Full Bid Estimating Service: Complete Bids, Done For You

The Difference

Takeoff vs. Full Bid: Why It Matters

A quantity takeoff answers one question: how much is on the plans? A full bid answers the questions that win and protect work: What does it cost to build? What production will the crews really hit? How many truck cycles does the export take, and to which pit? What in the geotech changes the over-ex depth? What needs to be excluded before it eats your margin? Those answers come from having built the work. (More on this in Takeoff vs. Full Bid Estimate.)

If you're an owner-operator running crews all day, you don't have time to answer those questions for every invitation that hits your inbox. That's why Earthworks NV exists: outsourced sitework estimating built by field estimators, without the months it takes to hire one.

What's in Every Full Bid Package

• Complete quantity takeoff: earthwork cut/fill with shrink and swell, over-excavation, demolition, asphalt paving tonnage, aggregate base, concrete, wet and dry utilities and erosion control, broken out line by line in a detailed Excel workbook
• Supplier and vendor quotes handled: we contact your pits, pipe suppliers, plants and subs directly, collect every quote and level them so they're in the number before bid day
• Geotech impacts priced in: over-ex, unsuitables and recompaction, checked against current aerial maps of existing conditions
• Plan conflicts flagged: discrepancies between sheets, missing information and potential RFIs noted before bid day
• Production-based pricing: crew and equipment logic, haul cycles to actual pits and dumps, and compaction, using our crew experience or yours with your local pricing
• Cut/fill maps, 3D model and markups: clear grading and underground markups, so the scope is never in question
• Scope letter and bid form: inclusions, exclusions and clarifications in writing, and the bid form filled out and ready to sign
• Final number walk-through: we go through it with you before you submit, so you know what's in it and why
• Your preconstruction point of contact: RFIs, questions, supplier and vendor calls, and bid follow-up handled by a US-based team that speaks with an American accent, so you stay in the field

Built From Real Costs, Yours or Ours

Estimates are priced from real inputs in your market: local wage rates, including prevailing wage and Davis-Bacon determinations; your trucking and pit material pricing, or quotes we collect; equipment rates for your owned or rented fleet; and production rates from your crew history or our field experience.

We bid off the full document set, not just one plan set. The civil drawings and soils report don't always tell the whole story, so we cross-reference the structural, landscape and architectural sheets so nothing is missed.

Who Uses Full Bid Estimating

Excavation and grading contractors buried in invitations. Paving contractors short an estimator mid-season. Utility contractors moving into full sitework packages. General contractors who need the dirt scope priced. Owner-operators who would rather run work than sit at a desk bidding.

Full Bid Estimating Questions