For GCs & construction managers
Concrete Cutting for General Contractors
Cutting is a small line on your budget that can hold the whole schedule hostage. What a GC needs from a cutting sub is boring and rare: real unit prices from the drawings, exclusions in writing, and crews that show up inside the window.
- Unit pricing off penetration schedules
- Scope splits spelled out, not assumed
- Night & phased mobilizations
- PT discipline: scan before cut
How this intake works for a GC
Upload the penetration schedule, structural sketches, or the relevant sheet set with your request, note the phasing and required dates, and the package goes to independent Miami-area cutting operators for review. The operator who takes it issues their own proposal — unit rates, mobilization charges, and exclusions — under their own license and insurance, and provides COIs to your requirements like any sub. What this site does is make the request land complete, so the first number you see was built from the actual drawings instead of a phone description.
The quote requirements guide lists what estimators need line by line; the short version is on this page.
The scope-split questions that cause change orders
Answer these in the bid package and cutting stops generating surprises:
Layout
Does the cutting sub locate holes from drawings, or drill to marks your trades place? Both work — ambiguity does not.
Scanning
GPR as a cutting-sub line item, by a separate scanning firm, or excluded? On PT decks something must be chosen.
Shoring & engineering
Openings in structure need the EOR’s detail and temporary support — who provides, installs, and removes it?
Debris & slurry
Included haul-off vs your dumpsters; slurry recovery and legal disposal responsibility.
Patch-back
Cutting subs cut; pour-back, firestop, and patching are usually other trades. Confirm the boundary.
Protection
Floor protection, containment walls, and negative air on occupied projects — whose scope and whose spec?
What to attach for a bid-grade number
- Penetration schedule or drawing set (PDF is fine; photos of sheets work)
- Phasing plan and milestone dates
- Building logistics: access hours, elevator, staging, COI requirements
- Noise/vibration limits and any night-work constraints
- PT / scanning status per level
- Your standard subcontract terms if the scope will be awarded as a sub
Frequently asked questions
Can this handle a bid-phase budget number, not just awarded work?
Yes — mark the request as budget/bid-phase. Operators can price from 80% documents with stated assumptions, which is more useful at bid time than false precision.
Who is the contracting party on the work?
The independent operator who takes the project — they contract directly with you, carry their own license and insurance, and issue their own COIs. This site is the intake, not the contractor; see how it works.
What does mispriced cutting usually trace back to?
Unstated thickness, unknown PT status, debris responsibility, and access. Those four cover most cutting change orders — the request form asks all of them up front.
Project intake
Send the drawings
Penetration schedule in, unit-priced proposal back — from an independent Miami-area operator who bids commercial work.