AEC definitions
A bid package is the set of documents a bidder is asked to price. For a whole project it includes drawings, specifications, the bid form, instructions, and addenda. A general contractor also builds trade bid packages that carve the same documents into subcontractor scopes.
Definition
The package defines the question the price answers. Missing addenda, a scope sheet that contradicts the specifications, or a drawing list that does not match the files all produce numbers that cannot be compared. On a GC's bid day, the trade packages are how mechanical, electrical, and concrete bidders know what they own, including the Division 01 items that have no tab of their own. After award, the same word is used for early packages in fast-track work, such as a foundation package issued before the interiors exist.
In depth
Instructions to bidders, the bid form, sample agreement, general and supplementary conditions, drawings, specifications, and reports the bidder is told to rely on. Geotechnical data is included or expressly disclaimed. Do not leave that ambiguous.
A table of contents for the package is not decoration. It is how a bidder knows the PDF is complete.
Who owns flashing, firestopping, cutting and patching, and temporary power is decided in the scope sheet, consistent with the specifications. If the sheet and Division 01 disagree, bidders will exclude the work and the gap will be unowned.
Overlaps are as costly as gaps. Two trades each carrying the same pumps is not a problem you want to discover after both have signed.
Number them and require acknowledgment. A trade package sent once, and never updated when addendum 3 changes that trade, is an invitation to a wrong number.
Late addenda should move the bid time. A package that changes an hour before the deadline is not a package everyone priced.
A foundation package issued for bid becomes scope when it is awarded. Later architectural revisions that affect the foundations are changes, not 'completion of the design,' unless the contract said the package was partial and defined the gap.
Say what is not in the package. Silence will be read as inclusion by one side and exclusion by the other.
If each mechanical bidder received a different narrative, you cannot level them. Send one package. Record questions and answer them to everyone.
After the numbers arrive, leveling checks inclusions, not only the total. The package is the ruler.
Examples
The project bid package lists 120 drawings and 40 specification sections. Addendum 1 is an additional file every bidder acknowledges.
The drywall trade package assigns firestopping at gypsum assemblies to the drywall bidder and assigns through-penetration firestopping at rated walls to the mechanical bidder, in writing.
A structural package is bid in January. The June architectural set lowers a footing. That change is priced against the awarded package.
Tooling
Nomic can cite the drawing, the specification section, and the scope sheet that mention an item, which is how a bid package is checked for gaps before it goes out.
It does not decide the bid or level the prices. The estimating team does.
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