One of the partners got a request for two bids, both construction. Don't really want to do that kind of construction staking when I have so much already that's unbid and T&M.
This one is on a Federal facility, 10 hours of safety training for field members and 30 hours for supervisors, Davis-Bacon and weekly reporting, and you have to access pdf's of the site plans one sheet at a time. Hate that, what a time waster.
I know that if I would bid it to get I would lose money and if I bid it to make money I won't get it. Either way it's a loser.
Plenty of work with real clients who aren't bean counters to the max.
No thank you!!!
I would never stake out to a pdf only. Signed and sealed drawing only. If the designer cannot commit to it why should I be responsible for missing all his mistakes whcih he can later deny.
Paul in PA
To be contrary ....
If the Engineer prepared the site plan (or whatever) properly all the information to stakeout a job should be readily available on a paper set.
This constant insistence by everybody and their brother to have a CAD file bothers me. If everyone would insist that everybody did their job correctly to begin with we'd all be a lot better off.
Paul, if the pdf was a scan of a signed and sealed drawing would you use that?
Negative On A Scan
I would accept a pdf for the purposes of bidding stakeout, but never for stakeout itself.
I worked for several firms that lost considerable money in settlements because by staking out to incorrect plans the client had to remove and replace curb.
I had earlier worked for a firm that would not do construction stakeout without first locating all relavant outbounds. The cost was included in the quote, but not as a line item that a client could say he did not need and cut the price. It paid back multiple times as a thorough final report justified the client obtaining extra compensation for what it took to correct the errors. Client costs including additional costs for itemeized extra engineering/surveying work.
I would use supplied CAD files to check against line and pointwork I created from signed, sealed originals. One of the first things I learned was to never trust the linework or points in another's CAD file. Create your own, or it is more productive to not do the job.
Paul in PA