Afternoon all,
I have been carrying out contract work for a large student landlord for 10yrs and we pretty much use the same spec on most sites. This week I have recieved a spec for a newly refurbished site (400+ students) that belongs to another company and the company I work for are managing the site.
I am having problems with the specs, written by someone who clearly has a poor grasp of these matters, and am struggling toprice it.
Apart from things like 'fork over all shrub areas 4 times a year but under no circumstances disturb the bark mulch or hinder the efectiveness of the mulch' !!!
and 'spike all grass areas (1200m new laid + 2500m existing) using a garden fork only' !!
My question is help with the wording of my price;
The spec calls for
replacing dead shrubs, topping up mulch with melcourt bark as needed, watering as needed (including leafs of young trees in the evenings), repairing worn or damaged turf etc etc. These are all to be included in the price.
I have worked out a figure for maintenance, materials, tipping etc but dont know how to price for these reactive items?
would it be etc to itemise all these items and list as 'reactive costs' - to be priced as they arise?
All existing contracts are priced for 3 years routine maintenance and these jobs are done on a day rate basis to generated work orders.
cheers
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Replies
Oh the joys of commercial contract tendering.
I think the way i'd handle this would be to take your proposal for the maintenance to the prospective client and make it clear that it isn't realistic to be able to quote for potential task they may require but you would be happy to individually quote for any extra works they require.
Other than that you'd end up having to pluck a figure out of the sky which could pay off massively but could just as easy end up being extremely costly for yourself. The chances are they would start requesting the tasks to be done and never stop as its included in the maintenance.
Personally I would meet the site manager at the development. Discuss with them your concerns. You or they write a new spec and agree it before pricing
+1 .... Anything else would be pure supposition. Do not get locked into a contract without knowing your costs, commitments etc.
+2. If I had a quid for every 'generic spec' sent to me, I'd be a rich man - I'm sure some date back to pre war....!
Prepare a good proposal, meet up with the prospective client on site and discuss. If they stall, become awkward or say "no, you must quote from the specs given", probably best forgotten as they may well be using you as a '3rd quote' because they have to.
I've had some corkers from commercial bodies - one Housing Trust specified Caseron G - 2 years after it was withdrawn.
Another phoned me to ask why there were so many leaves on the carpark 3 days after my scheduled monthly visit: "......it's autumn " .
Richard
Never be afraid to change the spec and return it with "this is what I can offer and recommend".