Estimating in Building Construction

24 CHAPTER THREE

3. Reject any proposal not prepared and submitted in
   accordance with the contract documents.
   These are common stipulations; in effect, owners may
   contract to any bidder they select. Needless to say, it causes
   some hard feelings when an owner does not accept the
   lowest bid.
   Many owners are now selecting the contractor based on
   the best bid. The best bid is based upon a set of criteria
   established in the bid documents. Each proposal is rated for
   each criterion, and a final score is calculated by summing the
   score for each criterion multiplied by the weighting for that
   criterion.

3–5 Bid (Proposal) Forms

If a prepared proposal form(Figure 3.4) is included in the
project manual, the contractor must use this form to present
the bid. By using a prepared bid form, the owner can evalu-
ate all bids on the same basis.
The proposal form stipulates the price for which the
contractor agrees to perform all of the work described in the
contract documents. It also ensures that if the owner accepts
the proposal within a certain time, the contractor must enter
into an agreement or the owner may keep the bid security as
liquidated damages.
The proposal must be submitted according to the
requirements in the instructions to bidders. Any deviation
from these requirements for the submission of the proposal
may result in the proposal being rejected.
Contractors must fill in all blanks of the proposal,
acknowledge receipt of all addenda, submit the required
number of copies of the proposal, supply proper bid secu-
rity, and be at the right place at the right time. Countless bids
have never been opened, because they were delivered a few
minutes late; others have been rejected, because a blank
space was not filled in.

3–6 FORM OF

OWNER/CONTRACTOR

AGREEMENT

The owner/contractor agreement form spells out exactly
the type or form of agreement between the owner and the
contractor. The agreement may be a standard form pub-
lished by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), in
which case the form may be referenced rather than
including a copy of the form in the project manual. Gov-
ernment agencies controlling the work usually have their
own forms of agreement; the same is true for many corpo-
rations. In these cases, a copy of the agreement is included
in the project manual. If the contract agreement is unfa-
miliar, the contractor must have his lawyer review it
before submitting the bid. If the form of agreement is
unacceptable, the contractor may prefer not to bid that
particular project. Types of agreements are discussed in
Chapter 2.

3–7 General Conditions

Thegeneral conditionsassembled and published by the AIA

is the most commonly used standard form. It has found

wide acceptance throughout the industry. Many branches of

government as well as large corporations have also assembled

their own versions of general conditions. The contractor must

carefully read each article and make appropriate notes. In some

cases, it is best for the contractor to give a copy of the general

conditions to a lawyer for review and comment. In the event if

contractors decide it is not in their best interest to work under

the proposed set of general conditions, the architect/engineer

should be informed of the reasons and asked if they would

consider altering the conditions. If not, the contractor may

decide it is best not to bid the project. Typically, all general con-

ditions will include, in one form or another, the 14 topics

included in the AIA general conditions. The general conditions

clearly spells out the rights and responsibilities of all the par-

ties. Obviously, the most stringent demands are placed on the

contractors, because they are entrusted with the responsibility

of actually building the project.

3–8 SUPPLEMENTARY

GENERAL CONDITIONS

TheSupplementary General Conditionsof the project man-

ual amends or supplements portions of the general condi-

tions. It is through these supplemental conditions that the

general conditions are geared to all the special requirements

of geography, local requirements, and individual project

needs. Part of the supplemental conditions cancels or

amends the articles in the general conditions, while the

remaining portion adds articles.

Contractors must carefully check the supplementary con-

ditions, as each set is different. Items that may be covered in

this section include insurance, bonds, and safety requirements.

Also included may be comments concerning the following:

1. Pumping and shoring


2. Dust control


3. Temporary offices


4. Temporary enclosures


5. Temporary utilities


6. Temporary water


7. Material substitution


8. Soil conditions


9. Signs


10. Cleaning


11. Shop drawings—drawings that illustrate how specific
    portions of the work will be fabricated and/or installed


12. Surveys
    As the contractor reviews the supplementary general
    conditions, notes must be made of the many requirements
    included in them, as they may be costly, and an amount to
    cover these items must be included in the estimate. When