Levelling subcontractor quotes before you award
Four mechanical quotes for a two-storey fitness centre are on your desk, and the award is due Monday. The lowest is $26,500 under the next and fits on one page; the others run to four. Your project manager wants a number he can defend at Tuesday's budget meeting.
Put every quote on one sheet against the same scope, mark each item included, excluded or unclear for every bidder, and price every exclusion and gap before you compare totals: the lowest levelled total is the complete price. Each trade prices its own reading of the documents, so the differences hide in exclusions, qualifications and what a quote leaves unsaid. The lowest quote is often just the shortest.
- Build the sheet from your scope, not the lowest quote: one row per item of the subcontract scope, plus rows for addenda, taxes, bond, schedule, validity and alternates.
- Read each quote to the last line, qualifications included, and mark every row.
- Ask every bidder the same question in writing when a row is unclear.
- Price every exclusion and gap with a number you can trace — a separate quote, another bidder's breakdown or your own estimate — and note its source.
- Check the terms that are not price: addenda acknowledged, taxes, bonding, crew commitments, payment terms and how long the price holds.
- Question the outlier: ask a bidder far below the rest to confirm its scope and price, without telling it where it stands.
- Keep the record, and write the clarified scope into the subcontract.
Common mistakes
- Pricing an exclusion at zero, to be sorted out later.
- Levelling only the two lowest quotes, when the complete price may be third.
- Telling a bidder another's price to bring its own down; it costs you honest prices next time.
- Levelling the price, then awarding on the original quote, exclusions and all.
Checklist
Your levelling sheet
- One row per item of your scope
- Included, excluded or unclear, for every bidder
- The same written question to every bidder
- A traceable price for every exclusion
- Addenda, taxes, bond, schedule and validity checked
- Outliers confirmed without sharing prices
- Clarified scope written into the subcontract
Check your understanding
Drywall quote A is $12,000 below B but assumes a Level 4 finish throughout; the specification calls for Level 5 in the lobby. What do you do first?
