How To

Order Your Carpet

The Bid Process

Commercial carpet buyers have been trained to expect the bid process to return them the best quality work at the most competitive prices. Unfortunately this is not often the result. Due to incomplete project specifications and pressure to sacrifice quality for a lower price, craftsmanship is often sacrificed, and jobs rarely get installed for the price that was originally bid.

How the bid process works:

In the traditional carpet purchase process, a flooring contractor develops a bid based on plans and specifications provided by the general contractor. The flooring contractor prepares an estimate, compiles numbers and prices products based on the information in the plans and specs. Theoretically, the end user receives the lowest price for the work since more than one flooring contractor is competing for the job.

There are two inherent problems with the bid process.

  1. The flooring contractors' bid is written based on a specification that often does not address critical elements that will impact the actual job cost. The main area, typically not addressed in the spec, is floor preparation.

    The quality of the subfloor has the most impact on the long-term success of the floor. Preparing the substrate ensures product life, quality and, in many cases, safe traffic conditions. However, this is typically omitted from the specification upon which the bid is based.

    Typically costs for floor preparation, once assessed, become an add-on over the original bid price for the job.

  2. The bid process itself does not reward a contractor for providing quality service. Even the most professional contractors are put in a position of submitting unrealistically low numbers in order to win a job. The result is that they can only provide a base level of service, enough to meet a standard one-year warranty, but not one on which long-term quality of the installation can be assured.

A better way to get the best quality for a fair price:

Engaging a flooring professional early, along with an architect and design team, can improve the process. This ensures the specification is written correctly, starting the process off in the right direction. Equipped with these specifications, this team can now determine the true cost to deliver a high quality installation.