I think s/he's alluding to the fact that Fishindude is a builder/contractor, and will push you towards the answer that is best for their profession (i.e. not wasting their theoretical time making bids that won't convert to sales).
True, I am a builder contractor and have purchased millions of dollars worth of subcontractor work. Most home owners have no experience purchasing construction.
What I am suggesting is not
"the answer that is best for their profession". It's how you will get best response from a contractor, and how you will get a good job.
This business of shopping out contractors and going with the low bid, rarely works out favorably for the inexperienced buyer. This is where the contractor horror stories usually originate from.
Have some trust, try to work with somebody, and let them make a few bucks in the deal.
The whole competitive bidding thing originated in the public sector where public entities are required by law to get competitive bids for projects in excess of XX dollars. Joe Homeowner hears about these deals and thinks that's how he should buy his work. The majority of large private corporations that buy construction day in and day out negotiate their contracts with contractors they trust and are familiar with. If they do bid a job it will be a very short list of a couple highly qualified contractors. Public entities in many areas have also seen the value in negotiating work rather than bidding and have raised the dollar threshold where bids are required, so they can negotiate the majority of their projects.
Hire the best guy, not the cheap guy.
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The whole world of low bidding is interesting. I had a neighbor who told me he was a construction cost estimator for a large contractor based in NYC. As I got to know him better, he revealed that his job is actually more disaster preventing than estimating. His company gets a lot of large general contractor agreements with public institutions and the financial industry. He estimates the scope of work for the subcontracts, to develop an estimate as to where the number will be, when the work is let out to bid. He then takes all the bids and works with the low outliers to get them to see the error of their ways, and retract their bids. It may be a math error, it may be inexperience, or it may be a desperate contractor who needs to keep cash flowing, and knows that they will lose money doing the work, but it's a hail Mary pass to keep the doors open. By the time he is done, the job is awarded to a legitimate low bidder, who has enough in the job for it to be a success for all parties.
Doing ten grand worth of concrete at home isn't a lot different in some ways. There are low bidders out there that are going to screw you. They may do it unintentionally and without malice, or they might of intended to screw you before they even took your first call, but it happens. When it comes to the OPs situation, I wouldn't even think of taking a low bid without references and looking at a few recently completed jobs.