Construction bidding a tricky business

Bidding for a construction job is a good bit more than adding up the direct costs — the sticks and bricks — and throwing in a profit margin.A truckload of other factors are involved, such as the costs of portable toilets, temporary electricity, crane time and trash containers, factors that contractors call "indirects."
While indirects are only estimated costs, they can make up as much as 10 percent to 15 percent of a total bid, said Terry Rutterford, chief estimator for Hensel Phelps Construction Co., a 60-year-old company headquartered in Greeley that builds nationally and internationally.
Probably the company˜s most…