Commercial Plumbing Proposal Template, With a Finished Example

A residential plumbing quote goes to a homeowner who wants to know what they get and what it costs. A commercial plumbing proposal goes to a general contractor, a property manager or a building owner who is lining your number up against two or three others, line by line, against a set of drawings. The scope is bigger, but the real difference is that every gap in your proposal becomes somebody else's assumption, and on commercial work those assumptions turn into unpaid extras.

This post covers what a commercial plumbing bid needs that a residential one does not, section by section, then shows a finished example for a restaurant tenant fit-out. If you mostly quote houses, the residential format lives in how to write a plumbing proposal.

What a commercial plumbing proposal adds

1. Basis of bid. Name exactly what you priced: the plumbing drawings and their revision and date, the spec section (plumbing is Division 22 in most spec books), and every addendum you are acknowledging. When the architect issues a revised sheet after award, this paragraph is what makes the change an extra instead of an argument.

2. Scope tied to the drawings.Describe the work by system: sanitary and vent, domestic cold and hot water, grease waste, indirect waste, storm if it is yours, and gas if it is yours. Say where your work starts and stops, for example “from the existing 4-inch sanitary stub at the rear wall” or “from the tenant water meter.”

3. Fixture and equipment schedule.List every fixture and piece of equipment with its quantity and who supplies it. On a restaurant job the kitchen equipment is often supplied by the owner's kitchen supplier and only connected by you. Spell out which is which.

4. Inclusions and explicit exclusions. Commercial disputes start in the gaps between trades. Say who does the coring, the fire-stopping of your penetrations, saw-cutting, excavation and backfill under the slab, pipe insulation, gas piping, backflow testing, permits and fees, and electrical connections to your equipment. If it is not yours, write it down as excluded.

5. Bonding and insurance. State whether you can provide a bid bond or a performance and payment bond if the job requires one, and that you will provide a certificate of insurance naming the parties the contract requires. Do not promise limits you do not carry.

6. Schedule and phasing. Commercial plumbing happens in visits, not one stretch: underground rough-in, in-wall rough-in, inspections, then setting fixtures after finishes. Give working days per phase and the conditions each one waits on, and say whether any work has to happen after hours because the building stays open.

The pricing sections

• Base bid: one price for the documented scope, often shown as a short schedule of values so the GC can bill against it.
• Alternates: priced options the owner can accept or decline, written as an add or a deduct to the base bid.
• Unit prices: agreed rates for the extras you can see coming, such as an added floor drain or an hourly crew rate for out-of-scope work, so a change order is arithmetic instead of a negotiation.
• Payment terms: monthly progress billing against the schedule of values is common, with retainage (holdback in Canada) withheld until completion. The retainage percentage, release timing and lien rules vary by state, province and contract, so follow the contract and check your local rules rather than picking a number.
• Change orders: no extra work without a written change order, priced from your unit prices where one applies.
• Warranty, validity and signature: how long your workmanship warranty runs and from when, how long the price holds, and a signature block for the party actually contracting with you.

Licensing requirements, prevailing wage and certified payroll also vary by state, province and job. If the bid documents call for them, address them in the proposal; if you are not sure what applies, check with your licensing body before you bid.

A worked example: restaurant tenant fit-out

Here is a finished example for a 2,400 sq ft restaurant in a strip plaza unit, bid to the general contractor. The names, addresses and numbers are fictional; swap in your own.

Notice what the example does not leave open. The GC knows which sheets you priced, who cuts the slab, who fire-stops, what an extra floor drain costs, and when you need the trench open. A low number with a vague exclusions list worries a careful GC more than a higher one that says exactly what is covered.

Base bid, alternates and unit prices: why all three

The base bid wins or loses the job. Alternates let the owner make budget calls without asking everyone to rebid, and a deduct alternate shows you have already thought about where money can come out. Unit prices are your protection after award: when the owner adds two floor drains in the kitchen, you invoice the agreed rate instead of opening a negotiation in the middle of the job. For how to build the number in the first place, see how to bid a construction job. The structure is the same one the commercial HVAC proposal template uses for mechanical work.

Writing it with ProposalPro, and what it will not do

ProposalPro writes the proposal document from your job details: scope, materials, timeline, pricing, payment schedule, exclusions, warranty and terms. The money section is built in code from your numbers, as materials + labour or as a single lump-sum line such as “Total Investment (lump sum): $65,000”. Unit prices you type into the job details go into the Allowances & Unit Pricing section as you gave them, and you can edit any section, alternates included, before it goes out.

A proposal can also be priced as time and materials (an hourly rate, with an optional materials markup, estimated hours and a not-to-exceed cap) or at a unit rate (a price per unit, with an optional quantity and minimum charge). That suits a service call or a small out-of-scope job sent as its own proposal. If you need to send something before the site walk, the price can go out as “To be confirmed after site visit”; the proposal cannot be shared for signing or signed until you fill the price in.

Be clear on the limits for commercial work. ProposalPro does not do takeoffs and does not read drawings: the quantities and prices come from you. Each proposal carries one pricing way and one rate line, so a lump-sum base bid with an hourly rate for extras means writing the rate in the job details rather than in the pricing block. It is not a bid-management tool and does not produce AIA-style pay applications.

Start from the template

The plumbing proposal template turns your job details into a finished, formatted proposal, and the construction proposal generator covers the same format for other trades on the job. Enter your scope, fixture list and price, and you have a draft to check and send in minutes rather than an evening.