How to check a water and sewer
tender price before it goes in.

Start with the documents, not the number

Before you look at a single rate, make sure the price covers the right documents:

• The drawing register against the sheets you priced: same sheets, same revisions. The long sections matter as much as the plans, because that is where the depth is.
• Every addendum and clarification, including the ones issued in the last days before close.
• The specification and the codes it calls up: WSA 02 for gravity sewer, WSA 03 for water supply, plus the water authority's own supplements and standard drawings. One clause on testing, bedding or materials can change a whole trade.
• The geotechnical report and borehole logs, read in full: rock, groundwater, acid sulfate soils and contamination.

The items most often left out

When we check other water and sewer prices, the gaps are usually here:

• Connections to live mains. Shutdowns or live tapping, customer notification, after-hours or night work, and the authority's attendance. A connection is never just a fitting.
• Connections to existing sewer. Work in or beside a live manhole, and bypass pumping while it is done.
• Trench support. Trenches 1.5 m or deeper must be protected against collapse. Shoring, shields or batters, and the extra excavation that batters create, belong in the price.
• Groundwater. Dewatering plant, its running time, and the treatment or disposal of the water.
• Rock. Where the logs show it, how it will be broken out, at what production, and what happens to it.
• Spoil. Classification testing, the tip it can go to, haulage and the landfill levy. Unsuitable or contaminated material can cost more than the excavation itself.
• Imported bedding and backfill, where the excavated material cannot be reused.
• Testing and commissioning. Pressure testing and disinfection of water mains; air or water testing of sewers, vacuum testing of manholes and CCTV, as the specification requires.
• Property connections: junctions, sidelines and their testing, counted from the drawings, not assumed.
• Traffic control and road restoration on live roads, including the road authority's restoration requirements and charges.
• Locating existing services: potholing every crossing shown, and an allowance for the ones that are not shown.
• Survey and work-as-executed records, set-out, and the authority's inspection hold points.

Any one of these can be worth more than the margin on the job. Tick each one off as priced, qualified, or not yours.

Test the totals against how the work gets done

• Price the pipe by depth, not just by diameter. The same pipe at twice the depth is a different job: more excavation, more support, slower production. A single rate per metre for a whole run hides that.
• Check production against the ground. Metres per day in open ground, in a live road and in rock are not the same number. The days on site drive the plant and labour cost, so they need to match the conditions.
• Compare with your own history. Cost per metre for each size and depth band against your last similar jobs. A big difference is not always wrong, but you should be able to explain it.
• Find the twenty largest lines and check their quantities against the long sections and schedules. They carry most of the value.
• Preliminaries for the real programme. Supervision, site facilities, traffic management and hire plant should run for the time you will actually be there.

Write the qualifications so nobody can argue later

A water or sewer price always rests on assumptions about the ground and the authority. Write them down:

• Rock: priced to what depth, to what quantity, and at what rate beyond it.
• Groundwater: what is allowed for, and what triggers a variation.
• Spoil: the classification assumed, and the rate if testing says otherwise.
• Connections: how many shutdowns, whether night work is included, who pays the authority.
• Working hours and staging, especially on live roads.

An exclusion says something is not in your price. A qualification says it is in your price on a stated basis. Both belong in writing with the tender.

A 30-minute check before you submit

1. Drawings, long sections and revisions priced match the register.
2. All addenda and clarifications are included.
3. The specification and authority supplements have been read for testing, bedding and materials.
4. Every item on the "often left out" list is priced, qualified, or confirmed as not yours.
5. Pipe is priced by depth band, with trench support where it is required.
6. Production matches the ground and the location.
7. The twenty largest lines have been checked.
8. Preliminaries run for the real programme.
9. Qualifications on rock, groundwater, spoil and connections are written down.
10. The pricing schedule reconciles to the tender total.

When to get a second set of eyes

On a large tender, deep sewer, a pump station, or a live road job with tight staging, an independent check pays for itself. We can price the job in full alongside yours and show you where the two numbers differ and why, or check your price against the documents. Send the drawings and we will come back with a free fixed quote for the estimate work and an agreed delivery date.