hi
i am a contractor in ca
i tried to find project that involved with sips for the government or army
dos anyone have info of how to get contracts from the army or government
thaks
Al

Do you know any Senators or Congressmen?

By "CA" do you mean California? Or Canada?

Dick Mills

I talked to a local contractor that tried to do some work in Iraq with SIPs. The issue was that the existing contracts were held by a good ole boys club. I would start greasing the political wheels if you know what I mean.

Probably need to sub-contract with Haliburton - talk about drinking the Kool-aid.

Dick Mills

Al,

If you know what facility would be doing the construction, contact their contracting office.  If not, you'll need to search for the project, and you'll find several different systems.  The most likely source for you would be:

LINK

This is where solicitations for contracts expected to be over $25K are listed.  You'll need to search on terms that you think would be included in a brief description.  If it's a large contract, you might have opportunities for subcontracting if you're a small business.  It's possible that there could be some small business set asides also. 



Good luck,
Larry

 If you have never done business with the Govt go to www.sba.gov and talk to your local rep, they will help you get started.  If you want to see what contracts are out for quotes go to www.fedbizopps.gov.  To look at existing contracts and do some research on products and pricing go to www.gsaadvantage.gov.  Each agency has their own "bid board" on their website. 

You can also be a subcontractor to a prime contractor and gain some experience that way.

The govt. pays on time in most cases unlike 10 years ago, but if you cannot survive not getting paid 30-60 days do not do business with the Govt.  Doing Gov business is not like B2B some is better some is worse don't assume anything and remember if the Contracting Officer didn't sign the paper, the paper is worthless.

hi

the problem is that i cant find the code or category for sips in those sits

Al

I doubt they have a SIPS number. What you are looking for is remodeling or construction #236210, 236220 etc.... then you sell the idea of SIPS to the CO or Prime contractor, based on faster construction time, energy savings, noise reduction etc.... If I was to specify a SIPS building I'd have a dozen protests from every builder that does not use SIPS. So I'll specify what I want to end up with and it is up to you to convince me that you offer the best bang for buck. It will take some marketing and possibly partnering with a larger and experienced Govt builder to be successful.

I work in a Govt contracting office, the things that will get my attention for buildings are reliability, speed, lifecycle cost then socio-economic considerations. You have to convince me of your products advantages in order for me not award to the traditional construction methods.

Road Block,

Hopefully, that screen name doesn't relate to your contracts work.  (grin) 

As you suggested, you could clearly specifiy infiltration rates, whole wall R values, etc. But I think that you could directly require SIPs on the basis of the published PATH studies or to establish a local comparator.  You establish the government's needs.

How daring is your Office of Counsel?  You might couple the construction contract with 5-10 annual operations options that would include heating and cooling costs.  You could get similar results without options by requiring each offeror to include an estimate of heating and cooling costs with engineering calculations to support the estimate; and LCC estimates for 20-30 years, again supported.  Then either require the offeror to bond that performance for 10 years or, at its option, you could withhold the difference between its estimate and your historical costs and pay it out based on the first two years record.  Coupled with a best value award you ought to have a lot of choice. 

Are you allowed small business set asides in construction?  That might tend to favor SIPs technology -- especially with the specs.

Very respectfully,
Larry

Ready
You are correct on how a construction project could be specified without saying SIPS but we are supposed to keep our options open and not create a artifical barrier otherwise the ICF people would have protest if I said SIPS.

I think making LEEDs certification would do a lot to bringing more advanced building methods to Govt. construction.

Yes Road Block was a moniker I was given because I would not do something that would have gotten me fired. I just said send me an email with your request to me and my boss and I will abid by my boss's decision. Needless to say the email was never written.