The production drawings, specification and/or bills of quantities together form the initial contract documents which are submitted to the Construction Team for pricing.
The principal designer may agree with the client to submit these documents to a builder or contractor who is known to be capable of executing the particular work involved.
This will produce a negotiated tender, where a price for the work is prepared on the basis of discussion around the contents of the contract documents. This method of tendering has the advantage that a considerable amount of time is saved by not involving other builders or contractors, and the selected organisation may well be able to make cost-saving suggestions.
As an alternative, the principal designer may advise the client to obtain competitive tenders from a suitable range of Construction Teams (building contractors). Bills of quantities are particularly useful for this purpose as they permit individual Construction Teams/builders to submit tenders on a uniform basis. Equally, the Design Team is able to check and compare the figures of each competitor
efficiently before making recommendations to the Client Team. Before this recommendation is given, however, the Design Team must also ascertain the suitability of resources and quality of work available from each competitor.
The period of time required for the construction work is also an important consideration. It is not uncommon for the organisation submitting the lowest tender price to be rejected because of doubt in these areas.