Construction News

Sometimes the cheapest bid costs the most July 16, 2018

Subcontractors (sometimes referred to as “trades”) can miss the mark with cost estimates. In such cases, although the trades will be asked to absorb the costs, the general contractor and/or client will certainly pay for it to some extent whether it be in the form of additional costs, project delays, or dissatisfied customers resulting in negative reviews of client/general contractor professional abilities.

As such, each quote should be carefully reviewed and cross-referenced against competing quotes. All quotes submitted by potential trades should go through the same rigorous process that clients/general contractors have in place for completion of their own internal estimates. Ideally, more than two quotes from different trades must be compared against each other. It is also very risky to automatically choose the cheapest price. Instead, it is usually wiser and overall less expensive to focus on the most thorough quote that is in line with general contractor/client expectations. Beware of the under bidders: there is often a reason for a low bid. Remember that even though the trades do the work, it is clients/general contractors’ names that are associated with the finished projects.