Parking lots
What should be on a parking lot bid?
A parking lot bid should give the area, the work in the order it happens, the material by name, and how long the lot is out of service.
The numbers
- Square footage of the area being coated, and linear feet of crack being filled.
- The material by name, not by category.
- Repairs listed separately from the surface work, with the depth stated.
- Striping counted by line: stalls, arrows, fire lanes, and the marked stalls and access aisles.
- Which layout the striping is going back to, because the city is the one who approved it.
- The cure time, and which areas are out of service when.
The measurements
Sealcoating is measured by the square foot of surface and crack filling by the linear foot of crack, and those are two different numbers doing two different jobs. A bid with one lump sum and no measurements cannot be compared to another bid, and it cannot be checked against what was done.
Repairs get their own lines with the area and the depth. Cutting out and rebuilding sixty square feet full depth and skim patching sixty square feet are not the same work, and only one of them holds.
Striping is its own set of lines too, and the layout it goes back to is not the contractor's to choose. Accessible stall counts, their dimensions and their signs are set by code where the property sits, so the bid should say it is restoring the layout the city approved, and any change to that layout is a conversation with the municipality first. Walk the lot with whoever is bidding and mark what is there now.
The material, by name
Sealer comes in more than one family and they are not interchangeable. Crack filler comes hot or cold and they do not perform the same. Asking for the product name rather than the category is a fair question and it is easy to answer.
Two bids that look close on the total are often two different materials, so the product name is the line that makes them comparable.
The part that affects your week
Sealed asphalt needs a cure before traffic goes back on it, normally 24 to 48 hours, and striping goes on after that. On a lot that cannot close, where that time comes from is the real conversation, so tell whoever is bidding which hours and which areas you cannot lose and get the answer written down.