Bidding a Tenant Improvement With a Drawing Conflict
You are bidding a 9,400 sf tenant improvement. Bid day is in three days. The architectural sheet shows a 9'-0" finished ceiling throughout; the mechanical sheet shows supply trunks needing roughly 9'-8" of clear structural depth above the same ceiling line, and the structural sheet shows 16-inch deep beams over the corridor. The architect's office says a response may not come before bid day. Your scope includes 4,800 sf of 12x24 porcelain floor tile over concrete. Current costs: tile $3.85/sf (boxes cover 15.5 sf), setting labor $4.20/sf, thin-set and grout $0.65/sf, and your crew sets about 220 sf per day. You carry 18% for overhead and profit and an 8% waste factor. Your schedule shows the tile activity carries 5 days of total float on a 140-calendar-day contract.
1. Compute the tile quantity and your sell price per square foot for the tile line.
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Quantity with waste: 4,800 sf x 1.08 = 5,184 sf to purchase. Boxes: 5,184 / 15.5 = 334.5, so 335 boxes - always round up, and confirm whether the supplier sells full boxes only.
Direct cost per installed square foot (priced on the 4,800 sf of finished area, with the total material cost spread across it):
| Item | Calculation | $/sf of installed area |
|---|---|---|
| Tile | $3.85 x 1.08 | $4.16 |
| Setting labor | $4.20 | $4.20 |
| Thin-set / grout | $0.65 | $0.65 |
| Direct cost | $9.01 |
Wait - the 8% applies to material purchase, not to labor, so do not apply waste to labor. If you simply take 5,184/4,800 = 1.08 and multiply the whole $9.01, you over-recover labor by 8%.
Sell price: $9.01 x 1.18 = $10.63/sf, or about $51,024 for the tile line. Carry the $641 of material waste separately in your bid recap so it is visible if the owner asks you to sharpen the number.
Crew check: 5,184 / 220 sf per day = 23.6, so 24 working days of production for a single crew. If your bid assumes a 5-day week, that is nearly five weeks - make sure the schedule and the bid agree.
2. The owner's RFI response comes 9 days late and the drywall in front of your tile finishes 9 days late as a result. What time, if any, are you entitled to, and how do you respond to a demand to accelerate?
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Do the float math before you say anything. The tile activity carries 5 days of total float. A 9-day predecessor delay consumes all 5 days of float and pushes contract completion by 9 - 5 = 4 days.
- Time: you are entitled to a 4-day time extension, not 9. Claiming the full 9 is the fastest way to lose credibility on the whole claim, and float is generally not yours to bank.
- Money: the 4 days may support extended general conditions (supervision, temporary facilities) if your contract allows, but generally not home-office overhead.
On acceleration: if the owner wants the original date held, that is a directed acceleration - a change. Get it in writing before you spend the money: scope, the specific measures (overtime, second crew), the daily cost, and a statement that the owner directs the acceleration and will pay for it. Acceleration performed without a written directive is very hard to recover; you will be told you chose to work overtime.
Practically: because 4 days is small, the highest-value move is to recover it in the field - resequence, pull the tile start earlier on the unaffected portion, or add one Saturday. Hold the 4-day extension request in reserve and send a written notice of the delay now, reserving rights. Notice deadlines in the contract are short and are routinely enforced.
3. How do you handle the ceiling-height conflict in the bid when no RFI answer will arrive before bid day?
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Never assume the cheaper reading to win the bid. If you take the 9'-0" ceiling at face value and the architect later insists on full duct clearance, you own a low-ceiling redesign, a furr-down, or a re-route - a scope the drawings did not price and that could dwarf your margin.
Three-step approach:
- Submit the RFI anyway, in writing, with a response deadline. Even if no answer comes, you have created the record and put the owner on notice of the conflict.
- Qualify the bid in writing. A clear bid clarification: This proposal is based on a 9'-0" finished ceiling with the mechanical trunks re-routed below the 16-inch corridor beams, as shown on M-sheets. If the design intent requires 9'-8" clear above the ceiling line, add $____. Fill the blank from your takeoff - a number is persuasive; an open-ended exclusion gets rejected as non-responsive.
- Price the risk, do not hide it. If you cannot quantify the alternate, carry a stated allowance for the affected corridor area and identify it as an allowance, which keeps the risk visible and negotiable rather than buried.
The bigger judgment: on a public or formal bid where qualifications can render the bid non-responsive, ask the owner in writing how conflicts of this type are to be resolved and follow the instructions. Do not decide unilaterally at bid time and hope to argue it at change-order time - that argument is lost far more often than it is won.