Florida condo boards · milestone repairs

How to Compare Three Milestone Repair Bids That Don't Match

Updated August 2026 · 8 minute read

Your association completed its milestone inspection. The engineer's Phase 2 report started the 365-day repair-commencement clock. You sent the scope to contractors, and three bids came back — and they don't match. Different line items, different exclusions, different allowances, prices hundreds of thousands of dollars apart.

This is the single most common situation Florida boards are in right now, and it is exactly where expensive mistakes get made. On commercial construction projects, nobody awards a contract off the cover-letter numbers. The owner's representative first levels the bids — adjusts each one so all three are priced against the same scope — and only then compares. Volunteer boards almost never do this, because nobody has ever shown them how.

Here is the method.

Step 1: Build one scope list, not three

Take the engineer's repair scope and break it into individual lines — concrete restoration by square foot, railing replacement by linear foot, waterproofing, painting, mobilization, engineering support, permits. List every line any bidder priced, even if the others didn't. That last part is the whole trick: the lines a bidder left out are where a low bid hides.

Step 2: Map each bid onto that list

Go through each proposal and place its pricing against your scope lines. You will find three kinds of gaps: lines a bidder simply didn't carry, lines carried as an "allowance" (a placeholder number that can grow), and lines pushed into the exclusions page in small print. Log all three. The exclusions page is the most important page in every construction bid, and it's the one boards read last, if at all.

Step 3: Price the gaps

For every line a bidder didn't carry, insert a fair value — use the average of the bidders who did price it. Add that to the bidder's total. This is the leveling adjustment: it answers the question "what would this bid cost if it actually covered the same work as the others?"

Step 4: Compare the adjusted totals — expect a reversal

Here is a worked example with realistic Florida coastal-restoration numbers:

Step 5: Check qualifications before you vote

Price isn't the only axis. Verify each bidder's license status and complaint history with DBPR, confirm insurance limits, ask for concrete-restoration references at comparable buildings, and — new for Florida associations — collect the conflict-of-interest disclosure now required under HB 913. Then put your remaining questions to the bidders in writing, so the answers are in the record with the minutes.

Why this matters more in 2026

The average Florida milestone-repair permit jumped from roughly $337,000 to $496,000 in a single year. Deadlines are compressing bid timelines, contractors are busy, and rushed boards are voting on non-comparable numbers. A few hours of leveling routinely moves the decision by five or six figures — it is the highest-value administrative work a board will ever do.

Integrated Development Advisory LLC is an independent information publisher and is not an engineer, architect, reserve specialist, community association manager, or law firm. This article and the kit are strictly administrative — arithmetic and organization. They do not opine on structural adequacy, required reserves, or statutory compliance. Verify current requirements with your association's licensed professionals.