Categories
Pre-Qualification of Contractors
The primary function of vetting contractors for commercial roofing and other building envelope projects is to keep out the “bad apples”. Contractors can present lots of polished information along with their “low bid”, and then do a lot of fast talking—but while they can “talk the talk”, they can rarely “walk the walk”.
No matter what your budget is, unqualified contractors should be on your list to eliminate as shoddy work by contractors that do not have references to confirm an established record of standing behind their work, are contractors that often end up costing owners twice as much (or more in some cases) as their original “low” bids. So, if you are not prequalifying contractors that bid on your projects, and you get a lowball bid among 3 or 4 very close yet higher bids, watch out! You might want to go ahead and double that low amount to compare it to the other bids.
Or, you can simply require all of the contractors that bid on your work to submit a prequalification form so you know you are comparing “good apples” to “good apples” when the bids come in (from only prequalified contractors). We have included an example below for your reference.
Prequalification Form/Checklist
Surety
- Letter from Surety Company including:
- Carrier rating
- Bond rating
- Single project bond limit
- Total bond capacity
- Number of previous surety bond claims in last 10 years
Insurance
- Name of general liability insurance carrier, their rating & expiration
- Name of workers' comp insurance carrier, their rating & expiration
- Requirements for aggregate and/or per-occurrence policy limits
- Umbrella insurance policy limit
Safety
- EMR rating (look for 1.00 or lower)
- OSHA incident rates
- Recognitions/Certifications
Litigation
- Current and history over the last 10 years of legal disputes, labor law violations, suspended licenses, etc.
Experience
- Work in progress
- At least 3 projects of similar work in scope and value
Licenses
- Please provide a copy of the following:
- Commercial Roofing License
- General Contractors License with Job Limits
References
- Please provide at least 3 references for projects of similar work in scope and value