commercial/site work

[poynton phil]

I have been asked to tender for tiling 200 fast food restaurants, around the country. At the mo i only do domestic work. was wondering if anyone could advise me on the sort of requirements for taking on a job like this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[prceramics]

free lunch

 

[poynton phil]

free lunch

Thats without a dout lol

 

[Dan]

Tell the project bloke you'll send him on a holiday if he pushes your bid through as the preferred one. Usually works.

You tend to find unless you know of the firm managing the project, they'll often just get a bunch of other quotes for the customer or for their records in case it ever got questioned in the future, but they've often always got a firm in mind already. They just need say 5 tenders in on the table and they push the one they're mates with forward.

Obviously not all like that. But I worked with a bloke selling garden furniture, and he was an architectural engineer by trade and ran a building business with his old man back in the day. He actually built the BAL training centre (they dont use that one now mind) and when I was chatting to him about it, he said that in most cases he'd need to send the project manager who's managing the tenders a very nice drink and he'd often get the work.

He said if he knew the bloke who asked him to tender, he'd normally always get it too, and they'd discuss and acceptable price well before the tender got prepared.

Even councils have been done for doing it in the past. Letting tenders win for £1,000,000 when they had tenders in for £500,000 - that sort of thing. Stoke on Trent council got clocked doing it a few times, and they just kept saying the highest tender was the best one. Until one of the most reputable building firms around here butted in and said their tender went in and never won at half the price of the main firm.

They now use Keir based down south somewhere for the council work. When they said they'd use locals to support the economy. I wonder why they went with Keir?!?!?! (backhanderssssssss!!)

 

[swanman]

Seems alot of work

200 alot of materials whats the payment terms

 

[Alan.P]

As Swanman says, payment terms, x amount for materials on site, weekly / fortnightly / monthly invoices ? etc, waste disposal, power on site, storage facilities ( if needed ) program of works, cover yourself for standing time, rates for extra works above and beyond that quoted for.

 

[peteablard]

I do a lot of commercial work as a subby and while in general most jobs are ok, a lot of them are a nightmare! As Alan says you need to cover yourself and your workers for all possible problems. Remember they'll always want paying regardless of whether they can get on with the job or not!

 

[poynton phil]

Its one down south to start with, another 199 to follow nationwide It says stage payments to be agreed, 2.5% will be held back during the defect period. All mats & tiles are to be purchased from there supplier.

TBH I have never looked at a tender before, and it all looks a bit confusing at the moment.

 

[doug boardley]

your power tools will probably need to be 110v Phil, probs a minimum public liability of £5million too.

 

[poynton phil]

your power tools will probably need to be 110v Phil, probs a minimum public liability of £5million too.

Yeah it would mean i change all of my power tools. Dave at TT, would probably be able to have a real good holiday out of what that would cost me. lol

 

[Perry]

2.5% will be held back during the defect period. All mats & tiles are to be purchased from there supplier.
And how much are they going to charge you will be lucky to get that 2.5% you may find like i did in the early days they have fixed the the price with the suppliers higher than you can buy them normally and you may find like when i used to tile burger kings they do not allow any prep and can be like ploughed fields

 

[poynton phil]

It is starting to sound like a bit of a ball ache.

 

[Perry]

It is starting to sound like a bit of a ball ache.

Phil not always i would never had the living i have had from domestics but you need to have your wits about you it dosent suit most guys also the litte guy who hasn't gets the blame regardless of whose fault it is when it hits the fan

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

it seems mad to be opening 200 :yikes: outlets in these times ,when everyone els is going the other way, good luck to you

 

[peteablard]

2.5% will be held back during the defect period. All mats & tiles are to be purchased from there supplier.
And how much are they going to charge you will be lucky to get that 2.5% you may find like i did in the early days they have fixed the the price with the suppliers higher than you can buy them normally and you may find like when i used to tile burger kings they do not allow any prep and can be like ploughed fields

The company I subby for does a lot of these, I've manged to avoid most of them, the only one I did was fairly straight forward, most of the others were a joke

 

[peteablard]

It is starting to sound like a bit of a ball ache.

Just make sure you do your homework mate that's all

 

[poynton phil]

it seems mad to be opening 200 :yikes: outlets in these times ,when everyone els is going the other way, good luck to you

They are not new, its a very well known company, that's refurbing .

 

[nybor62]

nearly all my work is on the shop fitting side
very long hrs , poor prep work in most cases , the company i subby to only supply addy and grout

usually the 1st day on job is nothing but hassle moving every one,s tools out of the way
would you mind saying who its for i may have worked for them , i understand if you dont want to
good luck if you go for it

 

[swanman]

YOU WILL NEED IT

But good luck any way

 

[Pebbs]

Phil, its really down to you, a running contract like that can cause a lot of headaches, but I like headaches, it keeps me on my toes. If you have enough work going forward you might not want to undertake it. If you want to think long term, then I say go for it. I think you have enough contacts all over the place so you might want to sub some of it out, if you have diff sites running at the same time.

Lynn

 

[Dan]

it seems mad to be opening 200 :yikes: outlets in these times ,when everyone els is going the other way, good luck to you

My guess is McDonalds. They want 3000 new stores worldwide or something I think I heard in the news!

 

[mz30]

I have been asked to tender for tiling 200 fast food restaurants, around the country. At the mo i only do domestic work. was wondering if anyone could advise me on the sort of requirements for taking on a job like this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Phil,i'll be honest with you mate,as you only deal at the moment with domestics ,you are not equipped to quote with a job that size mate ,a lot of well established tiling firms wouldnt commit to that sort of contract they would quote for 10 and then re-negoitate there after.
As you say you only do domestics,commercial work is a totally diffrent ballgame,it would probably cost you £sssssss just to even get in a position were you were able to quote for a job on that scale and after that sort of lay-out the chance are you wont even get a sniff.

If you wanna go that way tell them you will price one see how it goes and the adjust your price accordingly, i will guarantee you will be cheap on you first pricing,but you will learn to add on for unseen complications which there will be many.

Hope that helps mate and sorry if its not what you wanted to hear

 

[Gazzer]

In the past I have done the McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Hungry Eater and Little Chefs....Never again...Only the Little Chefs were any good and that was mainly cos they were in nice places...I enjoyed the travelling back then.