I plan on going over a few of your questions at the board meeting.
This was one snap shot of the UCLA bidding result at the moment you checked the website. UCLA has the right to reject all bids for any reason and rebid the project. I stick to what I said in my last post.I can see UCLA publishes their bidding results on projects. Project P026 shows all bids rejected.
This was gone over a few times. Please come to the board meeting, on this topic. I will let you know what Thursday meeting.It was said hiring the consultant was a bad idea and we didn't need him. Maybe just the act of hiring him got the government to approve us once they saw we were serious.
It is the profit margin that the contractors are cutting. I certainly hope that the labor rate increases to compensate the inflation rate.I am still not convinced contractors are lowering their rates. The US Labor Department just released their Beige Book with this report for our area and no mention of reduced labor rates in construction:
If you want to discuss economic activity you should look back to a year ago. Things have picked up recently. I’m speaking on what I see on a daily basis, not read."Economic activity in the Twelfth District continued to grow at a moderate pace during the reporting period of January through mid-February. Price increases for final goods and services were limited, and upward wage pressures were minimal. Sales of retail items rose on balance, and demand improved modestly for business and consumer services. District manufacturing was mixed but appeared to expand overall. Demand grew further for agricultural producers but was uneven for providers of energy resources. Activity in District housing markets remained sluggish, and demand for nonresidential real estate stayed weak overall. Financial institutions reported a small increase in overall loan demand.�
UCLA has to always bid competitively. It is a law. We can only accept the lowest bidder.My oldest brother represents UC Irvine on the UC Sentate and months ago their biggest concern was was the tear gassing of student protesters over the higher tuition and fees. Along with the Obama administrations pressure on UC to hold back costs this may have contributed to UCLA management starting to bid more competitively.
Most of the small contractors that might be interested in bidding our gazebo project and your home improvement project, probably won't qualify to bid most of the UCLA projects. Our projects are too big for them.Also if UCLA is starting more construction projects this will reduce the overall available supply of contractors to the rest of us and cause them to raise their rates.
Please come to the next meeting and you won't have to imagine what the contractor did. Have you seen the contract?The only real screw up I saw while working on the Concrete portion was being shipped re-bar that was too small in diameter that what was ordered and it was not caught until the inspector blocked the concrete pour. The contractor remedied the situation and the inspector approved us. I imaging the contractor ate that cost.
It doesn't take a seasoned contractor to know it is not a good idea to pour concrete at 104 degrees. Concrete needs water to cure and it takes 28 days minimum.The contractor mentioned he also years ago installed a swimming pool but as he was pouring the heat increased to 104 and the concrete set too quickly. He had to jackhammer the whole pool out and start over. A lesson thankfully learned before we poured our foundation and deck.
The extra robust Pavilion foundation was due to the raised container storage. The higher the deck is raised, the deeper the foundation has to be and most certainly, the more expensive it gets.I am currently researching the flood that overtook the Pacoima dam spillway around 1971ish and killed 2 or 3 people on and around Gridley street. The Army Corp of Engineers moved thousands of trucks of sediment trapped at the Lopez dam and constructed at least 2 berms to protect Symlar from floods. If we built on the berm then it would be as volatile as the San Francisco Marina district which is built from landfill and is subject to increased damage every earth quake from liquefaction. The extra robust Pavilion foundation may have been a good idea.
If we built on the berm then it would be as volatile as the San Francisco Marina district which is built from landfill and is subject to increased damage every earth quake from liquefaction. The extra robust Pavilion foundation may have been a good idea.
This will be discussed during the month of "Design competition and project development". The extra robust is redundant.
Doug, thank you for your input. If you would like to discuss this over the weekend my number is in the directory.
Better yet. If you had the time and wanted to come to UCLA, I’d walk you through some job sites and go over a few questions.