Flawed drawing RFP

[Landscape Magic]

We were given two crude "architectural" drawings by a General contractor and requested that we provide a bid to construct a water feature. We pointed out several design flaws that would render the water feature disfunctional. The General said the we should bid "as drawn....don't redesign it", so that he can make an apples-to-apples comparison of the various bids.

I've been advised to bid with the necessary changes to make it work. Any feedback or experience w/ a situation like this? Thanks....

[Stonehenge]

My thoughts were to not bid it as it's designed, otherwise you're going to be on the hook for installing it as it was designed, no matter what you have to suffer in added expenses to make it work.

[Fine Edge]

Or give him a price "as drawn" with 100% payment before it's complete with no warranty; and.. give him a price to construct a functional water feature as close to the "as drawn" as possible. Then tell him you might be saving his job.

[agla]

Does the drawing have a title block, date, revision date, and author? If it does, the designer should be on the hook for if it works or not. If it does not, it sets up the possibility for having a hard time proving what plan you bid on.

There are lots of guys that love this situation (the GC may be one of them). They sometimes have experts pick apart plans and spec's in order to figure out the "change orders" . Then they bid for exactly what is in the plan knowing that there will be extras. Meanwhile, competitors bid on doing it right. The GC gets the contract as the low bidder knowing full well that the final price will be higher than the highest bidder when the change orders roll in. They don't want anyone tipping their hand by pointing out the errors up front.

Not everyone does this, but it is a lot more common then you might think.

[VoodooChile]

Straight out of The Sopranos! Put it in as designed and nobody gets hurt, except the landscaper.