How to Read a Parking Lot Re-Striping Bid

Understanding Your Parking Lot Striping Bid

So, you’ve chosen to receive a bid (or bids) on getting your parking lot re-striped. Hopefully, you first read PLOG 1 – How to Gather Bids for Your Parking Lot Striping Project.

Now, how do you read and understand what they’re telling you? The following will help you understand some of the inner workings of the pavement marking world and how Estimators might present their bids to you.

Your Basic Re-Stripe Type Bid

First, it somewhat depends upon the size of your parking lot as to the way the bid is presented. If it’s fairly small (under 50 stalls, perhaps) with very standard markings (one or two handicapped stalls, maybe a directional arrow or two and some small hatch0marked areas), you might see a bid that says something to the effect “Re-Stripe As Is” or “Re-Stripe as Currently Laid Out”. These are perfectly acceptable ways to communicate to you that whatever paint is on the ground, is going to be refreshed. There is nothing wrong with using this approach on much larger bids, too, but I try to put myself in the shoes of the reader and want to provide more detail to help them understand the scope of the project.

There are a couple of caveats to this “Re-Stripe As Is” method. It’s best practice to ensure there is some sort of anti-slip material added to the paint on areas that have a large surface area, like the blue handicapped box or a fully painted Electric Vehicle stall. As I mention in PLOG 1, you can mitigate some slip and fall hazards with the addition of anti-slip products and you’ll want to confirm that is the case with your re-stripe project as well. Having a detailed bid as I outline below, will tell you if anti-slip is included. (NOTE: That sigh you hear is the collective moan from the many contractors who poo-poo this extra precaution.)

The other caveat that might present some potential confusion is if parts of the contiguous property aren’t being re-striped, such as one section of a strip mall. Just make sure you and the contractor are on the same page.

The Lineal Foot and Square Foot Bid

Some contractors choose to create bids by using the Lineal (or Linear) Foot method. They take all of the markings on the ground and convert them to a 4” lineal foot and give you a price per lineal foot.

This, to me, can be confusing and somewhat meaningless to the property owner or facility manager. What does 25,346 lineal feet at X pennies per foot really mean to you? It has some value to the contractor when he calculates his paint needs, but it doesn’t tell the end customer much at all. Or, similarly, they convert to square feet of markings.  It still doesn’t tell you much.

One variation on this type of bid is to simply take the square footage of the entire surface (including the unpainted areas) and give a fixed price per square foot, which is a small fraction of the unit price for paint). This method can create winners and losers, in my opinion. If the contractor has chosen a certain price per square foot to make their bidding simple and fast, they could be short changing themselves if the lot has an extraordinary amount of markings and, conversely, if the lot is rather sparse, the owner might overpay to account for an “average” lot price. I’m a firm believer in win-win for both parties, so these bids make me uneasy on a personal level. Just so there’s no confusion, there is absolutely nothing wrong or unethical in pricing in this way. It’s just too devoid of info for my taste.

The Detailed Line Item Bid

This is the preferred method of bidding within G-FORCE. We have taught all of our G-FORCE Franchise Partners from Day One to use this method. Basically, the contractor figures out how many of each item the parking lot has. How many blue HC stalls with white symbols? How many 20’ stall lines? How many STOP stencils (and what size)? How many STOP bars? How many NO PARKING stencils (and what size)? How many FIRE LANE stencils (and what size)? How many feet of Fire Lane (if applicable), etc., etc.

Then, they list each type of marking on a separate Line Item along with the quantity. Some contractors will also list the unit price (example Parking Stall Line as $X.xx per stall). Others will hide unit pricing and give you a final Total only, to protect their unit pricing from competitors (a perfectly legitimate concern).

You may find a fair amount of detail on these Line Items or they might be rather simple and generic. Some contractors over-complicate their bids while others over-simplify. There’s no perfect answer. If you have questions about descriptions (or lack thereof) in the Line Items, don’t hesitate to ask your contractor for clarification.

Price Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

Now that you’ve gathered some bids, how do you choose which one?

If price is the sole determining factor, you have your answer. First, be certain you are comparing apples to apples. What sort of paints are they using? What sort of machinery is used?  Or, are they going to hand roll the lines? (Good grief!)  Are they insured? What’s their online reputation like? If you prefer one contractor over the one who provided the lowest bid, you might attempt to negotiate. But, you may well find some resistance here. There’s a better than even chance that a bid that is way out of line was from an inexperienced contractor or one who doesn’t have proper modern day equipment (they should have airless machines and lasers).

I will expand on how to choose a contractor in my next PLOG.

Conclusion

Hopefully, I helped shed a little light on how to read and understand your Parking Lot Re-Stripe Bid and you’ll recognize some of what has been discussed above. As the customer, you’re in the driver’s seat. Ask good questions. Get answers in writing. Choose wisely! I can’t count how many times we’ve lost a bid only to hear regrets later on from the customer who went with the lowest bid.

Salute!