Talked to a steel supplier yesterday that made me question our whole bidding process

I was swapping stories with a guy from Gifford Steel in Phoenix and he said most GCs leave too much margin in their structural bids because they don't factor in fabricator schedules. He told me one job bid at $2.4 million went for $1.8 million after they adjusted the timeline by 3 weeks. Has anyone else started asking fabricators for schedule-driven pricing instead of just taking the first number?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota_murphy906d ago

Hell yeah man, my buddy runs a small steel outfit in Tucson and he had the exact same thing happen. He told me a GC kept insisting on a 12-week window, but when they bumped it to 8 weeks the price dropped like 15% just from not having to juggle other jobs. It's wild how much the schedule alone can bend the numbers.

bethj446d ago

Just to gently push back on that a little, going from a 12 week window to 8 weeks usually costs more, not less, because shorter timelines mean the fabricator has to rush and bump other jobs. Your friend might have had a different situation, like the GC originally wanted it in 8 weeks and the fabricator bid it for 12 weeks to fit their schedule, so the price came down when they agreed on the longer one. Take it with a grain of salt, but in my experience, squeezing the schedule almost always adds a premium for overtime and expedited shipping.