Brick Escalation, a Late Addendum, and a Unit Price Request at Bid Close
Your company is bidding a three-story, 68,000 sq ft addition to a high school: 8 in. CMU backup with brick veneer, about 52,000 sq ft of modular brick (roughly 350,000 brick), 9,500 sq ft of 8 in. CMU partitions, and grouted bond beams. Bids close Friday at 2:00 p.m. The brick supplier's quotation is firm for only 30 days and carries a 6% escalation for orders placed later; the project requires a 150-day price hold on all materials and brick delivery in month seven. Your estimate carries $205,000 for brick and $41,000 for mortar and grout. Bid security is 5% of the base bid. At 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 48 hours before bids close, Addendum No. 4 is issued: corridor partitions change from 6 in. to 8 in. CMU (about 1,800 sq ft), and all mortar is upgraded from Type N to Type S. The construction manager's buyer also asks, 'while you're at it,' for a per-square-foot unit price for future corridor changes.
1. How do you handle the 30-day brick quotation against the 150-day price hold? Quantify the exposure and decide.
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Quantify first: 6% x $205,000 = $12,300, roughly 0.5% of a bid in the $2.4-2.6 million range. That is a real but survivable number, and it is small compared with the 5% bid security (about $125,000) and the cost of losing the job.
Then read the Instructions to Bidders. If they prohibit qualifications, a bid that says 'prices firm only 30 days' or that adds an escalation clause may be ruled nonresponsive, which is a much bigger loss than the escalation.
Practical sequence: (1) go back to the supplier and ask for a firm 150- or 180-day price, or a price with a stated cap; (2) test whether you can buy and store the brick early, then price storage, double handling and damage; (3) if neither works, carry the $12,300 as a documented contingency inside the bid rather than as a bid qualification, and note the assumption in the proposal letter only if the bid form allows it.
Do not submit silently hoping the supplier holds the price, and do not 'qualify' the bid in a way that makes it nonresponsive.
2. An addendum lands 48 hours before bid opening and changes quantity and mortar type. What do you do, and in what order?
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Treat the addendum as mandatory. It is part of the contract documents, and a bid that does not acknowledge it is normally nonresponsive no matter how late it was issued.
Order of work: (1) acknowledge Addendum No. 4 on the bid form; (2) re-takeoff the added quantity - 1,800 sq ft of 8 in. CMU at, say, $14/sq ft installed is about $25,000, and check whether the thicker wall changes grout volume, reinforcement, or door frame details; (3) price the mortar change - Type S carries more cement and less lime than Type N, a modest material increase but also a strength and appearance change worth flagging to the architect; (4) read the Instructions to Bidders for a minimum addendum period before bid opening (commonly five to seven days) and send a written request for an extension immediately.
Assume no extension and price the work anyway, but keep the written request in the bid file. It preserves your position and documents that you priced the change on 48 hours' notice if a claim for time or cost arises later.
3. The construction manager asks for a per-square-foot unit price for future corridor changes. What do you provide, and what are you careful about?
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A unit price requested 'for future changes' usually becomes the contractual basis for change orders, so it must be defensible and complete rather than a marketing number.
Build it from the same labor, material, equipment and scaffold assumptions as the base bid, add overhead and profit, and state inclusions and exclusions explicitly: wall height, grouting and reinforcement, lintels, openings, cutting and patching, and any minimum quantity. Give a range for realistic conditions - for example, separate 6 in. and 8 in. walls, or a lower unit rate above 100 sq ft plus a mobilization charge below it.
Two failure modes to avoid. Quoting a lowball number to get in on future work means you will be held to it and lose money. Padding it because you assume every change is negotiable misrepresents cost and damages your credibility with the same buyer. If the CM insists on one number, give it in writing, label it an estimate for the stated scope and date, and note that actual changes will be priced on the conditions at the time.