Comparing restaurant buildout bids apples-to-apples: exclusions that hide cost

Why a low headline number may simply cover less work

Hood packages show the problem most clearly. In Is my hood installer trying to take me for a ride?, an owner opening a third restaurant, but installing a new hood for the first time, posted a roughly $75,000 quote that excluded the GC fee, electrical, makeup air plumbing and gas, and roofing. Commenters reported wide price ranges and added more items that sit outside many hood quotes, including tempered makeup air, roof curbs, crane time and permits. Their most common advice was to get more quotes. In California - Type 1 hood questions, an owner expanding to a second location said a verbal hood number of about $40,000 to $45,000 became about $65,000 once the contractor itemized it.

Neither thread shows anyone acting in bad faith, and we read the original posts plus some comments, not every reply. What they show is how easily two numbers that look like the same thing turn out to cover different work. A bidder who excludes the roof and electrical will tend to look cheaper on paper than one who includes them. That makes the bid less complete, not necessarily better value. Leveling is how you separate those two possibilities before you sign.

Write one scope package that every bidder prices

Comparison starts before anyone quotes. Send every bidder the same drawings, equipment schedule and written scope narrative, along with a bid form that breaks the job into the lines you want priced. If the drawings are not finished, say so and list the assumptions every bidder must use: the hood length and type, whether makeup air must be heated, the expected roof route, who supplies the equipment, and who files for permits. Ask for any deviation from the scope to be stated on the form instead of buried in the cover letter.

Fix the commercial terms at the same time. Tell every bidder whether the price should include general conditions, overhead and fee, how long it must stay valid, the expected start window, and whether working-hour restrictions in your lease apply. A bidder who assumes daytime work in a building that only allows noisy work at night is not pricing the same job. For a multi-site group, keep this package as a template. Every bid you level teaches you which lines contractors tend to leave out.

The exclusion checklist: items owners actually run into

Go through each bid against a fixed list and mark every item as included, excluded, an allowance or silent. Silent is the dangerous category. If a bid says nothing about the crane, do not assume it is included. Ask. The list below draws on the items named in the hood threads above, plus the systems a kitchen buildout normally touches. It is a starting checklist, not a code list. Your designer and local authority decide what the job actually requires.

• Hood, exhaust fan, grease duct, and the duct's fire-rated enclosure or wrap where the design requires it
• Hood fire-suppression system, its connection to gas shutoff, and the fire alarm interface
• Makeup air unit, whether it is heated or tempered, and controls interlocked with the exhaust
• Gas piping to the makeup air unit and cook line; meter or service upgrade if needed
• Electrical: fan and makeup air circuits, disconnects, controls wiring, and any panel or service work
• Roof: curbs, cutting, structural framing, flashing, and roofer of record for warranty
• Crane or rigging, street or sidewalk permits for the lift, and after-hours premiums
• Plumbing: floor sinks, grease interceptor, dish machine and hand sinks (see our interceptor article)
• Drawings, engineering, permit filing and who pays the permit fees
• Testing, inspections, balancing reports and closeout documents
• GC overhead, fee, insurance and general conditions if the trade bids directly

Allowances, alternates and fixed prices are different commitments

A fixed price commits the bidder to deliver a defined scope for that number. An allowance is a placeholder for work that is not yet defined, and the final cost is adjusted up or down to the actual cost, often with markup. An alternate is a separately priced option, such as heated makeup air instead of untempered. You can accept or decline it. Bids that rely heavily on allowances can look low because the bidder chose a small placeholder. Change orders later reconcile the difference.

Read each allowance and ask two questions. What exactly does it cover, and does it look realistic for this site? If a bidder carries a small roof allowance on a job where the duct has to cross a large roof, replace that allowance with your own estimate when leveling. Also check how the contract will handle allowance overruns: whether markup applies, and whether you approve the actual cost before work proceeds. That is where leveling meets change-order control, which our related article covers.

Normalizing the numbers with owner plug values

To compare bids that cover different scope, add a plug value to each bid for each item it excludes. Use the same plug for every bidder. The best plugs come from real quotes for the excluded scope, such as an electrician's price for the fan and makeup air circuits or a roofer's price for curbs and flashing. Otherwise use a figure your designer or cost estimator stands behind. Write down where each plug came from. Plugs are your estimates, not facts, so test whether changing one would change the ranking.

Do not plug items every bidder excludes, such as permit fees you will pay directly. They add the same amount to every bid and do not affect the comparison, though they still belong in your budget. Do plug items one bidder includes and another excludes, and items where one bidder's allowance is far below your estimate. The result is a leveled total for the same scope. It is not a prediction of final cost, because unknowns that nobody priced remain.

Hypothetical worked example: three hood bids that rank differently once leveled

All figures are hypothetical. An owner receives three hood and makeup air bids for the same 14-foot line. Bid X is $75,000 and includes tempered makeup air, but excludes electrical, makeup air gas piping, roofing and crane. Bid Y is $88,000, includes roofing and crane, and excludes electrical and gas piping. Bid Z is $66,000 with untempered makeup air, a $3,000 roof allowance, and electrical, gas and crane excluded. Z offers heated makeup air as an $8,500 alternate. The designer confirms heated makeup air is needed for this site, so gas piping applies to Z as well. The owner's plugs come from separate trade quotes: electrical $9,000, gas piping $4,500, roofing $7,000, crane $3,000.

Leveled: X is 75,000 + 9,000 + 4,500 + 7,000 + 3,000 = $98,500. Y is 88,000 + 9,000 + 4,500 = $101,500. Z is 66,000 + 8,500 alternate + 9,000 + 4,500 + 3,000 + 4,000 roof shortfall (the $7,000 plug minus the $3,000 allowance) = $95,000. The headline spread was $22,000. The leveled spread is $6,500. Z still ranks lowest, but by much less, and it depends on the alternate and the allowance.

Now test the roof plug. If the roofer's real number is $10,000 instead of $7,000, X rises to $101,500 and Z to $98,000 (its shortfall grows to $7,000), while Y, which includes roofing, stays at $101,500. X and Y are now tied. That sensitivity tells the owner where to spend clarification effort: get a firm roof price, and ask Z to convert its allowance to a fixed price.

The clarification round: questions in writing, answers into the contract

After leveling, send each bidder a short written list of questions specific to their bid. Ask the same structural questions of everyone: confirm what is included in each silent line, state the warranty and who holds the roof warranty, confirm the schedule and how long the price is valid, and say whether you will convert an allowance to a fixed price. Give a deadline and ask for written answers on letterhead or by email. A phone call is fine for understanding, but only written answers can go into the contract.

Invite revised pricing only on the specific scope you clarified, and tell every bidder the same thing so nobody gets an unfair second look. When you award, attach the bid form, the clarifications and the final scope narrative to the contract as exhibits. If a dispute comes up later about whether the crane or the roof flashing was included, those exhibits answer it. Forum threads cannot.

• Same written question set to every bidder, plus bid-specific questions
• Written answers with a date; no verbal-only scope changes
• Allowances converted to fixed prices where the scope can now be defined
• Final bid form, clarifications and scope narrative attached to the contract

What a high or low bid does and does not tell you

A bid well above the others is not proof of overcharging. It may include scope the others left out, carry more realistic allowances, or reflect a contractor with less appetite for the job. A bid well below the others is not proof of a bargain or of a later change-order strategy. It may come from a contractor with idle crews or a more efficient design. The "take me for a ride" question in the hood thread is the right instinct, but leveling answers it with line items, not suspicion.

Keep the evidence. Save the original bids, your checklist markings, the plug sources, the leveled sheet, the clarification questions and answers, and the reason you chose the winner. For a restaurant group, these files become the cost history for the next site. They also help a lender, a partner, or later a mediator see that the decision was documented.