Common Exclusions in Subcontractor Bids, by Trade

Short answer: The exclusions subcontractors list most often are cleanup and disposal (52%), testing and inspection (50%), permits and fees (49%), and patching and painting (47%). Without the largest organization, those shares are 47%, 47%, 46%, and 43%. They come from 1,526 bids that state an exclusion, across 19 organizations, as our AI read them.

By trade, Metals and Electrical bids exclude at least one of your scope line items most often, at 69% each (75% and 69% without the largest organization). General Requirements bids do so least, at 46% (44% without it).

All figures come from our bid benchmark snapshot of October 11. Each table gives the value with and without the largest organization in the sample, because one organization supplies a large share of most samples. The method is at the end, under How we measured.

Which exclusions do subcontractors list most often?

Cleanup, testing, permits, and patching each appear in about half of all exclusion lists. Every row below is the share of bid exclusion lists that name the category. The sample is 1,526 leveled bids that state at least one exclusion, from 478 packages, 49 projects, and 19 organizations. The largest organization holds 32% of those bids. The figures are AI-detected: our AI read each exclusion from the bid document.

One bid's list can name several categories, so the rows do not add up to 100. The top rows share one trait. Each is work that more than one party could carry: the general contractor, the owner, or another trade. No single subcontractor owns cleanup, testing, or permits unless your bid documents assign it.

Which trades exclude the most scope?

Metals and Electrical bids exclude at least one of your scope line items most often, at 69% each. Concrete follows at 67%. The share counts leveled bids that leave out one or more line items on the package's scope sheet. A line item counts as excluded when the bid's coverage marks it excluded, whether the bid says so in its exclusion list or simply leaves the item out. All of these figures are AI-detected.

"Not published" means too few packages or organizations remain once the largest organization is set aside. Read those five rows with more caution. Equipment, Conveying Equipment, Communications, and Utilities had too few packages to publish at all.

How often does the low bid exclude scope?

The low bid excludes at least one line item in 71% of leveled packages (69% without the largest organization). That figure covers 219 packages from 49 projects and 19 organizations, each with two or more comparable prices, all leveled. It is AI-detected. In most packages, then, you must plug the low bid's gaps before you know whether it is still low.

Unclear scope adds to the risk. 38% of leveled bids leave at least one line item unclear, meaning the bid neither includes nor excludes it (45% without the largest organization). That sample is 4,696 bids from 1,555 packages, 171 projects, and 60 organizations, and it is AI-detected.

How many bids exclude a scope line item?

58% of leveled bids exclude at least one scope line item (59% without the largest organization). 32% of leveled bids had exclusions captured as Exclusions rows in Consight (35% without the largest organization). Both figures are AI-detected, over 4,696 bids from 1,555 packages, 171 projects, and 60 organizations.

The bids with Exclusions rows come from 19 of the 60 organizations. So the 32% measures which bids hold Exclusions rows, not what every bid document says, and the two figures do not compare directly.

The share holds when an estimator checks the calls. Counting only estimator-reviewed calls, 57% of bids exclude a line item (65% without the largest organization). That sample is 2,570 bids from 929 packages, 142 projects, and 56 organizations. Read the exclusion list first, then check every scope line the list does not mention.

What should you check in each trade's exclusions?

This section draws on the spec sections and the sources linked below, not on counts from bids. Check each trade for the categories that sit on its edges, and settle in your bid documents who carries each one. The joint AGC, ASA, and ASC subcontracting guidelines say a subcontractor's bid scope "should reference specification divisions or sections and specifically identify any omissions or additions" (ConsensusDocs).

The ASA Metro Washington chapter warns that "subcontractors tend to carry exclusions as a boiler plate" (ASA Metro Washington). So test each exclusion against your drawings and specs before you plug it.

The table names the CSI MasterFormat section where each scope item can be specified. Section numbers follow the 2016 edition.

What do the codes and standards say about these exclusions?

Some exclusions point to work a code or standard requires, so someone must carry it. Use these to decide whether to plug a bid or assign the work elsewhere.

• Testing and inspection. Under IBC section 1704.2, the owner or the owner's authorized agent, "other than the contractor," employs the special inspection agency. A sub's testing exclusion may be correct for special inspections. Plug only the testing your contract puts on you.
• Hazardous materials. Federal rules require a thorough asbestos inspection of the affected area before demolition or renovation (40 CFR 61.145). Get that survey before you level demolition bids, and carry abatement as its own line until it is clear.
• Bonds. On federal work, the Miller Act, as FAR 28.102-1 restates it, "requires performance and payment bonds for any construction contract exceeding $150,000." If your contract or your own policy requires bonded subs, plug the bond cost for every bid that excludes it.
• Excavation. OSHA requires you to locate underground utilities before digging (29 CFR 1926.651). It also requires trench protection at 5 feet deep or more (29 CFR 1926.652). An earthwork bid that excludes rock or shoring needs a plug or a unit price.
• Winter conditions. ACI 306R-16 calls it cold weather when air falls, or is expected to fall, below 40°F during the protection period (ACI). If you pour in that window, carry heat and protection for any concrete bid that excludes them.
• Hoisting. OSHA's crane rules cover equipment that can "hoist, lower and horizontally move a suspended load" (29 CFR 1926.1400). When a steel or mechanical bid excludes cranes, price the crane time or add it to your general conditions.
• Fire stopping. The Firestop Contractors International Association notes that one listed system is used by "mechanical, plumbing electrical to communications and low voltage" trades (FCIA). Name in each trade's scope who seals its own penetrations, or carry one firestopping package.
• Test and balance. HVAC testing, adjusting, and balancing has its own section and its own certifying bodies, such as NEBB. Check that the HVAC bid or a separate test and balance bid carries it.
• Sprinkler design. NFPA 13 sets sprinkler design and installation. When a fire suppression bid excludes engineering, find out who will produce the design and permit drawings.

How do you plug a common exclusion?

You plug an exclusion by adding your own estimate of the missing work to that bidder's leveled price. That way every bidder is compared on the same scope.

1. Read the bid's exclusion list against your scope sheet, one line at a time.
2. Check every scope line the list does not mention. Silence is not coverage.
3. Decide who should carry each excluded item: this trade, another trade, your general conditions, or the owner.
4. Add a labeled plug for each item this trade should carry, priced from your estimate or another bidder's price.
5. Ask the bidder to confirm or price the gap before award.

Consight reads each bid and sorts the bidder's statements into Inclusions, Exclusions, Alternates, and Qualifications tabs. You then add a plug for missing or unclear scope to the bidder's leveled price. For the full method, read how to find scope gaps in subcontractor bids. For mechanical and electrical packages, see how to level mechanical and electrical bids.

How we measured

Every figure comes from our bid benchmark snapshot dated October 11, computed read-only from production bid data. The snapshot leaves out our own organizations, deleted and archived records, and test, demo, sample, and training projects.

A leveled bid is an active bid with at least one coverage call on a bidder-facing scope line item. Each call marks the line item excluded, included, or unclear. AI-detected figures count every call, whether or not an estimator has reviewed it.

Estimators have confirmed or changed 44% of all coverage calls (40% without the largest organization), a recorded figure over the full sample of 4,696 bids. Of the calls they reviewed, they changed 4% (3% without the largest organization), an estimator-reviewed figure over 2,570 bids. A change may fix the call itself or only its price or note.

A bid's stated exclusions are the Exclusions rows the AI read from the bid document. A category matches on the row's name, so a row worded in an unusual way can miss its category. Trades follow CSI MasterFormat divisions: a package takes the division most of its cost codes name, else the trade its name matches.

The snapshot suppresses any figure from fewer than 5 organizations or fewer than 30 packages. Each figure also has a value without the organization that contributes the most bids. That organization holds 25% or more of the sample in every figure above except Concrete, so each table gives both values. The snapshot has no trend over time. It names no customer and publishes no single bid's amount.