Mechanical tenders are rarely lost on the obvious pipe or duct quantity. Margin is often damaged by interfaces, assumptions and responsibilities that were never made explicit at tender stage.
Different documents can describe the same system differently. Equipment schedules may not match layouts, specification requirements can add accessories or testing, and revisions can change quantities. The estimate should identify conflicts rather than silently choose one document.
Controls, electrical supplies, builders work, fire stopping, insulation, water treatment, commissioning and specialist equipment regularly create interface risk. State who is supplying, installing, wiring, commissioning and attending each package.
Tender documents may transfer coordination, selection, calculations, drawings or performance obligations to the contractor. Those responsibilities need time, resource and sometimes specialist design cost.
Supervision, welfare contributions, access equipment, temporary works, logistics, parking, out-of-hours work and programme duration can alter the real cost of delivery. They should be reviewed against the project rather than copied from the previous tender.
Where information is genuinely missing, a clear assumption or qualification is usually better than an invisible guess. The aim is a competitive tender with a documented commercial basis that can survive post-tender negotiation and project handover.
See our mechanical tender checklist, outsourced estimator guide and mechanical estimating service.
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