Course outline
Mobilization, access and site conditions
Price every trip and condition that isn't installed square footage as its own line: the number of mobilizations the schedule and phasing actually require, travel and parking, getting material to the floor, working in occupied spaces, night or weekend premiums, protection of finished floors, and cleanup and disposal. These are real costs on every job — when they're blended into a per-SF rate, phased and occupied jobs lose money.
By Michael Reddy, IntelBid
After this lesson you can
- Count mobilizations from the schedule and phasing, and price each one
- Price access, handling, occupied-space and off-hours conditions
- State site-condition assumptions so changes become change orders
How many mobilizations will the job really take?
A mobilization is every time a crew and material come to the job to start or restart work. The schedule and phasing decide how many — not the square footage:
- Phases and floors released one at a time — each release is a trip.
- Other trades in between — flooring in some areas before casework or equipment, the rest after.
- Punch list and final areas — the last rooms held back for owner furniture or other trades.
- Separate scopes — prep and moisture work weeks before the floor goes down.
- Mobilizations required by the phasing
- 4
- Crew time to load, travel and set up per trip
- 2 crew-hours at $86 / hour
- Truck, fuel and parking per trip (example)
- $120
- Crew cost per trip: 2 × $86 = $172.
- Cost per trip: $172 + $120 = $292.
- Four trips: 4 × $292 = $1,168.
Access and material handling
| Condition | Cost to price |
|---|---|
| Upper floors, shared elevator | Waiting time, elevator reservations, off-hours deliveries |
| No loading dock or long carries | Extra labor to move material from the truck to the work area |
| Hoisting | Equipment and operator, or a charge from the GC |
| Tight site, paid parking | Parking fees, shuttling crews |
| Security and badging | Badging time, escorts, background checks for secure facilities |
Occupied buildings and furniture
Renovations in occupied offices, schools and healthcare facilities are slower and riskier than new construction. Price furniture moving (or confirm it's by others), work area protection and dust control, limited working areas per night or weekend, and any infection-control requirements in healthcare. Confirm who disconnects and reconnects equipment and computers — it's rarely you, and it should say so.
Night, weekend and overtime work
- Federal law requires overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate for non-exempt employees' hours over 40 in a workweek, and some states add daily overtime rules. If a schedule forces long weeks, price the premium hours.
- Night and weekend shift premiums you pay by policy or agreement are labor costs too.
- Productivity is often lower on nights and in short weekend windows — adjust the production rate, not just the wage.
- State the assumption: “Price is based on normal working hours, Monday–Friday. Off-hours work at premium rates as a change.”
Protection, cleanup and disposal
Protecting finished floors until turnover, cleaning at completion, and hauling away scraps, packaging and removed flooring all cost labor and fees. If the specs make you responsible for protection from other trades, price the material and the replacement risk — or exclude damage by others.
How do you price mobilization on a flooring job?
Count the mobilizations the schedule and phasing require, then price each one with crew loading, travel and setup time plus truck and parking costs. State the number of mobilizations your price includes.
How do you price night work in a construction bid?
Include any overtime owed by law or shift premiums you pay, adjust production for slower night productivity, and state that your base price assumes normal hours unless off-hours work is required by the bid documents.
Who moves furniture on a flooring renovation?
It depends on the contract. Often it's the owner or a mover, but many specs put it on the flooring contractor. Confirm it in the documents and either price it or exclude it in writing.
Key points
- Mobilizations come from the schedule and phasing, not square footage.
- Access, occupied space and off-hours work are separate, priced lines.
- State the assumptions so extra trips and night work become changes.
Mobilization set per proposal
IntelBid proposals carry a mobilization fee you set for each proposal — seeded from your default in Settings and editable per job — so a four-phase renovation and a single-visit tenant fit-out don't carry the same number. Leave it blank and no mobilization line prints.
Start your free trialEvery trial starts with a sample project loaded, so you can try this before connecting anything.
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About the author. Michael Reddy builds IntelBid, bid management software for commercial flooring subcontractors. These lessons come from the bid desk: how the work is priced, won and paid for.