How can you bid if….?
People have asked how can we bid a project if there are still decisions to be made? This is a really good question and we should have explained.
In the building industry this is done all the time in many forms.
In our case the major cost considerations have been described in a way that allows us to bid while continuing to make decisions. This is done in a number of ways:
First, the item in question is specified in a way the contractor know what to price – but before it is actually purchased will need more information. When bidding a project, some items are completely specified - such as the type of window, but often other parts of things are specified in ways that allow decisions to be made. Take the window example - you can say it is an Anderson 500 window with low E glass that can stand a gale force of 100 mph and has to meet certain test criteria, and then say that the provided window should be priced in the manufacturers premium line of 25 colors. So in the case of carpeting – the contractors are bidding a quality of carpet, but it still gives us plenty of time to actually pick the carpet because the contract documents say something to the affect of provide an allowance for any carpet of a certain quality up to a certain monetary value.
Second, we are buying direct. In the case of the chairs and the pews – we have decided not to include these in the contract with the General Contractor – rather we will purchase directly from the manufacturer. Save on overhead. This is true with the Torah table, lectern and some other miscellaneous items. Our architect will be working directly with the woodworkers.
Why haven’t we delayed the project?
First, the longer we delay cost go up. Inflation, material and interest rates are only going up.
Second, we have already told B’nai Mitzvah family and weddings they need to make alternative plans – people in April are already counting on using the space.
Third, we are really ready to go – it may seem like critical things need to be decided but actually the last couple decisions are visually important but not critical to the project.
