Better information.
A clearer path to bid day.
Practical guides for preparing documents, understanding quantities, and managing changes. Choose the question you want to work through.
Prepare a civil bid package
A useful estimate starts with a clearly defined assignment. Identify the current documents, the work your company intends to bid, and what you want back before measurements or pricing begin.
Gather the current documents.
Include available plans, specifications, schedules, and addenda. Identify the issue date or revision to use. Keep superseded sheets separate so an older drawing does not become the basis of the work.
Define the requested scope.
List the trades, systems, and areas to measure or price. Identify exclusions, work by others, and items to show separately. For utilities, distinguish drainage, sanitary, domestic water, and fire service.
Choose the deliverables.
Decide whether you need quantities your team will price, a cost estimate, verification of existing work, or a separately scoped document review. The proposal should identify the files and summaries included.
Share both deadlines.
Provide the bid deadline and the date you need the completed package. Mention internal pricing reviews. Turnaround is agreed after the documents and scope are reviewed.
Include useful context.
Supply existing quantities, written clarifications, preferred bid-item descriptions, and any required pricing format. Identify which information is confirmed and which remains provisional.
Read your quantity takeoff
The consolidated summary helps your team price the work without adding every individual measurement. Read it with the detailed workbook, marked plans, and stated assumptions; each explains a different part of the same package.
Start with the system or trade.
Read the complete scope label. Similar-looking materials can serve different systems; matching pipe diameter alone is not a reason to combine fire service and domestic water.
Keep the full description with the number.
Size, material, type, and unit belong with the quantity. Linear feet, square feet, cubic yards, and individual counts are different measurements and cannot be added together.
Distinguish subtotals from the full scope.
A line may cover one size, material, area, or only confirmed runs. Unresolved routes listed separately are not automatically included. The summary should state those limits.
Follow the source references.
Sheet and markup references connect a total to its measurements. The consolidated row and its supporting detail are two views of the same work. Adding both would double-count it.
Read conditions before pricing.
“Qualified” means use the quantity with its stated assumptions or limitations. “Pending clarification” means information remains unresolved. Neither means zero or turns an unknown size into a confirmed requirement.
Handle addenda and revisions
A revised package should show what changed, which documents were used, and which quantities or costs now apply. Clear version control helps keep superseded entries out of the active bid.
Identify the update.
Record the addendum number, issue date, revised sheets, and written clarifications. Include the complete update so changes can be read alongside related notes and specifications.
Confirm the assignment.
Establish whether the request is a targeted change, affected-system review, or broader update. A limited revision review is not a complete independent remeasurement. Agree on scope, deliverables, fee, and timing.
Preserve the previous issue.
Retain the original files for reference. Give the new package a revision identifier and issue date, and use the same version across the workbook, summary, and marked plans.
Trace the affected items.
Review changed geometry, labels, sizes, materials, and requirements. Reclassification may move a quantity without changing its measurement. Replace superseded entries rather than adding the correction on top.
Document and reconcile the change.
Use a change log identifying the affected scope, source, previous treatment, revised treatment, and reason. Reconcile detail and totals, and update pricing only where cost-estimate revisions are included.