What does a builder require to make a tender

Sandymountman

Hi,
Our architect has sent us the documents he/she wants to send to the builders who there are looking to tender for the project.
To our untrained eye they are very lacking. We are doing a modern kitchen extension to an old house and a restoration of the old part.
There is no general description of what is required. The drawings for the modern extension look very complex. As for the old part of the house, there is no mention of majoring replastering that is needed, repairs to old windows or major insulation requirement under floor boards. Obviously, anyone tendering will go and inspect the house.
What should we asked for in terms of costings and a breakdown from the builder?
What should be in a request for tenders?
Are there any examples out there of what is required?
Many thanks,

muffler

Frankly you need to go back to your architect and have him/her include a full description of the works to be carried out with the tender documents

janmc

The tenderers will include a breakdown of the pricing, but leaving out the repairs to the existing means that you do need to go back to your architect. To be honest though it sounds like they're not up to scratch (going from your previous posts also).

Is it possible that the senior architect didn't check the tender docs before they were sent out to you? Maybe have a chat with them regarding your concerns so far, because building work is expensive and messy, and presumably one of the reasons you hired them was so you wouldn't have to be checking every detail yourself.

Sandymountman

Well, we have this messed up situation where our architect (who we like and respect), has handed our project to his wife who is a partner in the firm (this gradually happened before we realised what was happening). We can't communicate with her at all (she just doesn't listen to us, it would compromise her artistic integrity to do this and that). I feel like I'm part of some New York comedy sitcom, she has hissy fits at the meetings. It's an unreal situation that unfortunately has very serious implications for us.
I rang the architect/husband to say we want to discuss the situation and he was quite defensive saying that he wasn't a sole practioner. We've paid over the first two installments. I'm at a loss as what to do? Where do we stand?

muffler

Sandymountman wrote:

Where do we stand?

Well you can start by standing up for yourself

After all its your money. You are looking for someone to supply a service, a service in this case based on your ideas. If the proposal is going to be in breach of planning or building regs then listen to the architect and be guided by him/her. Other than that their brief is to come up with a design that pleases you not them

Sandymountman

Thanks, but that isn't a very helpful comment, it doesn't get me anywhere.
Do we have any rights, is there any architect conflict resolution process.
We have stood up for ourselves, it's been a fight every step of the way and the project is grinding to a halt. If they tell us to get lost, that's a lot of money down the drain and we're left six months down the line with no architect and a house to do up.

muffler

Well if my comments are considered as being unhelpful then you need to be posting somewhere else. I dont know if its sympathy or legal advice you are after but you wont get either in this forum.

Cant see any use in trying to help people when they wont help themselves.

Thread locked

smashey

Just to add to this. Sandymountman is banned from this forum for good for serious muppetry in feedback that stemmed from this thread. I think this forum is a fairly sensible one and we can do without his like.

muffler

Just to add further - I also banned him (temp.) from the North West forum for trolling and flaming and DeVore has banned him from feedback for ... well.. being a prick basically. I think if he even as much as spells one word wrong in any other forum he will probably get a permanent site ban.

It was bad enough having a go at me but when you say this to the boss (DeVore) you are a condemned man.