How to compare builder tenders

A guide from Costd. Read time 4 minutes.

Three tenders come in and the spread is wide. The temptation is to look at the totals and start a conversation with the lowest. The totals are the least useful number on the page until the tenders are made like for like.

1. Lay them against the same rows

Put every tender against one set of trade rows, ideally the cost plan’s. Suddenly you can see that one builder put the steel in structure and another in metalwork, and that one has no landscaping at all.

2. Mark thin, heavy and silent

Thin is well under the others or the plan with no explanation. Heavy is well over. Silent is not priced and not excluded either. Silent items are the most dangerous, because they turn up later as variations.

3. Fill the gaps

Add a realistic figure for every silent item and every excluded item you will still have to pay for. Lift low provisional sums and prime cost allowances to realistic values. Now compare.

4. Read the qualifications

The letter at the front of a tender often matters more than the numbers in it. Validity period, assumptions about site conditions, exclusions and programme all move risk around.

5. Ask before you appoint

Write three questions for each tenderer from what you found. How they answer tells you a lot about how the job will run.

What we do

A Costd tender review does all of this in 48 hours: each tender as submitted and like for like, side by side by trade, what each leaves out, and the questions to ask. See a sample tender review.

This guide is general information from a registered builder, not legal or financial advice. More guides · Pricing