Iron Mule Bid Desk — Fractional Bid Desk Section 00 00 01 — Cover

Project manual · Issued for: commercial mechanical & HVAC subcontractors

Send the spec package.
Get your bid sheet back — done.

We read the entire project manual — all of it — flag every risk cited to the page, and return your own Excel bid sheet populated and staged for pricing. 48-hour turnaround. Nothing to install, no seats, no software your estimator will ignore.

Run your next bid — $600

Forward the ITB or reply with a link.
Package back in 48 hours, flat fee, no commitment.

End of section

Section 01 — Findings from a live RFP

SeverityFinding — 153-page school district project manual, ran through the desk in 48 hours
High

The table of contents omitted the rooftop units

Two full spec sections existed in the manual body but not in its TOC — including the packaged rooftop units, the single biggest equipment cost on the job. A bid built from the TOC underbids the project.

Source: 00 01 10 vs. manual body

High

The fire alarm spec was never finished

The section still contained the engineer's internal template instructions and broken paragraph numbering. That's an RFI, not a price — and it's the kind of thing that gets caught at 11pm the night before bid day, or not at all.

Source: 28 46 00

Med

10% retainage, no step-down, plus a $25,000 allowance

Retainage withheld from every payment with release only at final approval, a mandatory contingency allowance to carry, and utility outages restricted to unoccupied hours. All flagged, all cited, all priced knowingly instead of discovered later.

Source: 01 20 00 · 01 21 00 · 01 10 00

Excerpt from an actual deliverable. Ask for the full 15-item risk register — we'll send it.

End of section

Section 02 — What comes back

02.1

Scope matrix

Every spec section mapped: what's yours, what's by others, what needs an RFI before anyone prices it.

02.2

Risk register

Liquidated damages, retainage, bonding, killer clauses, cross-trade traps — severity-ranked and cited to section and paragraph.

02.3

Your bid sheet, populated

Line items staged in your own Excel template — the one you've used for fifteen years — ready for your estimator to price.

02.4

GC proposal letter

Submission letter drafted with your inclusions, exclusions, and clarifications already written from the findings.

End of section

Section 03 — How the desk works

1

Send the package

Forward the ITB email or share the download link — manual, drawings, addenda. That's your whole job.

2

We run it, then review it

The desk reads every page. A human reviews every flag before anything ships. We flag — your estimator decides.

3

48 hours later, it's done

Scope matrix, risk register, populated bid sheet, and letter draft land in your inbox — in your own files.

End of section

Section 04 — Pricing

Pilot — first bid

$600

  • One full bid package
  • 48-hour turnaround
  • No commitment after

The desk — monthly

$1,500/mo

  • Up to 4 bid packages per month
  • $400 per additional bid
  • Your templates, calibrated to your trade
  • One-time setup: $2,500

Rush

+$250

  • 24-hour turnaround
  • Per package

No software. No seats. No annual licenses. You're buying finished work, not another login.

End of section

Section 05 — Questions

We already run estimating software.

Good — keep it. Those are tools your estimator has to operate. We're labor: the work arrives done, in your own sheet. Most of our findings are the ones software surfaces and a busy estimator never has time to read.

Who sees our numbers?

Nobody. We sign your NDA before the first package, your pricing never enters the deliverables — we stage line items, your estimator prices them — and we never work for two competitors on the same bid.

What if you miss something?

Every deliverable is marked "prepared for estimator review" — we flag, cited to the page, and your estimator decides. We're the second set of eyes that reads all 153 pages, not a replacement for the first.

Which trades?

Commercial mechanical and HVAC subcontractors today. Electrical is next. If you're a $3M–$30M sub bidding plan-and-spec work, the desk was built for you.

Your next bid is the test. Send the spec package and $600. If the deliverables don't save your estimator a full day, that's the last you'll hear from us.
Send a spec package

bids@ironmulelabs.com