Why Do Interior Openings Break Bids?
Posted: Sat May 09, 2026 9:01 am
Is it just me or does every project have at least one moment where the interior openings scope completely wrecks the original bid? Doors, frames, hardware, borrowed lights, curtain walls, it always looks manageable during takeoff and then somewhere between estimating and execution the numbers fall apart.
I have worked with teams that bundle everything into finishes and teams that break it out as a separate line item and honestly both approaches have burned us at some point. Either something gets missed in the framing requirements or the hardware specs change last minute and nobody catches it until the contractor is already on site.
Starting to wonder if interior openings estimating is just genuinely harder than most people admit or if there is a smarter way to approach it that I am missing. Has anyone actually figured out a reliable system for this or are we all just guessing and hoping the contingency covers it?
I have worked with teams that bundle everything into finishes and teams that break it out as a separate line item and honestly both approaches have burned us at some point. Either something gets missed in the framing requirements or the hardware specs change last minute and nobody catches it until the contractor is already on site.
Starting to wonder if interior openings estimating is just genuinely harder than most people admit or if there is a smarter way to approach it that I am missing. Has anyone actually figured out a reliable system for this or are we all just guessing and hoping the contingency covers it?