Buy-out is the day a general contractor learns what the underground really costs. The building has been estimated off a structural set and a civil sheet, and then the subcontract bids arrive for foundations, slabs, utilities and the dirt that gets everything to grade. Missing scope between those bids is where margin goes on the northern Front Range, because the dirt, the concrete and the pipe all touch one another and each trade assumes the neighboring one owns the interface.
We bid those packages as one coordinated scope when a general contractor or construction manager wants that, and as separate trade packages when the buyout strategy requires it. Either way we write the bid with quantities visible: cubic yards of excavation and export, linear feet of pipe by size, cubic yards of concrete by element, square feet of slab. A CM with a guaranteed maximum price to defend wants to see the assumptions behind a number, and we show them rather than hiding them in a lump sum.
The calendar is the other half of the conversation. Fort Collins treats the 2024 International Building Code with local amendments as the current code for permits submitted on or after April 1, 2026, and the 2021 codes remain available for reference only until October 1, 2026, so the edition a drawing set was designed to has real consequences for when a permit can be issued. We read the set for that before we price it.
We start by walking the drawings the way a field superintendent would, looking for the places where trades disagree: a footing that crosses a storm line, a slab depression that is deeper than the sewer invert, a pad that needs compaction testing before the underground inspector will release it. Those conflicts go into a written clarification list before the bid, not after the notice to proceed, and our potholing and utility locating work is scheduled early enough to resolve them with actual depths.
After award we run the package through a weekly lookahead the superintendent can adopt: what is excavated, what is inspected, what is poured, what is cured and stripped, and which testing agency is on site each day. Delay claims are made of unrecorded days, so we record them.
Concrete, underground utilities and earthwork are coordinated with qualified trade partners. Excavation, forming, reinforcing and concrete placement are linked through a shared schedule, inspection requirements and documented handoffs, so a general contractor has one project contact and a coordinated schedule, with the handoff requirements documented at each stage. When the engineer asks for a retest of subgrade compaction, the grading trade partner assesses the soft area, records the corrective work and coordinates the retest before placement.
The advantage compounds on a project such as a corporate campus. One large employer's Lincoln Campus in Fort Collins, for context, was planned on 101 acres to reach 660,000 sq ft, and the first two phases alone totaled 363,320 sq ft. Phased work like that rewards a site crew that stays in place between phases for building pad preparation and does not have to remobilize each time a new building is released.
On a frame-driven job the general contractor's critical path runs through our scope in a predictable order: rough grade, deep utilities, footings and stem walls, pad finish, slab. We assemble that order as a series of inspection-gated milestones, because a building inspector can stop any link in the chain. The footing inspection precedes the pour, the underground inspection precedes the backfill that supports the slab, and a slab cannot be placed on a pad that has not been proof-rolled and tested.
Weather is a trade we plan for, not a surprise. Fort Collins design criteria set a 30 inch frost depth and a minimum ground snow load of 50 psf (ultimate) for the smaller risk categories, which tells us the building will be designed for a real winter and that our own winter placements need protection. We write cold-weather concrete measures into the schedule as activities with durations.
A general contractor inherits the safety record of every subcontractor on the job, so we hold our work to the standard a careful superintendent would write. Every trench deeper than five feet is planned with a protective system and a designated competent person, spoil piles are set back from the edge, and haul trucks have a marked route that does not cross pedestrian paths. Dust control is planned before the first cut, not after the first complaint.
On shared sites we hold the daily huddle, submit our task hazard analysis ahead of each new activity, and keep construction equipment out of the crane picks and laydown zones the GC has mapped. If a concurrent trade needs the area we were scheduled to occupy, we would rather re-sequence in the lookahead than argue about it in the field.
When three bids for the same package land far apart, the difference is nearly always an assumption, not a unit price. The common ones are how much dirt is exported versus reused, whether frost-affected topsoil is stripped, whether the slab bid includes the vapor retarder and the joint sawing, and what happens at the interface of the utility sleeves and the footing. We state those assumptions in the bid so a GC can level the proposals.
We also give pricing for a design-assist conversation when it helps. A general contractor deciding between a thickened-edge slab and a perimeter footing, or between mass excavation and a stepped foundation, can ask us for a yardage comparison using the slab-on-grade floor details and concrete foundation details actually drawn.
A concrete package rarely travels alone. General contractors in this metro ask us to carry the concrete testing coordination through concrete testing and quality control, the site utilities from the building to the main, and the parking and flatwork once the building is dried in. Pairing these removes interfaces, and it gives the project one place to ask when a cylinder break is low or a trench fails density.
Many of those same general contractors are building for schools and healthcare owners, for industrial and manufacturing owners, or for the commercial developers who control the parcel in the first place. We tailor the package, the submittals and the inspection regimen to the owner type, and we ask each GC which owner we are really working for before we price.
Send the drawing set, the bid date and the owner type. We will return a package with visible quantities, a stated list of assumptions and the inspection milestones we think will matter on your schedule.
We ask the GC which edition the permit was submitted under and read the structural notes against it. Fort Collins is on the 2024 International Building Code with local amendments for permits submitted on or after April 1, 2026, and the edition affects reinforcing, special inspections and energy-related slab details. Where a set is ambiguous we submit an RFI before the bid closes.
Yes, and we recommend it when the building sits on top of its own utilities. A combined package puts the sleeves, the pipe bedding and the slab edge in one coordination plan, which removes the usual finger-pointing over a sleeve in the wrong place. If your buyout strategy requires separate packages, we bid them separately and document the interface.
Approved reinforcing and mix submittals, a released forming and footing inspection, the testing agency scheduled, and a pump or placement plan that reaches the farthest corner. We keep a seven-day lookahead and confirm the pour forty-eight hours ahead with the concrete supplier, because ready-mix plants book their trucks against weather.
The owner's testing agency performs the special inspections, and we coordinate access, notify them in time and keep the field logs. If a break comes back low, we work with the structural engineer on core samples and a corrective plan, and we report the status to the superintendent the same day.
We hold our pricing for the scope as drawn, and we separate allowances for unknowns such as unsuitable soils or unmarked utilities. That keeps your GMP honest: you know what is firm, what is an allowance, and who bears the risk when the allowance is spent.