Contract structure
An Honest Concrete Quote Is Not One Number
Owners want certainty and concrete restoration cannot give it. Here is the structure that protects you instead.
The structure, its age, and what you have noticed. If there is an engineer's report, send that instead — we will price what it identifies.
What a fixed price actually is
Nobody knows how much deteriorated concrete there is until it is opened. A contractor quoting a fixed price is either padding heavily to cover the unknown, or pricing thin and planning to recover through change orders.
The first costs you money you did not need to spend. The second produces a dispute halfway through. Neither delivers the certainty the fixed price was chosen for.
What a unit-rate contract looks like
Rates fixed at award, quantities estimated by the engineer, and actuals measured and verified as the work proceeds.
- Rates fixed, so pricing certainty exists where it can.
- Estimated quantities from the engineer's sounding and testing.
- Every repair measured and documented as it is opened.
- The engineer verifies quantities, not the contractor alone.
- Monthly reporting so the trend is visible before the total is.
What the owner should hold
Contingency sized to the uncertainty the engineer identifies, and the discipline to report the running quantity as it develops.
The worst outcome in this work is finding out the number moved only after it has doubled — and that is a communication failure rather than a construction one.
FAQ
Common questions
- Is a unit-rate contract open-ended?
- Rates are fixed and quantities are measured and engineer-verified. It is more controlled than a padded fixed price.
- How much contingency?
- Sized to the uncertainty the engineer identifies. Ask them.
- Can quantities double?
- On a long-deferred garage, sometimes.
- Who measures?
- We measure and document; the engineer verifies.
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.