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Crushed on my bid.

cmturner

New member
Alright this one has been eating at me so I figure I will put it out and see what some of you concrete masters think. I turned in a bid of $7383.29 on this job and lost it by $5000.00 to a guy that even told the company that he was going to have to rent some equipment to do the job. Here are the specs:

55,645 sqft of concrete that I planned on cleaning using hot water and caustic in places. Lots of tire tracks and oil spots.

96,502 sqft of concrete that I planned on mainly just rinsing down, really wasn't dirty hardly at all, just had minor debris on it from a storm that had came through, no oil spots or nothing like that.

Had a large canopy that the underside was getting cleaned, canopy measured 60'x160'. Pretty dirty, trucks are in and out of it everyday.

Building on oneside of the canopy was 60'x81' metal building with around 20' walls
Building on the otherside of the canopy was 80'x75' metal building with around 20' walls

Warehouse and dispatch building 102'x187' roughly two thirds of this building was metal with tall walls the other third was brick.

The main office building was an octagon and it was 662lnft around the building. Mainly brick with lots of windows.

190' of covered walkway, cleaning the underside and the metal roof on it. Walkway was about 6' wide. Sidewalk under is included in the 55,645 sqft measurement.

A 3 walled area that housed a large generator. bid to clean the inside and out of the 3 walls and the concrete slab that everything was sitting on. 29'x21'

Large statue in front of the building about 18ft tall pretty intricate, had some bird nests up in it. For sure a couple ladder sets and some time to get all of the bird stuff off. I bid it for $125.00 since I know you would have to see it to price it.

The place is not like nasty dirty or anything, just dirty, lots of bird $hit around. Would like most of it to be done during the week so that their trucks were out from under the canopy and out of the yard.
No problems with water or anything like that.

Well tell me what you think, did I just screw up and somehow way over bid this or did I just get screwed by a hack.
 
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Carlos Gonzales

New member
Curtis,

Without diving into the #"s that you posted I feel that you lost the bid to a very low bid. If your bid was 5k different....I would tend to think that the 'other' fellow priced it in a way that he would 'figure out' how to do the job once he got it.
 

Mike Cooke

New member
You still might here back from them!! Like Carlos said this guy is probably going to try and figure out how to do this job when he start's. There is a good chance he will fail!!
 

Randall Brooks

New member
Just keep contact with the PM and warn them because that guy is going to wind up just rinsing it down. If that guy is doing all that for ruffly 2500.00 he's going to be hating life real soon and might not even finish the job. Especially after the rental fee's start adding up.
 

DJ Carroll

New member
The guy who won it was super low and not trying to be mean but i think you were pretty low your self .. . . For me to do that much work you would be looking around the 15k mark
 

cmturner

New member
I had planned on 5 days with two men, one working off of a portable machine and one working off of the trailer. Portable guy would be rinising off the not so dirty concrete. I was worried as I bid it that I was coming in a little cheap but the buildings were going to be a piece of cake. The guy who won it works for his dad at a Lumber yard that his dad owns. He is in his 40's, I believe kinda spoiled. I am thinking that unbeknownest to the lumber yard they are going to be paying for a machine rental, fuel for hot water and fuel for a machine. Its the only way I can figure he is going to make any money at all. Oh well I will gladly come finish off whatever he does that doesn't meet their standards. Oh I what I meant to say in the original post was the place was NOT nasty dirty or anything. I will go back and edit.
 

Tony Shelton

Environmental Consultant / Past Director
That looks like 8-10k worth of work.

Maybe you could suggest to the customer that they break it up and invoice it in parts and make the other guy do the hardest parts first.

He will probably give up quickly and you can go mop up.

Be honest with them and tell them your think that guy is bidding without the knowledge of what the job is going to take to complete.

If he gives up, you get the rest of the deal.

On the other hand, if he does a good job and finishes quickly for that price you can get back on here and let us know how he did it. :biggrin::biggrin:
 

James VanHandle

UAMCC-Member
I had planned on 5 days with two men, one working off of a portable machine and one working off of the trailer. Portable guy would be rinising off the not so dirty concrete. I was worried as I bid it that I was coming in a little cheap but the buildings were going to be a piece of cake. The guy who won it works for his dad at a Lumber yard that his dad owns. He is in his 40's, I believe kinda spoiled. I am thinking that unbeknownest to the lumber yard they are going to be paying for a machine rental, fuel for hot water and fuel for a machine. Its the only way I can figure he is going to make any money at all. Oh well I will gladly come finish off whatever he does that doesn't meet their standards. Oh I what I meant to say in the original post was the place was NOT nasty dirty or anything. I will go back and edit.

Curtis,
I would agree that you low balled this. The guy who under cut you most likely will be walking away from this and you will most likely be inline to finish it for about 10k.

Jim V
 

Damaris Sutton

New member
Well tell me what you think, did I just screw up and somehow way over bid this or did I just get screwed by a hack.[/quote]


I am going with the HACK choice..yeah..yeah the hack. Only you know what you need, but feedback from others on this board always helps. You always get people screaming they were robbed with cheap craftsmanship, but you never hear of a owner who screams they were robbed with the low price that led to the cheap workmanship.

That is something that really bites twice...
 

precisionpower

New member
Turner, don't worry about calling me. I'll post it here:

I recently got a call from a very large account informing me that I had been out-bid by $7800. Knowing where my bid is/was, that means this bid was around $1800.

Here's the kicker: it's a parking garage, 120,000 sq. ft., oil stains, etc.

The guy called me telling me that out of the three bids he took, I seemed like the most knowledgeable and informed. He actually asked me WHY the bid was that low compared to mine.

Pay attention: I brought up the topic of EPA/FCWA regulations and he shat his pants. He had no idea that his property needed to be in compliance, and neither did the other 2 contractors who bid.

Once this was discussed, he immediately admitted that the low price didn't make sense, and this was a totally new issue that he was not aware of. The possibility of fines, sanctions, etc. really took the shine off that low price from the other guy.

Now, I am pretty confident that I will win this bid, and it's due to the fact that I presented my business and myself in a professional manner, staying on top of all the rules and regulations that most PM's, GM's, etc. have no idea about. Hope this helps Curtis. I'd give him a call back and ask if the low price is including EPA/FCWA compliance, or if that is an additional charge. Every commercial job I bid, the first thing I ask is whether or not they want me to itemize the EPA/FCWA compliance cost or add it in the total. This opens the doors and conversation for a much more thorough presentation.
 

Damaris Sutton

New member
What all is involved to be EPA/FCWA compliant and what are the cost associated with this?

Also, what necessitates the need to be compliant because you know how they have homes zoned to be commercial, but it is in the middle of other homes?

Thanks
 

cmturner

New member
Thanks Kevin, sorry I didn't call you, been running crazy and it slipped my mind. I was thinking of something along the same path, there is a large drain right in the middle of the parking lot that I was going to throw a bladder over to seal off, I am sure that the other guy isn't going to beable to rent that locally. Thanks for the idea
 

Tom DeFrancesco

New member
WOW. Not to make anyone feel worse but by the time I reached the third paragragh you yourself were WAY under. I have learned the hard way myself, plenty of times. In fact I still am.
 

Bryan Otten

New member
The guy who won it was super low and not trying to be mean but i think you were pretty low your self .. . . For me to do that much work you would be looking around the 15k mark

That is what I would say to you to that you are way under bidding the job....The other guy is going to fall on his face after he gets started..I couldn't touch it for anything less than 10 to 15k to do all what you were saying you was going to do..:headshakesmile-fast:headshakesmile-fast:headshakesmile-fast:headshakesmile-fast:headshakesmile-fast:headshakesmile-fast
 
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