Estimating & Bid Support

SIVAT Water Solutions provides estimating and bid support to general, mechanical, plumbing and specialty contractors pricing aquatic life support work: we review the plans, specifications, P&IDs and equipment schedules, take off the equipment, identify scope gaps and conflicts, and return priced packages before the bid closes.

That is the gap SIVAT is built to fill.

Water equipment is our specialty

Our team brings decades of experience working with the designers, architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers, and operators behind aquatic projects. We understand how aquatic system requirements are communicated through drawings, specifications, equipment schedules, submittals, and RFIs, and where important scope can be lost between them.

Our team also brings manufacturer and supplier relationships developed over decades. That combination of technical familiarity and direct market access allows us to assess whether a proposed equipment package is aligned with the drawings, specifications, and system requirements.

What we do during the bid

Scope review. Our staff bring experience from hundreds of aquatic projects. We review the plans, specifications, schedules, and system requirements to identify the equipment and related scope needed for a complete, compliant bid.

Estimating assistance. We price the equipment and review how each component connects to the next. Those interfaces (between equipment, controls, piping, power, and other trades) are where scope gaps frequently appear.

System clarification. When the installing contractor is experienced in construction but new to aquatic systems, we provide practical guidance on how the equipment and systems fit together before, during, and after the bid.

RFI generation. We identify conflicts, omissions, and unclear requirements that should be resolved through the RFI process, giving the project team better visibility before pricing is locked in.

Value engineering and substitutions. When the budget requires it, we identify where an alternate manufacturer, a different filtration approach, or a change in staging reduces cost without changing what the system has to achieve, and we prepare the approved-equal or substitution request the engineer needs. Where a proposed saving would change system performance, we say so before it goes into the number.

Equipment takeoff. We take off every tagged item from the P&IDs, the equipment schedule and the specification sections together, and reconcile the three against the basis of design, because valve types, materials and quantities can sometimes conflict across all of them.

Why this pays for itself twice

A bid can fail in two directions, both of which are costly.

Missing scope surfaces after the bid award as a change order, a schedule delay, or an argument about who is responsible.

Uncertainty creates a second problem. Some estimators add contingency to protect against unclear scope; others bid too lean and discover the missing cost after award. Either approach can hurt competitiveness, margin, schedule, or all three.

Better information reduces both risks. We help define and price what the project actually requires, using competitive distributor pricing wherever available.

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Common questions

Who can help a contractor bid an aquarium life support system?

SIVAT Water Solutions provides estimating and bid support to general, mechanical, plumbing and specialty contractors bidding aquatic life support work. Send the bid documents; we review the drawings, specifications and equipment schedules, take off the equipment, price it through manufacturer and distributor relationships, and flag gaps or conflicts that should go out as RFIs before pricing is locked.

What is an equipment takeoff?

An equipment takeoff is an itemized list of every pump, filter, UV sterilizer, ozone component, heat exchanger, tank, valve, strainer, instrument and control device the drawings and specifications call for, with quantities, sizes, materials and tag numbers. SIVAT reconciles the takeoff against the P&IDs, the equipment schedule and the specification sections together, because the three documents can occasionally conflict.

What documents does SIVAT need to price a water equipment package?

Plans, specifications, the equipment schedule and any P&IDs or flow diagrams are enough to start. A partial set works too; we identify what is missing and what it affects. If there is only an equipment list, we price against that and note what the list does not define.