procuring special inspection services

[MikeE55]

I'm curious as to the different ways to hire a special inspection firm. Many of our clients prefer to hire a qualified favorite firm and just pay their hourly costs on a monthly basis, but some clients prefer to have a "fixed fee." I have found that a fixed fee is nearly impossible to arrange, since the services are coordinated by the General Contractor, and it is not fair to ask the testing firm to price something out of their control. I have also tried an estimated lump sum fee, where the testing firm gives a lump sum, but it is an estimate only - the costs are still billed hourly. This leads to firms giving an artificially lower price to make their proposal look better. Does anyone have a better idea?

 

[Signious]

Depending on the scope of the inspection, I would just send out a request for bids on a flat fee.

That is what we do in our shop - you make money on some jobs and lose money on some jobs, but if you have half decent records it comes out as a wash. We just took the average time for each job including travel, added a 10% surcharge for incidentals and there was our per-inspection flat fee.

Once you start going out of the city, either add an appropriate fee (50km out of the city, 2 guys at $35 an hour means a $70 surcharge)

 

[Ron]

No! No! No! Special Inspection services should be done under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer. For that reason, in my opinion, bidding is wrong.

Select the firm based on qualifications of the individuals. Pay them a reasonable hourly rate for their services. Allow them to give an estimate of total cost, but don't hold them to that. As you say, it is not fair to have them obligated to one group and coordinated by another.

Inspection services are important. They are part of the QC/QA/QV process and should hold a much higher priority than most give them.

 

[gtaw]

I always include a clause in the project specification that the cost of the initial inspection is paid by the Owner, and all subsequent reinspection is performed by the contractor responsible for the noncompliant work. That gets the contractor's attention and provides a financial reason to do the work properly the first time.

This approach provides the inspection agency a means of providing the Owner with a reasonable estimate of cost for the initial inspection. All reinspections are performed on an hourly basis at the contractor's expense. Even when reinspections are needed, there is a financial incentive to make sure all the items on the punch list are completed before calling the inspection agency.

Best regards - Al

 

[EngineeringEric]

We provide a quoted estimate that is based on how many inspections we think will be required. We then add 15%. We bill hourly and when we get to 90% of the fee we contact the owner and let them know we are going over and that is what our proposal outlines.

We never bid, we have never been undercut (to the best of my knowledge), we have worked as the SI#1 while being the EOR, we have been the EOR and not the SI, we have been the SI#1 and not the EOR.

Do not hire a firm that uses technicians to be the inspectors, they are not qualified and their work is below sub-par. Tech are great for sampling and some things but are not worth much when it comes to being Agent #1, IMHO. Sorry if i seem harsh on the techs, i just dealt with a problem related to this and lost my Saturday.