For Tendering in Construction think ‘Go Compare!’
“Go, Compare! Go, Compare”
Listening to another jingle on the radio it suddenly struck me that this is exactly what our Tendering Service does. Whilst Go Compare, Money Supermarket or Compare the Market will survey the insurance market to get a client the best insurance quote. CLPM will survey the builder market, or the plumber market or the timber frame market to get the client the best deal.
The sales pitch of the comparison sites is to get the best price. Price is undoubtedly important to our clients but we do also need to understand what other factors will determine “best” for them. This could be speed, it could be reliability. Equally it could be reputation or more probably some combination of all the above.
What is similar is that this is a stand-alone service – you do not have to use us for Project Management to use our Tendering service.
CLPM Tendering Service
There is no up-front fee for a comparison site yet the service must cost money to run and they are not charities so must be making money. We cut across this remuneration question by being a fee based service.
This means that we are clearly independent from the builders or trades we are asking for prices and working solely for our client’s best interests. (interestingly we have come across some Project Managers who do offer their services for free – how they must be remunerated is a different topic).
Our costs could be as little as 1% of the build cost for a £250k new build home. We think it’s very good value and very likely to save you money. To help ensure you do get “the best” as these two quick examples should show:
- We went out to tender recently on a refurbishment of a terraced house in Oxford. The tender returns came back as:
- £115,000
- £130,000
- £142,000
- £155,000
Through discussion with the contractors, the client and the architect the order was placed with b. as the lowest price did not, on investigation, offer the best deal.
- On a trade by trade new build house we received one price of £14,000 and another of £18,000 for the roofing package. On investigation we found that the lower quote seemed to have significantly under-measured the roof. We could probably have signed him up and forced him to abide by the terms of the contract but the risk to the overall project was too great. We pointed out his error, won his trust and he delivered a great job for the client.
Contact Us
Want to understand more about how our Quantity Surveyors can help you. Find out how to get the lowest builders quotes for your building project then get in touch.
Simply call 01923 896550, email info@cl-pm.com or complete a contact form.
