What are my options for construction
services?
You
have three general options for service providers for construction services:
F&S Construction Services, Job Order Contracting, or outside contractors.
Facilities & Services assists with procuring services from any of these
providers.
Generally, the table below explains your options on the providers.
| Options | Under bid limit | Over bid limit |
| Facilities & Services Construction Services | Yes | Yes |
| Outside contractor through Contractor Services Request System | Yes | No |
| Outside contractor through bid process | No | Yes |
| Job Order Contracting | Yes | Yes |
However, if you contact an outside contractor asking them to provide you an estimate about a job or project, you no longer have the option to use F&S Construction Services. This is a one-way door. Per the Illinois State Board of Higher Education and Illinois Procurement laws, F&S cannot directly compete with outside construction providers. Therefore, whenever you involve outside contractors you cannot return to F&S.
When do I get to choose which construction service provider I use and when
am I told who I must use?
This is a loaded question. First and foremost, we will not tell you whom you must use. You have choices. Our job is to let you know what your choices
are and which would be most likely to deliver what you need, when you need
it, for the best possible cost. We will let you know when rules and regulations
prohibit certain choices, however.
What ways do you structure your estimates for construction?
You can request a fixed-cost price or a time and material budget. Outside
contractors offer a not-to-exceed option. We cannot at this time structure
our projects this way. Speak with your coordinator and he or she can advise
your proceeding under one format or the other. Depending on the project,
your best interests might be to prefer one format over the other.
If I want to hire an outside contractor for work that I know is under the
bid limit, what do I do?
You use the Contractor Services Request System. You must go to the site
and begin the request to use an outside contractor before you speak with
any concerning your project. After you have completed as much of the request
as you can, you submit it to us. At this point we preliminarily review your
work description and bring to your attention any considerations you need
to make when discussing the work with contractors. You will receive a email
through the system altering you that you can begin discussions with contractors.
There are more FAQ’s about this process on the system’s website at http://www.fs.uiuc.edu/contractor-services/index.cfm.
What if I am
not comfortable with the estimate that F&S Construction
Services provided for my job because I am not familiar enough with what is
reasonable? Without other prices to compare to, how can I be assured that
I am getting a fair price?
We
know that our door is one way and that if you go outside to speak with an
outside contractor,
you cannot
come back and use our services. In many
ways this assures that we are providing you our best price and the fairest
price we can. If you have doubts as to the price, speak with your project
coordinator who can outline where the costs come from. Project coordinators
are also equipped and knowledgeable enough to give you an honest and reasonably
accurate picture of your specific job and F&S’ ability to perform
that work. They will also recommend the use of an outside contractor when
the situation warrants.
Do I have to comply with building standards?
Generally,
yes, standards exist to assure that buildings are safe, alterations in
one area don’t
have a negative impact on other areas, and facilities are constructed to
continue to serve the needs of future generations of students
and staff. A variance process does exist and is explained on our Facilities
Standards website. Visit http://www.fs.uiuc.edu/uiucapp/newintro2.cfm.
Can I have a
project coordinator help me to develop my scope even if I know I don’t want to use F&S
Construction Services?
Yes, you can hire our project coordinators to work on developing the project
scope so you can go outside and get estimates from outside contractors. They
can even tell you if you are getting near or over the bid limit and would
need to go through preparing the project out for bid.
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