Finding scope gaps before they cost you
Reading the flooring quote against the finish schedule the evening before award, the estimator stops at one line: floor preparation beyond minor patching is by others. The concrete subcontract ends at a trowelled slab. The finish schedule calls for levelling underlayment in every corridor, and nobody has priced it.
A scope gap is work the contract requires that no trade has priced. Gaps hide at the edges: where one trade's work meets the next, where drawings and specifications disagree, and in the exclusions at the bottom of each quote. Each trade prices only its own package, so a gap shows up when a crew arrives and says the work is not theirs. A 2025 study of federal construction contracts by Canada's Office of the Procurement Ombud found that inadequate scope definition leads to change orders, cost overruns and payment disputes.
A scope review before award
- Assign every specification section and drawing sheet to a trade package.
- Read each quote's exclusions line by line and name who now does each excluded item.
- Check the interfaces between trades: supports and blocking, sleeves and firestopping, patching, final connections, testing, protection and cleanup.
- Compare drawings with specifications and note anything shown on one but not the other.
- Assign the general requirements no trade section mentions: temporary facilities, hoisting, layout, testing and record documents.
- Build a scope matrix, one row per item and one column per trade. No tick is a gap; two ticks are a double price.
- Close each gap before award: add it to a package, price it yourself, or send the consultant a request for information.
Common mistakes
- Reading only a trade's own specification section, not the sections its work connects to.
- Accepting "by others" without naming the others.
- Comparing quote totals before levelling the scope.
- Leaving unclear items until after award, when every answer becomes a change request.
Checklist
Before you award a trade package
- Every specification section and sheet has a trade
- Every quote exclusion is assigned to someone
- Interfaces checked, including firestopping and connections
- General requirements assigned
- One tick per row in the scope matrix
- Unclear items sent to the consultant as questions
Check your understanding
Two quotes for the same package differ by 15 per cent. What do you check before choosing the lower one?
