Establish one pricing baseline
List the drawing and specification versions included in the package. Describe work areas, demolition, retained items, finish standards, temporary protection, and closeout expectations. Mark reference documents clearly and identify conditions that bidders must verify or carry as assumptions.
Show where responsibilities meet
Include a responsibility schedule for owner purchases, design, permit coordination, utility work, equipment vendors, and landlord obligations. Provide work hours, access restrictions, staging rules, occupied-area requirements, and target milestones. These items affect the scope even when they do not appear on a floor plan.
Ask for a structured response
Request a base proposal plus clearly separated alternates, allowances, exclusions, and proposed schedule assumptions. Use unit prices only for quantities that may reasonably change and define what each unit includes.
- Issue answers and addenda to all bidders.
- Record whether each bidder acknowledged the current documents.
- Ask bidders to identify unresolved design or site questions.
Reconcile before selection
Build a comparison that aligns inclusions, quantities, allowances, and work by others. Clarify gaps in writing before negotiating the final agreement. A lower total that excludes necessary work is not a complete budget. Use the reconciled scope as the starting point for the contract and change process.