Estimating low voltage work, part 4: handling the questions

The previous post ended with a question log: every conflict, gap, and missing item found during the takeoff. This post covers what to do with it.

Every item on that log needs a decision before pricing starts. Some go out as requests for information (RFIs). Others are better handled in the proposal. The choice is not only about getting an answer. It also decides who else gets that answer, and whether the company keeps the advantage that came from reading the documents carefully.

What this post covers

The post works through the question log one decision at a time. Along the way it covers:

• Who sees the answer. Why every RFI answer is effectively shared with every bidder.
• Questions worth asking. Compliance, major price changes, and the items the scope depends on from other trades.
• Questions better handled in the proposal. Clarifications, exclusions, assumptions, add alternates, and separately priced lines, and the limits on each.
• Writing an RFI. How to ask a question that gets a usable answer.
• Reading the answers. Reviewing every answer and addendum before pricing begins.

Every RFI answer goes to every bidder

On most bid projects, RFI answers are issued to all bidders, usually through an addendum. That is fair to the bidders, and it is how the documents stay consistent. It also means a question is never private.

Newer companies are often the ones that read the documents most carefully. They find the missing pull boxes, the riser that does not match the floor plans, or the specification section that contradicts the drawings. When they ask about it in an RFI, every competitor who skimmed past the problem receives the answer for free. In some cases, that gap was the only thing that would have separated the bids.

Before submitting a question, consider everyone who is bidding, and what the answer will tell them.

Questions worth asking in an RFI

Some questions have to be asked, regardless of who else benefits from the answer.

Questions that decide compliance. If the answer determines whether the bid matches the documents, ask it. Conflicting device counts are the most common example. The general contractor and the owner's representative will compare the proposal against their own takeoff, and a proposal built on the wrong count, or one that tries to explain the conflict in a clarification, risks being thrown out.

Questions that change the price materially for everyone. A run that exceeds the distance limit may require an added closet or a fiber backbone. A missing system may add a significant scope. When the answer moves the number substantially, guessing wrong costs more than sharing the answer does.

Items the scope depends on from other trades. These are usually the most valuable questions on the log. The low voltage work depends on conduit to the demarc location, power at the head end and at controlled doors, sleeves, backboxes, and door preparation, much of which is furnished by the electrical contractor or another trade. When an item the work depends on is not shown on any trade's drawings, nobody has priced it. Asking clarifies who owns it before bid day, rather than in the field.

Questions a proposal cannot resolve. If the bid documents require a lump sum with no qualifications, or the bid form leaves no room for clarifications, the question has to go through an RFI or it does not get answered at all.

Questions better handled in the proposal

Other items are better addressed in the proposal itself, where the answer stays with the company that found the problem. There are four common tools, and each has a specific purpose.

Clarifications

A clarification states how the company has interpreted or priced something. Use one when the documents can reasonably be read more than one way, or when the solution can reasonably be inferred by the trade.

The engineers writing the specifications and the designers drafting the plans do not always have every piece of trade knowledge, and things get missed in design. If the camera specification and the length of the run make it clear that a camera will need a PoE injector, price the injector in and state it as a clarification. The owner gets a working system, and the proposal shows why the price includes something the drawings did not.

Clarifications also handle outdated requirements. Specifications are frequently copied forward from older projects, and a testing section may name a cable certifier discontinued years ago. Address it in the scope: "All copper and fiber certification testing will be performed with a Fluke Networks DSX-5000 or better."

Exclusions

An exclusion states what the company has not included: anything it cannot provide or does not want to take on. Line voltage power, conduit by others, and patching and painting are typical examples.

Exclusions are also how the company protects itself from scope creep. Wherever the documents leave a gray area that could drift into the low voltage scope, put up a wall. An item that is clearly excluded in the proposal is far easier to defend than one that was never mentioned.

Assumptions

An assumption states the conditions the price depends on. Assumptions are protective by nature. They are there so that when conditions turn out differently than expected, the company has a basis for a change order. A typical example:

It is assumed the existing pathway has adequate capacity and accessibility for the new cabling. If conditions fail to meet these standards, the additional work will be addressed in a separate proposal or change order.

Keep assumptions specific. A list of broad assumptions that covers everything reads as a contractor unwilling to commit to a price.

Add alternates

An add alternate prices something separately from the base bid. How alternates are used depends on how the bid request is set up.

Named systems or equivalent. When a specification reads "LenelS2 OnGuard or equivalent," the base bid follows what is written, and a different platform goes in as an add alternate. When a specification uses that language, the owner has usually already decided what they want. The alternate gives them room to consider another option if the budget requires it.

Value engineering. When the bid request asks for value engineering, the owner typically still wants a bid as close to the specification as possible. Keep the base bid to the documents, and present anything that can save substantial cost as an alternate.

Items clearly needed but not shown. If an intrusion panel is specified with no keypad listed, and the system cannot be operated without one, price the keypad as an add alternate. The base bid still matches the documents, and the owner sees what the system needs.

Whole-system substitutions. When the alternate replaces an entire system, such as Hanwha Vision Wisenet in place of Uniview, present it as a single bundled price. A system broken into separate line items invites the owner to mix and match components that were never meant to work together.

Dependent alternates. If one alternate depends on another selection, list them together and say so. An alternate for additional cameras that only works with the alternate recorder does not appear as if it can be accepted on its own.

Price the edge separately

When catching an item is what sets the bid apart, call it out specifically and price it as a separate line. This works because of bid leveling. When the general contractor lines the proposals up side by side, a separately priced item that no other bidder mentioned stands out. The question becomes whether everyone else's number is missing it. The low bid starts to look incomplete instead of competitive, and the company that read the documents carefully looks like the safer choice.

It protects the company either way. If the general contractor accepts the line, the scope is paid for. If the line is declined, the exclusion is on record, and the company is not covering the item out of its margin later.

The limits

Handling a question in the proposal has limits, and crossing them can cost the bid.

Keep the base bid matched to the documents. The base bid follows the drawings and the specification. Price any addition, substitution, or correction separately as an add alternate, or list it as a clearly labeled clarification.

Do not contradict the documents. A clarification that changes what the documents require, rather than explaining how the company has priced them, can make the bid noncompliant.

Do not use alternates in place of RFIs. A proposal full of add alternates covering issues that belonged in an RFI, or that were already answered in one, is likely to be thrown out. Reserve alternates for genuine options and clearly needed additions.

Writing an RFI that gets a useful answer

A vague question gets a vague answer, or a reply that points back to the documents. A good RFI is short and specific:

• Cite the reference. List the sheet numbers and specification sections involved.
• Ask one question per RFI. Combined questions tend to get partial answers.
• State the conflict plainly. Describe what each document shows, without commentary.
• Propose a resolution when there is an obvious one. A suggested answer is easier to confirm than an open question is to answer.
• Submit before the deadline. A question submitted late may not be answered, and the bid will have to carry the risk.

For example: "Sheet T-201 shows 14 cameras on Level 2. Riser T-501 shows 12 cameras for Level 2. Please confirm the correct quantity. Bidders will price 14 cameras unless directed otherwise."

Formatting the RFI

A well-written question still goes unanswered if it arrives in a form the reviewer cannot route, reference, or track. General contractors, architects, and owners receive many RFIs during a bid period. Those that are unnumbered, unreferenced, or buried in the body of an email are easy to set aside.

If the general contractor or the bid documents provide an RFI form, use it. If not, a simple, consistent format works. A sample (illustrative entries):

A few habits make the difference between an RFI that gets answered and one that does not:

• Submit it through the channel the bid documents name. That may be the plan room, a bidding platform, or a specific contact by email. An RFI sent to the wrong person may never reach the one who can answer it.
• Number every RFI and keep a log. Sequential numbers let the company track what was asked, what was answered, and which addendum carried the answer.
• Write a subject line that says what the question is about. "Camera quantity conflict, Level 2" can be routed to the right engineer from the subject alone.
• Attach a marked-up excerpt. A clouded snippet of the sheet saves the reviewer from searching the set to find the problem.
• Keep the tone neutral. State what the documents show and ask the question. Commentary about design errors does not get an RFI answered faster.

Sorting the question log

With those guidelines in mind, each item on the log gets a decision. Using the example log from the previous post (illustrative entries):

The handling for any one item depends on the project. A clarification on one bid may need to be an RFI on another, depending on how the bid form is written and how significant the item is.

Read every answer and every addendum

Once the RFI answer deadline passes, review every answer before pricing begins, including the answers to questions other bidders asked. An answer to an electrical or door hardware question can change the low voltage scope as easily as one asked about Division 27 or Division 28.

Update the takeoff to reflect the answers, and record every plan sheet and RFI answer that pertains to the scope. Acknowledge every addendum on the bid form. A bid that fails to acknowledge an addendum can be rejected regardless of price.

Bringing it together

Every question found during the takeoff has to go somewhere. Questions that decide compliance, change the price materially, or involve items the scope depends on from other trades belong in an RFI, even though every bidder will see the answer. Questions where catching the problem is the advantage belong in the proposal, as a clarification, an exclusion, or a separately priced line that makes the gap visible at bid leveling.

The base bid stays matched to the documents. Everything else is stated clearly, priced separately, and recorded.

Next in this series: building the bid.

Planning and device counts are numbers. Those live on the calculators. The estimating workbook that follows the method in this series is in The Kit. The rest of this series is on the estimating page.

Related on this site

• Estimating low voltage work, part 3: doing takeoffs
• Estimating low voltage work, part 2: deciding which jobs to bid
• Calculators