Building Design and Construction Handbook - Merritt - Ventech!

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT 17.17
Planning of the job is dealt with in Art. 17.10.2. Profit and loss of the job are
controlled in the manner described in Art. 17.19.
17.10.1 Subcontracts
A contractor who engages others (subcontractors) to perform construction is called
a general contractor. General contractors usually obtain subcontract bids as well as
material-price solicitations during the general-contract bidding stage. Sometimes,
however, general contractors continue shopping after award of the general contract
to attain budget goals for the work that may have been exceeded during the initial
bidding stages. In such cases, additional bids from subcontractors are solicited after
the award of contract.
Purchasing Report. Contractors would find it advantageous to approach purchasing
of subcontracts with a purchasing report (Fig. 17.4). This report should list
everything necessary to be purchased for the job, together with a budget for each
of the items. As subcontracts are awarded, the name of the subcontractor is entered,
and the amount of the subcontract is noted in the appropriate column. Then, the
profit or loss on the purchase is later entered in the last column; thus, a continuous
tabulation is maintained of the status of the purchases.
These priorities are indicated in Fig. 17.4 by the numbers in the left column.
Bid Solicitation. Bids are generally solicited through notices in trade publications,
such as Dodge Bulletin, or from lists of subcontractors that the contractor maintains.
Solicitation also can be by telephone call, letter, or postcard to those invited to bid.
Where the owner or the law requires use of specific categories of subcontractors,
bids have to be obtained from qualified members of such groups.
After subcontractor bids have been received, careful analysis and tabulation are
needed for the contractor to compare bids fairly (Fig. 17.5).
FIGURE 17.4 Purchasing report. Numbers in first column indicate specification sections in
purchasing subcontracts, materials, and equipment.