I'm considering buying a program such as construction information systems CIS. This company puts out a list of gov't and private work going out for bid and they give a ball park price. My question is does anyone else use this or a program or company similar to this? If so how does it work out. -Eric
Seeing your list of equipment on your signature I would say that you may want to talk to towns not the government. Most government work is on the larger scale......... Not trying to put you down in ANYWAY, but from what government work I've seen, its large excavators and tri-axles.
but on the other hand theres a lot of jobs he can go after that the big guys wont touch... i never used CIS. i've used construction journal which was ok. i also got a couple of free issues recently from CDCnews and i think in the next few weeks i might subscribe to that. it was a newspaper sent and it had everything in it....
I found that most site work jobs worth bidding are done by a GC and the site work is sub out, very few jobs that just move dirt. Your best bet is to find a GC that has some work that you can bid on and start with them. GC's have to have 5 million lib, performance bond, certified pay role etc.
When I say government I mean everything from town to state. We are a GC company by trade doing mostly residential additions, renovations, and new homes. We have the above machines just for our site work and for the occasional small excavation job we get called in on. I was thinking more of a GC postion than excavating as we can Gc and then if need be use our own equipment. Not really asking about the work but more about how to find it. -Eric
Are you bonded and do you have 5 million lib insurance? Most city jobs are in the news paper, other ones are in the builder assciation, but you should know all this, basic stuff, alot more involved in the rest of it besides finding the work on the GC side. Sub for a GC is were to start, I would say that it is very hard to jump from residential GC work to gov work in one step, private commercial would be better to start, anything is possible JMO.
but in govt work as long as you do the job correct YOU WILL ALWAYS GET PAID, how many commercial contractors can say that? we do landscaping/erosion control work for GC's on public projects, in all 5 years since ive been doing public work, I have never not been paid.. The GC may went outta biz and they didn't pay me but i either got my money from their bonding company or the owner of the property, like i said not to many contractors can say that....
I use www.bidclerk.com for construction leads. So far I have bid a dozen or so and have hit one. There are a couple of more websites for construction leads: I-square foot, datafax, reed construction data. We have regional repro-printer LDI ( www.ldireproprinting.com ) that has all sorts of construction leads and you can purchase the plans for the projects you are interested in bidding on. If you get to know the guys at your local repro-printer they can be a wealth of information about the jobs bidding and the GC's bidding them. I have been bidding all sorts of site work for small commercial jobs - I actually got an invitation to bid an apartment complex in North Carolina. I am bidding it but really don't want to travel that far. I know I cannot be competitive with mobilization, per diem and housing costs but it's a large GC, so what the hey? As far as getting paid on commercial jobs - there is always an owner that doesn't want a lien on their property - now that does not guarantee payment but what job does? Every job I do I take on some sort of risk, it just goes with the profession, the key is how you manage that risk.