currently the local DOT has about 8 road project going on mostly paving and expanding well there is one large road expansion that the bid hasn't came up yet but its know what's going to happen. my town hates this idea and it be a good project to do I cant bid on it because of well i don't have the proper equipment to do the scope of work it involves. If i could would it be wroth it take on one of the most hated projects the town has had in 17 years and possibly be a hated contractor or just stay away and lose out of the bid?
May also be a prevailing wage job
BLS stated a lot there, Prevailing rate will hang up a good many as to cutting corners.
What's the estimated contract amount? Bid bond will be 10% of bid and I'm sure a 100% performance and payment bond will be required. Then there's licensing, equipment owned or leased, labor, management, cash flow, wage rates - etc, etc. Now the question posed - "Would you take a project that wasn't popular in town if you could?" - If it's a good job that fits my skill set and is profitable, absolutely. Once the project is done there only be a few old farts that still bitch about it.
I got invited by a customer to make a trip to Texas about a year, or two years ago. Right about the time it was all in the news, about the battles over removing old confederate statues, they had a contract to take a statue down in texas, and couldn't get anyone local to touch it, none of them wanted their crane on the site, for fear of vandalism, news pictures, or such from either side. I was super busy at the time, they would have rented the crane, and just wanted me to come down and operate it for them, and run the small project. I didn't have time for even messing with it. I could see the local crane outfits not wanting to touch it, I think its silly for them to take down the statues. Its a memorial to guys who gave everything, for what they thought was right, no matter what our current political problems/ correctness says about them. I was glad I was too busy, and that I wasn't so hungry that I needed to think about doing it. Somebody else got paid to take it down. Somebody is going to do your road project, I would be like cm1995- the bigger question (for me)would be can I make $ on the project. I don't have deep enough pockets to bond a huge state project, and its not my gig at all, but if you are set up to do something like that, I wouldn't let local opinions change my mind on a project. State $ is state $, and they are going to turn it loose for bids, its going to get done even if people are against it. I've been involved in some projects where people were upset about what was going on, I'm not going to get into a argument with anyone on a jobsite, I'll let the sheriff sort that out.
Somebody's always mad about something that part isn't going to make any difference to the way a job is bid
Interesting thread.. I know the folks that do the Hwy grass cutting.. You know the ones that have the big signs, Mowing next 10 miles on the Hwy.. They didn't own so much as a PUSH MOWER till they got the Hwy bid.. Lol. Then it was spend spend spend that money..
I'm doing a "job not worth taking" RIGHT NOW.!! Perka-Piller inj. pump seized, snapped the shaft & in-turn, spun the key in the pump drive gear.. NO WAY to get it out.. The dr. shaft is c-clipped to the inside of the pump.. I has so much back pressure force on the pump, it broke the c-clip & I was able to get the pump off the shaft.. So now what.?? Nothing left to do but remove the water pump, remove the rad so I could get a "better" swing to drive the shaft out.. NOPE "that" didn't work.. So off comes the timing cover to get the gear out so the shaft can be hydro. pressed out.. 3 broken bolts later & the shaft is out of the gear.!! Total of 9 hrs & $200.00 in my pocket.. Dam my azz hurtz.!! I "quoted" the job before I knew what the deal was.. & now they're holding me to it..
That don't work with me. That quote was for NORMAL CONDITIONS!
Anytime the job 'expanded' for me so too the rate. All Estimates were based on conventional work, if it got deeper so too the pockets.
Under "normal" circumstances that's how I would do it to.. No money, laid-off, helping a friend, has to take a loan to get it fixed.. THEN, HAD TO pull the front of the motor apart.. broke 2 bolts.. I helped remove the rad. & all the goodies, front supports, water pump.. ALL No charge.. this'll be my 3rd trip to put the pump back on.. I sleep good at nite.
i think for the dirt work of they have a company going and logging and then the power company is moving the poles so its from middle of town to some little country town. its about 10 miles so 5 miles for both sides I think they put a value on the dirt work as it sits after everything is moved as it should about 350k. the tree guys got al the trees, power company for poles, then any demo is rewarded to another contractor. so the dirt work is expanding the road 20 ft on both sides to add another lane for cars a bike lane and a sidewalk. dirt contractor just gotta remove stumps, reposition driveways, break a few unmarks. I don't have the equipment to do that or the people.
I don't have the cash to do it plus that be a huge project for me and i have 5 guys working for me and i don't know how well that go for me
Problems that I have seen occur 1)traffic control 2)ball buster inspector 3)traffic accidents that occur in work zone 4)unknown utilities conflcts 5)old utility’s not put in according to old plan 6). And many,many more 7) rock ,I’ve seen quite a few companies go out of business because they didn’t have a rock clause
I took a small mechanical contracting company from 8 employees to 50 in two years. I didn't do it by being timid. I had lots of practical experience on my side, hired the best people I could and paid them well, and used their advice often. That said, growth costs. Weekly payroll is aprox $1000/man/wk and some customers will wait 3 months to pay. I had to borrow money to finance expansion. It is a challenging risk. I bid low on smaller jobs to establish a relationship and show our abilities. This also allowed me to grow and learn about the customer (all big companies) and local suppliers. I never lost a dollar and got bigger jobs out of it. I used these smaller jobs as training for my leaders on the larger jobs. I personally managed the smaller jobs on site but trained and watched my crew leaders. If they made the cut, I put more trust in them as time went by and gave them bigger responsibilities. You can teach skills and knowledge, but you have to start with good attitude and decision making. I was non-unionized so I could keep the best crew leaders and cycle the laborers. I also cross trained enough so I could always pull a guy from another job to replace an expert who missed a day. As far as not popular, not a problem for me. The job is going to get done so my guys could use the work, as long as it doesn't violate my own ethics. Many times I was working in plants that the unionized staff resented my contract workers. I treated everyone well, gave out hats and t-shirts with our company logo and tried to make friends. Worked well. If you can handle the job, do it.
It amazes me that a contractor will bid a job and not exclude rock excavation. Basic exclusions on a bid I submit: Rock excavation both mass and trench Surveying, layout and engineering of any kind Geotechnical engineering and testing Hazardous waste of any kind including petroleum contaminated soils Traffic control Permitting, impact fees and any governmental fees of any kind. Of course there are exceptions but that's boilerplate.
well the bid went on today some out of town contractor won project start date is early on next year in I think march
Depends on how many big contractors are interested in it. We were 7th place last year on the first phase of a 93 million dollar bypass. We were $88000 under the engineer's estimate. Boss figured if everything went perfect he could pocket around $700,000 on $6.8 mill. Worst case, around $350,000. The next closest bid was a little over $5mill, Dexter construction out of Nova Scotia took , sorry bought it for less than $4
I have not ever figured how those low ball bids work out, unless they have a caveat as to cost Plus extras not included in bid and screw that pooch pretty hard.
My story continues.. I got the pump & inj. rebuilt & went back out to the jobsite..3rd time. I SHOWED the guy that it pumped before I put it on his b-hoe.. & toldm theres no warranty because u didn't replace the drive gear.. He had the timing cover still off.. {had to pull it to get the pump drive gear out so he could press out the broken drive shaft} I installed the pump & It started right up.. THEN all of a sudden I hear this clank, clank, clank & the motor died.. The CRANK GEAR walked off the crank.. he didn't put the balancer on.. So for the next 5 hrs we tried to get it back in time..with neither one of us knowing the correct way.. I finally said.. I'm sorry but MY END of this contract has been fulfilled.. U heard it run until the gear walked off, thru no fault of my own.. I've spent 16 hrs on this machine that I'm not getting paid for.. & its time I went home.. IF I KNEW HOW to put this back in time, I dam sure would stay & help.. but theres no sense IN BOTH OF US standing here staring at it.. Your just gonna have to call "X" {buddy} & have him come out & do it.. HE AGREED & I got paid & left.. I KNOW this isn't the last time I'll be out there.!! I shoulda walked away when I found out the pump was seized & STILL on the engine.!! I shoulda said, CALL ME when u get it off..!!!
There is a larger site work contractor in my area that is always cheap on the bid - hold on to your pants when there is a change order though.
Thepumpguysc, That's a classic example of why sometimes you need to call in an expert instead of trying to do it yourself.
"I" wasn't doing anything I didn't know howta do.. it was the poor dirt farmer who jumped on it.. & yes, I agree w/you.. He was "trying" to save some money by pulling the front timing cover off.. had to remove the big hydro pump off the harm. balancer & then the balancer , then the water pump, then the alt, that kept sparking cuz he wouldn't disconnect the battery.. I wouldn't attempted that for nothing.. Like I tell everyone.. "I'M NOT a mechanic".. I'm a FUEL SYSTEMS expert.. SURE I know how to getm off & putm back on, but that was because I was THROWN into it.. MY EXPERTISE lies>> on a workbench in 68* temp..
4 dollars ? how the hell
my buddy is a much larger contractor then me classic family been doing its over so many years bla bla but a few months ago he went to bid on a new really small car dealer ship development I think him and everyone was around 5-10k difference but the lowest bidder was about 150k lower the job started 3 months ago and ive heard the guys out of money because he went and bought some new gear before the job started
Cutting one's own throat to get a contract is still corporate death just longer in duration.
I assumed he meant $4m...
i hope so i might of misread that entirely
I know very well. You bid to the exact dollar of the job and have a clause for any extras. Then you have your site supervisor record each and every overage. Time waiting for a crew to finish, time waiting for a cement truck, time waiting for parts to arrive, time for changes and client's mistakes. You have a hefty hourly rate for each man involved. Of course you don't have a 12 man crew standing around waiting for parts to arrive, they are all trained to jump ahead on the job. All these overages mean overtime for the guys and we will still finish on time and on budget, plus overages of course. Not unusual to see overages at 20% to 50% of the bid. One of my jobs was to sit down with the client to negotiate the overages. Not hard to do because we recorded times, people and everything else and reported daily, giving our client a chance to improve. They never do, they have their customary way of working and don't like change. You actually do better on a job that is screwed up than a smooth one, as long as you have the right scope and exclusion clauses in the contract.
Still gets to me the 'Officials' accept the Low Ball Bids KNOWING they will end up paying those clause figures spending more. Looks good on paper bad in practice.
Starting to see a lot of design build contracts in GA. an TN. on dot work with a lot of differences in the bids but you cant do a lot of comparing because of different contractors different designs as in the I24 I75 split up here Chattanooga.
Probably have a law that they have to take the lowest bidder.
Where there is confusion there is money to be made
A lot of tenders will say lowest or any bid will not necessarily be accepted. Big jobs the people needing it done will usually have a general idea what it should cost. A long time ago I was working for my neighbor on his first big demolition job. A large gov't. building. Another person who was associated with a general contractor the neighbor had worked with in the past put up the bid bond. The neighbor didn't know him too well. They had the lowest bid which was about $45K lower than the next lowest and over 200K below the highest bid. The gov't. asked them if they wanted to raise their bid before awarding them the contract. The neighbor and his new partner said they could do the job for the bid amount. Job started off OK but then started going downhill. They had a big disagreement. I think part of it was the neighbor was trying to salvage as much as possible for resale and his new partner thought he should be doing the demolition. I was cutting panels open to pull all the copper wiring out. Pay cheques were held back and it took a long time to get paid. I was told not to go back to the job site. Neighbor was kicked off the job. There was some shadiness all around. It ended up in court and was huge mess.
One of my favorite sayings is “chaos is cash”
We just lost a paving job. 4kms of reclaimation with the train, then a top coat of 2 inches of pave. Lost it to the company who's train we were going to use by $800 bucks. Should be a clause for local contractors within a certain amount of money, as they are from the other side of the province. Good for them though
Some companies will bid lower just to keep their guys working if things are slow.
Every contractor I ever worked lost money on the job . Expected to make $500,000.00 but only made $450,000.00 . So they lost $50,000.00 on the job