Build specification template

[rh2205]

Hi all,

 

We are looking to prepare documents for tender of a renovation job roughly in the 150k territory. We are struggling to know where to start we have our building regs drawings, structural plans & electrical plans but these do not have detailed fitting information. Struggling to know how to go about the documentation for the tender. We don’t want to over complicate things with lots of paperwork & mean we get less tender responses. We are also hoping to break it down into two parts with wind and weather tight being the first price and the rest in the second part (In case it’s too high we subcontract rest). Plus we do not have detailed information on the plumbing side of things yet other than where radiators are going.

 

If anyone has any examples they can share with us that would be really helpful.

 

I have experience of using JCT contracts but it’s mostly always been in the context of a fully spec’d job and commercial not domestic. We don’t want to delay things by picking out every single product now so thinking some allowances route will be needed but at the same time we are working with the 5% vat renovation so there ‘could’ be a cost saving if the contractor buys these products for us. This would obviously be a much simpler process if we just said client to source x and contractor to allow for fitting costs.

 

Still not sure having a contract for a job is really a good thing even though I keep getting told

it’s the sensible thing. I’ve seen unforeseen extras overpriced in so many ‘main contractor’ contracts but once you have a main contractor arrangement there’s only so long you can disagree for if you want to keep things moving. Obviously we are feeling very apprehensive on this next stage as it’s a major refurb with a new floor so we’ll be an easy target for unforeseen extras.

 

Any guidance and tender templates /examples much appreciated so that we hopefully don’t end up in too big a pickle later down the line!

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by rh2205

[Conor]

I work as a PM on large infrastructure projects and spend my days preparing contracts and scope documents 100s of pages long.

 

I got our architect to do our tenders. It was three pages, plus the costing sheet which had 6 line items.

 

All the details and requirements are on the drawings. Nobody reads contracts, anything you want priced and done to a spec, should be on the drawings, it's the reality of how these guys work. They will also get your BC approval before the process is handed over to the contractor (onsite inspections after your drawings have been approved).

 

It's sounds like a big whack of work, and recommend you pay the little bit extra for these services.

[nod]

Send a basic drawing out to building contractors 

Your right to keep it simple 

I get lots of drawings to price for and much of the detail is sorted out afterwards 

 

Find a contractor that suits you and go through the detail in person 

 

In my job I get a lot of fire and soundproofing 

Some companies what a quote and all the ratings and specs 

I can spend a couple of day preparing all this only to find out later that my quote has been given to other contractor to quote against 

[rh2205]

Thanks for this feedback. This seems to mimic what our architect was saying mostly sending out the drawings as small builders price in different ways and they won’t read a massive lift of items. He thinks if we pick out all specific items for all finishing details and spec the plumbing ourselves rather than going on the advice of the builders heating engineer we might find prices come in high or if the installation doesn’t work it will be on us as we requested it! As you say Nod it seems the usual route for small builders is to go through the finer details with one or two of the most competitive/favourite responses and go from there to agree all the details before signing a contract.