Package 04
Additions & remodels
Expanding or rebuilding a building somebody is still working in. The phasing plan is the project, and the gaps are worse because half the scope is against existing construction nobody has opened yet.
Typical span 6–18 months
04The work
Almost every addition or remodel is to a building somebody is still using, and that single fact reorganises the whole project.
On a new building the sequence follows construction logic: foundations, structure, envelope, inside, finish. On an occupied remodel it follows business logic: which part of the facility can be out of use, for how long, and in what season. The governing document is the phasing plan, not the drawings, and it is the thing to interrogate hardest when you compare proposals.
For procurement, the defining problem is that half of every subcontract scope is against existing construction, and existing construction is an unknown until it is opened. So every bid arrives loaded with exclusions about existing conditions — "excludes concealed conditions", "excludes abatement", "excludes any structure not shown" — and the gaps between those exclusions are wider and more numerous than on any other kind of project.
Which is why on this work we push harder than anywhere else for exploratory openings before the contract is signed. Opening a wall costs a few hundred dollars. Finding out what was in it at month five costs a change order and a delay, and there is nobody to bid against by then.
An exploratory opening costs a few hundred dollars and removes an exclusion from every bid that touches it. The same discovery at month five is a change order negotiated with the one firm already on site. On occupied remodels this is the single highest-return money an owner can spend, and it is almost always skipped.
Establish these first
- What the business does, hour by hour
- Not the floor plan — the operation. Which areas are critical, when, and what the seasonal peak is.
- What can be out of service
- For how long and in which season. Usually the tightest constraint on the whole project.
- Record drawings, if any
- And how much faith to put in them. On a building altered twice, usually not much.
- Existing structure and systems
- Whether the existing frame, service and mechanical can carry what is being added.
- Access, deliveries and parking
- Staging on an operating site takes space the business is currently using. That trade-off belongs in the plan, not in a complaint.
What you receive
Permit set, phasing plan, schedule of values, closeout package
In the format your records require, agreed at the start rather than discovered at closeout. The full list is on closeout and what you receive.
04.1Coverage
Who will actually bid this
Typical coverage for a project of this kind in the Denver metro. The full register, with every trade and the reasoning behind each count, is on the bid coverage page.
| Trade | Typical coverage | What it means for your number |
|---|---|---|
| Selective demolition | 4 bidders | Healthy |
| Abatement | 2 bidders | Thin, licensed, and it sits in front of everything else |
| Concrete, cutting and infill | 3 bidders | Adequate |
| Structural modification | 2 bidders | Thin. Engineered, and nobody wants a small one |
| Roofing, tie-in to existing | 2 bidders | Thin. Tying into an existing warranty narrows the field |
| Mechanical, existing systems | 2 bidders | Thin. Firms are wary of inheriting somebody else’s system |
| Electrical, existing service | 3 bidders | Adequate |
| Drywall & finishes | 5 bidders | Crowded |
| Temporary conditions & protection | 3 bidders | Adequate, and frequently self-managed |
Coverage is a count and a word, never a colour. A trade with one bidder is marked thin in text, so this table reads identically in black and white, in print, and to a screen reader.
04.2Gaps
Where the money goes on this kind of project
Two honest bids that do not quite meet. Each is findable on one afternoon at levelling, and each is expensive once a crew is standing in it.
- Caught at bid
- $2,000 – $9,000
- Found in the field
- $16,000 – $70,000, and the work area is closed meanwhile
- Caught at bid
- $0 — a phone call during preconstruction
- Found in the field
- The remaining value of the existing roof warranty
- Caught at bid
- $1,400 – $6,000
- Found in the field
- $9,000 – $30,000, and the complaints start in July
The pattern never changes: two trades, one scope, two exclusions pointing at each other. The only thing that catches it is somebody reading both blocks before either contract is signed. Reading an exclusions block explains what to look for.
04.3Budget
What this costs
Planning ranges, wide on purpose. The full set with every package on it, and the soft costs that sit on top of any construction number, is on the budgets page.
| Item | Work | Unit | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04.10 | Addition, light industrial Matching an existing building, tied in | SF | $180–$310 |
| 04.15 | Addition, office Finished to occupancy, tied into existing systems | SF | $370–$590 |
| 04.20 | Remodel, occupied, light Finishes, lighting, layout, no structural work | SF | $90–$195 |
| 04.25 | Remodel, occupied, substantial Including mechanical, electrical and structure | SF | $210–$430 |
| 04.30 | Envelope or facade replacement Including any required structural backup | SF | $65–$180 |
| 04.40 | Roof replacement, commercial Tear-off, deck repair, membrane, flashing | SQ | $1,150–$2,900 |
| 04.50 | Temporary conditions and protection Partitions, temporary power, dust and noise control | LS | $18,000–$125,000 |
| 04.60 | Out-of-hours premium Where the business cannot be disturbed in the day | PCT | 15%–35% |
| 04.90 | Concealed conditions Priced when opened; carried as an allowance until then | LS | site visit — this item cannot be priced from a page |
Units are SF square foot of the area being built, SQ roofing square (100 SF), EA each, LS lump sum, PCT a percentage of construction cost. A line reading “site visit” is one that genuinely cannot be priced from a web page.
Figures are USD planning ranges for commercial construction in the Denver metro. They exclude land, design and engineering fees, permit and tap fees, furnishings and equipment, and any applicable tax, and assume normal site conditions and a buildable season. Bid coverage counts are typical for this market and this building type, not a promise about your project. They are published so an owner can size a project, and ask better questions, before there is a drawing to price. They are planning figures, not a bid. Reviewed October 2026. A price for your project comes from a proposal against a defined scope. See the disclaimer.
04.4Questions
Questions about this package
Specific to this kind of work. The general ones — contracts, pay applications, retainage, change orders, insurance, bonding — are on the FAQ page.
Can we stay open through the work?
Usually, and it costs money and time — both of which are in the estimate rather than discovered later. The premium for working around an operating business is real: temporary partitions, work staged so it can be made safe daily, material carried rather than staged, and frequently out-of-hours work. Where a short full closure is possible it is often dramatically cheaper, and we will price both so you can decide with numbers.
What if the record drawings are wrong?
They often are. Work stops on that element, you are told in writing the same day with photographs and options, and nothing is worked around until there is a decision. What we will not do is improvise and present it afterwards, which is how an owner ends up with a building that differs from its drawings in ways nobody recorded.
Why is abatement its own problem?
Because it is licensed work that has to happen before almost everything else, because there are few firms doing it, and because the boundary between "demolition" and "abatement" is the single most reliable gap on a remodel of an older building. Both trades exclude the other’s material and neither excludes it clearly. It is on the gap register above for exactly that reason.
Will the addition match the existing building?
As closely as the materials allow, and there is an honest limit: a thirty-year-old masonry or metal panel is frequently no longer made, and the nearest current match will not be identical. The usual answers are to accept the closest match, to introduce a deliberate joint so the two read as distinct, or to re-skin a larger area. That is a design decision with a cost attached and it belongs early.
00The rest
The other four packages
Building the budget and the bid list before there is a drawing to price. This is where a commercial project is actually won or lost, and it is the one phase most owners are never invited into.
- You receive
- Budget by division, a bid list by trade with expected coverage, a levelled scope matrix
Ground-up commercial buildings in the Denver metro — offices, retail, flex and light industrial — bought as about thirty subcontracts and levelled against each other before any of them is awarded.
- You receive
- Full drawing set, schedule of values, levelled subcontracts, closeout package
Fitting out a shell or a second-generation space against a lease date somebody has already signed. Fewer trades than a new building, and proportionally more gaps between them.
- You receive
- Permit set, landlord sign-offs, certificate of occupancy, closeout package
Work for public and institutional owners, where the procurement is public, the bid tabulation is a published document, and the occupancy date is set by somebody else’s calendar.
- You receive
- Bid tabulation, certified payroll, schedule of values, commissioning record, closeout
Send us a bid you have already received
If you are holding subcontract bids and the numbers do not sit right, read the exclusions blocks to us on the telephone and we will tell you what is missing between them. It costs nothing, it takes about twenty minutes, and it is useful whether or not you ever hire us.
Pinkard Construction Co. · 9195 W 6th Ave, Lakewood, CO 80215