent description of whats happening here there is the fact that companies can only hold things together for a limited amount of time when bidding jobs at below real cost.

For a while it will become a case of who has the deepest pocket to fund the company during these lean times. Many companies here now are new enough they have never had to deal with a poor economy. Once enough of these ECs end up going under bidding should return to at least realistic pricing in place of desperate pricing.

But hey ..... I am not an econmist so maybe I am all wrong.
 
B

Brady Electric

Senior Member
Location
Asheville, N. C.
latest bid results-getting worse?

latest bid results-getting worse?

dbuckley said:
Two bidders considered it necessary to go to the cents...
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That's funny, for some reason I bid like that. I never round it off.
I'd rather sit at home than give my work away unless I had to keep allot of people working.
I just have a small business and it doesn't take much to keep me going.
I learned a long time ago I keep more in my pocket by being small.
Sadly, I think I-wire is right.
Keep your chin up and good luck. Semper Fi Buddy
 
H

hardworkingstiff

Senior Member
Location
Wilmington, NC
Brady Electric said:
That's funny, for some reason I bid like that. I never round it off.
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I rarely round off.
I'd rather sit at home than give my work away unless I had to keep allot of people working.
Click to expand...
I've gained 20 lbs in the last 3 months 'sitting at home'.
I just have a small business and it doesn't take much to keep me going.
I learned a long time ago I keep more in my pocket by being small.
Click to expand...
We sure are a lot alike.
Sadly, I think I-wire is right.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I agree that Bob is correct.
 
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