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Would You Have Your Toddler Rewire The House?
Of course you wouldn’t, because he has no experience and well … he’s only three. However, in between naps he might be able to install a 200 amp service better than some residential contractors can design, develop and build your restaurant or retail facility. There are many special codes, requirements, materials and techniques inherent for all trades in restaurant, retail and commercial construction that do not apply to residential. You’re going to want qualified, experienced professionals.
The Lindy Construction Company Specializes in Commercial & Retail, Restaurant & Bar, Design, Development & Construction. Throughout Upper & Lower Michigan Since 1979
Services, Rates & Policies
INTRODUCTION: The Lindy Construction Company provides commercial, retail, restaurant and bar Design, Development and Construction services throughout Michigan. If you’re planning on purchasing, leasing, building or remodeling your own facility, we can be of help. While some commercial or restaurant construction or remodel projects might be considered only cosmetic, most will require review by your local Health and/or Building Departments. Either way, it’s never advisable to proceed without inquiring and gaining these approvals. In the event that permits are required, engineered plans will also be required. In Michigan, any commercial construction project requiring a permit will require plans which have been approved by a professional Architect or Engineer.
DESIGN: If you retain an Engineer or an Architect, your drawings will be completed in part by their in house Draftsmen and with the Engineer or Architect providing oversight and approval. Charges can run from $150.00 to $300.00 per hour or more and into the many thousands of dollars for a complete set of plans. In a similar scenario, if you retain The Lindy Construction Co to produce your plans, we are not the Engineer or the Architect…..we’re the Draftsmen and can produce the same set of plans, typically for much less. We then submit our electronic drawing files to one of several independent Engineers for treatment and approval. The Engineer’s involvement is less, therefore your price can be much lower and sometimes as little as half as much for the same approved drawings. As part of a Design and Development agreement, it’s typical to produce Conceptuals and either a Permit Set or a Bid Set of plans.
Conceptuals – Based on your ideas plus those of our development team, along with information garnered from your local authorities regarding items allowed, not allowed and those which are required, we’ll provide a series of conceptual sketches from which we can make refinements and decide which items you would or would not like to be incorporated into your final plan. Once a final design has been decided upon, we’ll produce either a Permit Set or a Bid Set of plans for review.
Permit Set – A permit set will contain only the minimum amount of information required by your governing agencies in order to approve your permits. This lack of detail lends itself to Contractor’s providing a “time and materials” rate rather than a firm bid price. Pages might include a Floor Plan; Lighting Plan; Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Plans (MEP); Equipment Plan & Schedule; Site Plan including Parking and Dumpsters; Fixture Plan including Egress and Occupancy; Fire Suppression and Fire Alarm Plans; A.D.A. Compliance; ASHRAE Compliance.
Bid Set – A Bid Set will include additional information and design details not found in a Permit Set such as those for specific materials, sizes, dimensions, finishes, etc. This is necessary if you intend to gather firm contractor bids. All Contractors will be bidding on the exact same things and you’ll be able to compare bids “apples to apples”. Without detailed plans to bid from, Contractors will only be guessing….Do you really want several verbal guesses? These preliminary estimates are not bids, quotes or proposals, they’re only guesses, they can vary greatly and are rarely accurate or enforceable. Some might intentionally provide you with a “low ball” estimate in order to secure the job and then charge high prices for extras later on, claiming that this and that was not included in the estimate. Whether working from a bid or on time and materials, be careful and get it all on paper.
DEVELOPMENT: Once you have retained our services, we will:
• conduct research and make the initial inquiries in order to determine the requirements of your local authorities.
• perform a thorough site survey in order to take measurements and gather other information crucial to the design of your facility.
• produce a set of plans as required by the governing agencies and as described in the Design section of this document
• submit the required documents, plans and applications to the governing agencies in order to expedite your permits.
It’s important to note that most Engineers or Architects do not provide complete development services. They might have limited experience with Restaurant Development, dealing with Health Departments or expediting permits. All of these services including design, development, permit expediting, project management and complete construction services are offered by The Lindy Construction Co.
CONSTRUCTION: Whether working from a firm bid or on a time and materials rate, we can perform any part to all of the construction of your facility, including the Project Management.
Firm Bid – From bid set plans as described in the Design section of this document, we can provide you with a firm bid or a “fixed rate”. Unless you make design changes yourself or a governing agency does, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting and how much it will cost.
Time and Materials – Without bid set plans to bid from, we can provide you with a time and materials rate. This can be beneficial if you wanted to get started sooner or make design decisions as you build, however you will not know the final project cost up front.
Project Management – Whether using your subcontractors or ours, we can manage your project from start to finish. We’ll ensure that all documents are in order and develop a critical path schedule which all trades will follow. We’ll be on your job site daily to ensure quality control and forward progress. You’ll know exactly when it will be done and when you can open.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT:
QUOTES, BIDS & PROPOSALS: There is sometimes confusion as to the differences between a quote, a bid and a proposal. Each is a formal offer to provide a product or a service for a stated price but each has a different meaning and function.
Quote – A quote is a fixed price, usually for an existing item or a simple service with minimal variables. Something that you can point to, such as “I can mow that yard for twenty dollars” or “You can buy one of these for fifty dollars”. Material suppliers can provide a quote from a takeoff. This type of quote tends to have a limited duration, such as 30 days, due to market and price fluctuations.
Bid – In the construction industry a bid is a fixed price given for something that another has pre-defined, typically with a detailed set of plans and specifications which describe the scope of work to be done, the materials to be used, the time frame required, payment terms, insurance requirements, etc. All bidders bid the same work per the same plans and specifications. If the scope of work changes, plan revisions are drawn up and bidders can adjust their bids by submitting change orders.
Proposal – A proposal is made by the one who is pricing the work. Unlike with a bid, the work or the product is not already clearly pre-defined, plans are incomplete or even non-existent. The scope of work, materials, price, terms, etc. will all be described in the proposal. “I propose to do this using these materials in this amount of time for this much money”.
THE PROCESS: How much does it cost to fill an empty shopping cart with groceries? It could be $100 or it could be $1,000, this depends on what groceries are going into the cart. You ask and they say “I don’t know, just some groceries”. This could be narrowed down some by saying that it will be canned goods, meat and produce but the price would still be a guess. What canned goods? What meat? What produce? Is there any dairy? Will your doctor prohibit you from having dairy or require a certain medicine? If so, how much is the medicine? Some of the canned goods could be beans but others could be caviar, there could be a pound of hamburger or fifty pounds of beef tenderloin and maybe there are some truffles in with the carrots. No guess will be nearly accurate unless by chance. Then someone hands you a grocery list and asks “How much to fill the cart with these groceries”? Now you can tell them to the penny because the list tells you exactly what’s going into the cart. This is no longer an estimate, it’s now a quote. The point is that the more information you have about the groceries, the more you can narrow down the price, even to the penny.
The cost to build a restaurant depends on what is going into the restaurant. You ask and it’s “I don’t know, just a basic restaurant”. We’ve heard it all before and it’s ridiculous. What is a basic restaurant? How much is a car or a house? Is it a rusted out 1982 Chevette or a brand new Mclaren Spider? A good set of plans is like the grocery list and the doctor is like the local authorities. Research is needed to find out what they require or prohibit. Prices will be needed for everything from drywall to subcontractors and kitchen equipment. Design information is needed for even the most rudimentary pricing.
When contemplating a restaurant or retail facility, one of the first calls made should be to an Engineer and not to a Builder. The normal process is to first secure funding, find a location, design and develop the facility, now with plans in hand, ask Contractors for bids. Some try to circumvent this process by calling Builders first and asking for free ideas, designs and estimates and then not hiring them. The costs associated with Design and Development should belong the owner or the speculator and not the random builders just hoping for work.
ESTIMATES: We’re often asked for an estimate by potential clients considering the lease or purchase of a space to construct their own restaurant or retail facility. Preliminary estimates are usually sought prior to the development of formal plans or specifications. Their intent is to use the estimate to help determine whether or not to move forward and lease or purchase the space. It stands to reason that the client would want the estimate to be as accurate as possible and would want the Contractor to honor it if they were to lease or purchase the property.
The word “estimate” is sometimes conflated and used interchangeably with a quote, bid or proposal when in practice they all have very distinct functions. It’s understandable that someone would want to know the expected cost before making a major financial commitment, however an estimate is not a firm and calculated price, which is what they’re really looking for and like they might get with a quote, a bid or a proposal. Without plans or clearly defined specifications for reference, an estimate is merely a guess at how much the project might cost. Given this lack of detailed design information, estimates are highly subjective and therefore also highly unreliable and unenforceable. A set of plans can be expensive and most of these potential clients are only price shopping anyway so it’s not practical to purchase plans just to see if a location is viable, especially if multiple locations are being considered, so they seek estimates.
Preliminary estimates come with no guarantees, but one way to help ensure better results is by asking the right contractor. A qualified professional can turn a wild guess into an educated one. The Lindy Construction Company has been providing Commercial, Retail, Restaurant and Bar Design, Development and Construction throughout Upper and Lower Michigan since 1979. In those years our portfolio has grown to include hundreds of independent and national brands. We can draw from that experience when evaluating your restaurant or retail project for an estimate.
Any contractor can throw out an ill conceived “guess-timate”. Is this really what you want? Are you actually going to do your planning and budget, sign a lease or even purchase a building based on some arbitrary guess that you obtained from an unqualified contractor just because it was free? It can take a seasoned professional many man hours and sometimes days to prepare a comprehensive and accurate bid, proposal or estimate that can be relied upon. We sometimes receive up to fifty or more requests in a week and could never do them all, but we approach every one that we do fully expecting to be hired. We’ve spent days researching, creating designs and takeoffs, pricing materials, gathering subcontractor bids and preparing documents only to be ghosted by the potential client afterwards, without so much as a phone call, an email or even a thank you . . . just crickets. This has become very costly and is not simply the price of doing business, it’s part of the Design and Development process which is how we make our living. We are not the Lindy “Free Estimate Giving So That You Can Just Disappear Like Houdini” Construction Company. We want the job and it’s why we charge a survey fee for estimates and offer a refund if we’re ultimately hired for Design, Development or Construction.
SITE SURVEYS: If you’ve decided that you want a real preliminary estimate but have no detailed plans for reference, we will need to perform a physical site survey and a service charge will be made based upon the scope of work and the project location. The initial survey fee can be refunded if we’re hired for complete Design, Development or Construction. This policy helps to compensate us for our time and effort and reduces the wasted man hours by filtering out the curious, the tire kickers and the bid shoppers.
During the survey our estimator will walk through the site with you, listen to your ideas and present some of our own based upon our experience and general knowledge of Building and Health Department codes and requirements. We may suggest options for you to consider, as well as likely requirements and prohibitions. We may also provide possible layouts and equipment options as well as estimates based upon these ideas.
Site survey charges will be calculated using mileage, travel time and a flat survey fee. No designs, drawings or plans will be included. Estimates provided during the survey will be verbal, additional charges will be incurred for written estimates. As mentioned previously, the initial survey fee will be partially to fully refunded if we are hired for Design, Development and/or Construction. Call (517) 699-4585 and ask about our rates.
BID SHOPPING / PEDDLING: The practices of bid shopping and bid peddling are common in the construction industry. Bid shopping is when a general contractor or a potential client gathers bids for a project and divulges the low bid to another preferred contractor (often a friend or relative) in order to get a lower price and award the project to that contractor. Bid peddling is when a contractor initiates the bid shopping of a potential client by offering to meet or beat the low bid. Both of these give an unfair advantage to one contractor over the others, they waste the time and devalue the estimating work of all contractors involved and can lower the overall quality of the work. The Lindy Construction Co has been the victim of these unethical practices and will never knowingly participate in either of them. In order to avoid these types of abuses we only participate in Negotiated Tender contracts or we make a charge for estimates, bids and proposals. These fees can be refunded if and when we are actually hired.
RATES: Each project is unique and with it’s own scope of work and it’s own local codes and governing agencies. Our Design and Development fees are charged at an hourly rate plus the Engineering and Permit fees. Engineering fees are determined by the Engineer of record and usually based upon an hourly rate. Permit fees are determined by the governing agencies and are usually based on the total project cost. If you decide to retain our services, we will provide you with a detailed proposal for any of the following options:
• Site Survey as described in the Site Survey section of this document, based on the location and calculated using mileage, driving time and a flat rate survey fee.
• Design and/or Development Services as described in the Design and Development sections of this document and at a time and materials rate.
• Partial to Complete Construction and/or Project Management at a time and materials rate as described in the Construction section of this document.
• Partial to Complete Construction based on a fixed price made from bid set plans as described in the Construction section of this document.
SITE SECURITY:
We welcome the opportunity to work with you and wish you the best in your endeavor.
Please, contact us with any questions.
Services, Rates & Policies, Rev. Aug 2025