A well-drafted RFP returns three bids you can put on one page and compare honestly. A vague one returns five bids priced against five different assumptions, and the decision defaults to whoever guessed lowest. The difference is almost entirely in how the scope, the compliance requirements, and the evaluation criteria are written.
Anything missing from this list becomes an assumption the bidder makes on your behalf — and priced assumptions are what make proposals incomparable.
Address, height in storeys, approximate glass area, glazing type, year built, and any known envelope issues. Attach an elevation drawing or a photo set if you have one.
Separate line items for exterior glass, interior glass, frames and mullions, awnings and canopies, hard-surface pressure washing, and parkade cleaning. Bidders should be able to price each one independently.
State the intended cycle per line item, plus blackout dates, tenant-sensitive hours, and any events the schedule has to work around.
Anchor inventory and last certification date, roof access route, davit or monorail equipment on site, and any known restrictions such as lane closures or heritage facades.
The documents listed below, with a clear statement that a submission missing any of them is non-responsive.
A fixed table the bidder fills in — per visit, per line item, per year — so the numbers arrive comparable rather than as a narrative.
Published in the document, with the weightings visible. This is what stops the process from defaulting to lowest price.
Deadline with time zone, format, delivery method, contact for questions, question cut-off date, and the date answers will be circulated to all bidders.
The single largest source of bid variance is scope language that can be read two ways.
"Clean all exterior glass quarterly" leaves open whether frames, mullions, sills, and interior faces are included, whether ground-floor storefront is counted separately, and whether the podium roof glazing is in or out. Each bidder resolves that differently and the pricing spread follows.
Write scope as a list of surfaces with a frequency attached to each one, and state the unit — elevation, storey range, square footage, or count of openings. Where you genuinely do not know a quantity, say so and ask bidders to state the assumption they priced against. An assumption written down can be corrected; an assumption made silently becomes a change order.
Separate recurring work from one-time work. Post-construction cleaning, glass restoration, and initial deep cleans should be priced as distinct items, not folded into a recurring rate that then looks inexplicably high.
In British Columbia these are the items that separate a responsive bid from one that cannot legally perform the work.
Requiring these at submission rather than at award matters. A contractor who cannot produce a current WorkSafeBC clearance letter or an insurance certificate in your entity's name during the bid window will not magically produce one after they have won, and by then the alternative bidders have moved on.
Weightings stated up front change the quality of what you receive, because bidders write to the criteria they can see.
A common workable split for a mid-rise or high-rise property is compliance and safety as a pass/fail gate, then roughly 35 percent price, 25 percent method and scope fit, 20 percent references, and 20 percent reporting and communication. Adjust the weightings to your building — but publish whatever you choose, and score against it in writing so the award is defensible to an owner, a board, or a council.
Each of these reliably widens the pricing spread or shrinks the bidder pool.
Ten to fifteen business days is a workable window for a single building, and three to four weeks for a portfolio or anything requiring a site visit. Anything shorter usually produces either padded pricing or bids from contractors who did not walk the building.
Stating a range is usually better than stating nothing. Without one, bidders guess at the standard you expect and the spread comes back so wide it is not comparable. A range keeps proposals within a scope you can actually evaluate side by side.
In British Columbia, a current WorkSafeBC clearance letter and a certificate of insurance naming the correct legal entity should both be mandatory at submission, not at award. So should a written fall-protection plan for any work above grade. Treating these as post-award paperwork is how a non-compliant bid wins on price.
Yes, and for buildings above roughly six storeys it is worth it. Anchor condition, drop zones, and pedestrian control drive the price more than glass area does, and a bidder who has not seen the building is either guessing high or will come back with a change order.
Ask for year-one pricing plus a stated escalation method for years two and three. Open-ended 'subject to review' language leaves you renegotiating annually; a fixed index or a capped percentage gives you a number you can carry into a budget or depreciation report.
Once the package is written, these are the pages that carry it forward.
We respond in your format, on your deadline, with structured pricing and full compliance documentation.
Read more →Vendor onboarding, W-9 and WCB details, insurance endorsements, and how to add us to an approved vendor list.
Read more →The documents most RFPs make mandatory, available for download in your entity's name.
Read more →Send it over and we'll respond in your format — or tell you which sections will cause inconsistent bids before you issue it.