#1. Step 1 — build a scope matrix before you read prices
Write out every element of the job in a single column: superstructure, boundary walls, hardscape, pool, annexe, below-slab foundations, underground tanks, disposal, backfill and levelling, permits, NOCs, hazardous survey, hoarding, dust control, and final handover condition. Then tick which quotations include each one.
Do this before you look at the bottom line. Reading the total first anchors your judgement and you will unconsciously rationalise the cheapest bid.
#2. Step 2 — the twelve exclusions that hide cost
If a quotation is silent on any of these, treat it as excluded and price it yourself:
- Municipality permit fees and consultant drawings
- Utility disconnection NOCs and meter removal charges
- Asbestos or hazardous material survey, and removal if positive
- Foundations and pile caps below the ground slab
- Underground tanks, septic pits and soakaways
- Boundary walls, gates and external hardscape
- Swimming pool shell breaking and backfill
- Backfill material supply, compaction and final levelling
- Disposal tipping fees and waste manifests
- Hoarding, signage and traffic management
- Out-of-hours working where the community restricts hours
- Reinstatement of any shared or party wall
#3. Step 3 — normalise, then compare
Add your own allowance for each missing item to every quotation, so all three carry the same scope. It is common for the cheapest headline number to finish third once normalised. That single exercise is worth more than any negotiation.
#4. Step 4 — test compliance, not just price
Ask each bidder for four documents. A trade licence showing demolition as a listed activity. Third-party liability insurance with a limit proportionate to the neighbouring exposure — a tight plot next to an occupied villa needs far more cover than an isolated one. Workmen's compensation cover. And waste transfer manifests from a recent completed project.
The manifests are the most revealing. A contractor who controls the disposal chain produces them in minutes. One who does not will change the subject.
#5. Step 5 — red flags worth walking away from
Any one of these is grounds for eliminating a bidder regardless of price:
- A fixed price quoted without a site visit
- No written method statement or risk assessment
- A payment schedule demanding more than 40% before mobilisation
- Refusal to name the disposal facility
- No named site supervisor or HSE officer
- A price so far below the others that the disposal cost alone could not be covered
#6. Step 6 — lock the scope into the contract
Whatever you agreed verbally is worth nothing once machines are on site. The final contract should attach the normalised scope matrix, name the handover condition explicitly (cleared to slab level, or cleared and levelled to X depth), and make delivery of the waste manifests a condition of final payment.