Masonry Tenders

Published21st June 2020 AuthorJohn Hudson

Masonry Tenders – How to bid for Masonry Contracts

Are you looking to branch out and start tendering for masonry contracts? Then this blog is for you. We’ve compiled our inside knowledge of masonry tenders so that you know what’s what when it comes to bidding for these.

As you’ll know, masonry tenders will be released by buyers who need to procure stonework or stonework repairs.

What’s different about the public sector?

Public sector tenders are a great way to secure a sustainable income for your company and build up a credible portfolio of professional references

So, what should you expect from masonry tenders in the public sector?

Tender documentation

Tender documentation for masonry tenders will mostly remain standardised across buyers and contract types within the construction industry. Masonry tenders may include:

A PAS 91.

This is a standardised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for construction related procurement which is used nationally. PAS 91s are the construction sector’s answer to a typical PQQ you’ll find in public tenders for other sectors.

These ensure that buyers engage companies which are safe and ethical – particularly important in the construction industry.

PAS 91s have the same structure every time for ease of use across the sector. You’ll have to answer questions in the following sections:

  • Company structure and details;
  • Financial data;
  • Insurances;
  • Environmental management;
  • Quality management;
  • Equal opportunities and diversity;
  • Health and safety;
  • Project specific questions.

Don’t worry if this sounds overwhelming. Certain accreditations exempt you from answering some sections of a PAS 91, for example:

  • ISO 14001 exempts you from answering the Environmental Management section;
  • ISO 9001 exempts you from answering the Quality Management section;
  • CHAS or OHASAS 18001 exempts you from answering the Health and Safety section;
  • Constructionline Gold exempts you from the majority of questions asked.

Constructionline Bronze and Silver will exempt you from some sections too. It’s worth looking into obtaining these accreditations as it will streamline your bidding for masonry tenders.

If you’re still stuck, our bid writing consultants at Hudson Succeed could help.

Method statements

Buyers will want to see you demonstrate your competency through written quality responses or method statements. These will appear further down in the tender documentation. These method statements may cover the following subjects:

  • Your service delivery plan. How will you deliver the requirements within the specification? What machinery will you use? How long will it take you to complete each task?
  • Contract mobilisation. Buyers might want to know your processes for how you will ensure that the contract is ready to commence on the stipulated date. Activities to complete here may entail:
    • Any necessary recruitment;
    • Additional training;
    • Ordering of equipment and/or materials;
    • Internal and external meetings;
    • Site visits.

It may be beneficial here to include a mobilisation plan – either a table within the response document or a Gantt chart as an appendix. This acts as a visual representation of which tasks you’ll undergo and how long it will take you to complete them.

  • Your staff. Here, it may be applicable to list your proposed project team, as well as their experience and qualifications. Staff development may also be relevant in this question. Points to cover could include what training (induction and ongoing) staff must undergo. Comprehensive and documented training demonstrates that staff are competent to deliver buyers’ requirements.
  • Health and Safety. Such questions may cover risk management, approach to Health and Safety or live site management. Here you could attach relevant company documentation to show your compliance and procedures. It will be important to break Health and Safety questions down, as they often ask about a ‘theme’ which has multiple elements to cover. Create subheadings here to make sure you cover everything relevant.
  • Quality assurance. Achieving zero defects, maintaining a skilled workforce and functioning machinery, monitoring your supply chain. Some companies struggle to describe concrete quality assurance processes. It’s important to mention ‘real’ or ‘concrete’ processes that can be documented and not concepts that are not anchored in best practice.
  • Environmental considerations. How do you minimise the impact of your service on the environment? This may be your approach to vehicle use, your choice of suppliers or recycling initiatives, to name a few.
  • Business continuity. How can you ensure that you can still deliver your services in the instance of an unforeseen event, such as inclement weather or staff absences? Some companies may have a Business Continuity plan or policy which underpins their approach here. Business continuity is important to buyers because they want to make sure that their suppliers will be able to deliver the work on time and on budget.

A pricing schedule

Masonry tenders will certainly include a pricing schedule. Your success will be determined by a combination of your pricing and method statement scores. It’s important to think carefully about your pricing to ensure that you fill in all fields with appropriate rates. Price competitively, but not abnormally low. Buyers reserve the right to clarify or disqualify any rates they deem abnormally low. Be reasonable and go with your instinct. Remember that you know your business best and are therefore in the best position to price your services.

But which public sector organisations will be procuring masonry work?

It could be councils, hospitals, universities or housing associations. Private tenders could be from a wide range of organisations and could require masonry services on any type of building all across the country.

Masonry tenders may appear in a variety of contract formats. These are reflective of the scope of work and the buyer’s requirements. They could be:

  • Single supplier contracts. One winner takes all. This will be the bidder with the best price and quality score combined. Winning these is harder for start-ups or new companies.
  • Framework agreements. The best proportion of bidders are successful. You’ll then be called off to bid for works, so being successful on a framework doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll definitely deliver work.
  • Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS). The best options for newer companies. DPS’ are like frameworks, but successful organisations are added to the register as and when. If you’re unsuccessful, you can apply again. Once successful, you’ll be called off for work like on a framework.

Things to bear in mind when drafting your responses

  1. Review the requirements

Make sure you look through the tender documentation so that you understand all requirements when it comes to submission. Equally, look over the specification and incorporate it into your responses. Directly addressing the buyer’s requirements is a sure-fire way to enhance your quality score.

Having a robust process for reviewing documentation will also save you time. It will prevent you from being halfway through creating a proposal and then realising you cannot meet one of the requirements.

  1. Check, check, and check again

This goes for the entirety of your tender response. PAS 91s have many fields to fill and certain attachments to append. Buyers have the right to disqualify your tender response if you don’t attach what is requested. Thoroughly review your response to ensure that you haven’t missed anything.

Similarly, if you’re the kind of person who leaves gaps to return to, make sure you’ve not left these blank! It goes without saying that complete tender submissions are the most advantageous, so don’t submit something you’ve not rigorously checked over.

  1. Give detail

For everything. This not only shows that you’ve read the specification, but also that you’ve thought about your processes. Drill down on your procedures and the way you’ll tackle the service delivery. Each sentence should have a point. Generic statements have no place in tender responses and should relate to how you’ll deliver requirements or describe the benefits of your service delivery.

  1. Plan your responses

Creating subheadings from the question will help with this. Planning responses will ensure that you give the best answer you can, while also keeping you on track. This will also give you an opportunity to have your wider team feed in where necessary, as it will identify gaps.

How can Hudson help you with Masonry Tenders?

If you’re searching for masonry tenders, Construction Tenders from Hudson Discover could help you. While other portals rely on CPV codes, Hudson Discover uses real people, Opportunity Trackers, to source daily contract opportunities for our portal customers. You’ll receive a daily email bulletin with all tenders relevant to your service offering. So, if you’re wondering how to find masonry tenders while also running your business, look no further than Construction Tenders.

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox. The bulletin contains all the relevant small, and larger, construction tenders that we have uploaded that day.

Below are some masonry tenders sourced on our portal:

Flint and Masonry Repair of Ancient Monuments

In-Tend Shared Services- Eastern- Budget: £100,000

Masonry (Brick and Block) Works Breadsall Primary School

Derbyshire County Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Underpinning, Repairs to Masonry and Reinstatement Works – Oakwood Road

London Borough of Hillingdon- London- Budget: £140,000

Masonry Repairs to the Art Block at Taunton Campus

Bridgwater and Taunton College- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

Masonry Repairs St Helen’s Church, Worcester

PCC All Saints, Worcester- West Midlands- Budget: £220,000

Our Opportunity Trackers manually scour and upload masonry tenders from hundreds of sites across the UK. You are able to filter the results by budget, location, keyword and more. This saves you even more time. Our Construction Tenders portal also hosts opportunities across the construction industry.

And if you’ve found a construction contract you like the look of but don’t know where to begin, have a chat with our expert consultants at Hudson Succeed. They have four support packages to help you see success in your construction bids. Get in touch for more information.

Need help writing your next tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next structural engineering tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

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