CAPABILITIES
Seven ways of reading the same documents.
BuildIQ Advisors reads construction documents in depth — the drawings, specifications, and contract terms that decide what a project will actually cost to build. The work is directed by one principal and organized as seven functions run by a purpose-built analysis engine. The tree below is the map; the seven sections beneath it carry each function's full discipline list. Click any card to open it.
FUNCTION 01
Preconstruction analysis
What the published documents say the project is — and the site, permit, and funding realities that shape what it takes to build.
PRECONSTRUCTION ANALYSIS
Preconstruction document analysis
We read what the owner published — the program estimate, the comparable project awards, the funding history that shows what an owner has actually built versus what the documents say they want. For a contractor, that read comes before estimating hours are committed. For an owner, it is the same read pointed at your own bid package — what the market will see in it before the market sees it.
FIELD OPERATIONS ANALYSIS
Field operations and execution requirements
The occupied-facility requirements in Division 01 add temporary partitioning, phasing constraints, infection control protocols, and out-of-hours work premiums to a project where the bid was built off the scope summary. On constrained occupied sites, those requirements can add $80,000–$150,000 in direct GC cost that doesn't appear in a standard general conditions build-up. We read the full Division 01 for these requirements — the ones that add real cost to the bid, not just operational complexity.
REGULATORY & PERMIT INTELLIGENCE
Regulatory compliance and permit conditions
A specialty permit condition that — in the markets we read — can require 8 or more weeks for AHJ approval on a project scheduled to start in 6 is a schedule collision hiding in the permit documents. An inspection hold point that stops work runs $4,000–$8,000 per day in burn rate on an active project, depending on project size and trade mix. We flag these conditions before bid day — when the schedule can still be negotiated, not after the subcontracts are executed.
FUNCTION 02
Estimating & quantities
Where scope hides: division gaps, bid-form structure, and the items every trade assumes someone else carries.
SCOPE & DIVISION ANALYSIS
Scope gap and division analysis
We map the no-man's-land between divisions — the work every sub assumes someone else carries, the allowance priced well below the scope it's meant to carry, and the interface obligation between trades that becomes an RFI six weeks after award. Scope gaps that surface here get priced. The ones that don't get absorbed.
ESTIMATING & QUANTITIES
Estimating accuracy and bid form compliance
The unit-of-measure discrepancy between the drawing and the spec. The alternate that shifts scope without shifting overhead. The bid form that requires a labor/material breakdown the estimate wasn't structured to produce. These are the findings that don't show up until bid day — which is precisely when there's no time to correct them. We find them in the bid cycle, not at the bid table.
CROSS-DISCIPLINE
Trade coordination gaps
Every project has a list of items that every sub assumes someone else carries. The GC either prices them or absorbs them — and the owner meets the ones that got absorbed later, as change orders. We read the interfaces — between scope packages, between divisions, between GC-furnished and contractor-installed — and surface the assumptions before they become change orders.
FUNCTION 03
Schedule forensics
Whether the published dates survive the sequence, the lead times, and the contract's own schedule terms.
SCHEDULE & DELIVERY INTELLIGENCE
Project delivery and schedule intelligence
The early completion incentive that disappears if a single milestone slips. The owner-furnished equipment lead times that collapse the critical path. The phasing sequence that makes the published Substantial Completion date structurally impossible as sequenced. These are schedule findings that have to surface before the contract is signed — on either side of it — not after the baseline is set.
FUNCTION 04
Building systems
Mechanical, electrical, fire protection, conveying, communications, and the specialty systems that get under-scoped — read at equipment depth.
SYSTEMS INTELLIGENCE
MEP coordination and systems
We read the GC-furnished, contractor-installed scope the mechanical sub will exclude by default, and the owner-furnished equipment hookup that appears in Division 26 without a corresponding budget line. For projects with specialty systems — building automation, low-voltage, security, AV, or in-building emergency radio coverage — we read those scopes as a distinct layer, not an afterthought.
VDC & COORDINATION
VDC and BIM coordination
We read the BIM Execution Plan requirements — specifically when they call for a fully coordinated Level 3 model that the design team is not contractually obligated to deliver. That gap means the GC funds the coordination effort or encounters clash detection problems at rough-in. We surface the obligation and the cost before the contract is signed.
SYSTEM EXPERTISE
Mechanical and HVAC systems
Commercial HVAC is one of the most specification-intensive disciplines in a bid package — and one of the most exclusion-prone at sub bid time. We read the mechanical systems at the level of equipment selection, control integration, and commissioning obligation, not just the Division 23 scope header.
SYSTEM EXPERTISE
Electrical systems
Electrical scope gaps are almost always found at the interfaces: between the utility transformer and the owner's switchgear, between the normal power distribution and the emergency branch, between Division 26 and the specialty systems that terminate there. We read electrical systems at the distribution architecture level, not just the panel schedule.
SYSTEM EXPERTISE
Specialty systems — BDA, security, low-voltage, AV, access control
Specialty systems are the most consistently under-scoped discipline in commercial construction — not because they are complex, but because their scope lives in sections that general estimators rarely read as carefully as Division 23 or Division 26. In-building emergency radio coverage (BDA) alone can carry $80,000–$150,000 in system, installation, and FCC-required testing costs that the fire marshal will test before issuing a Certificate of Occupancy.
SYSTEM EXPERTISE
Conveying systems — elevators, escalators, material handling
Conveying systems generate two categories of scope problems: the interface obligations that adjacent trades don't price (pit conditions, machine room requirements, electrical service point-of-connection) and the permit and inspection sequence that makes elevator acceptance a prerequisite for Certificate of Occupancy — often on a path the schedule didn't protect.
SYSTEM EXPERTISE
Technology and communications infrastructure
Technology and communications scope has expanded well beyond structured cabling — and the obligation split between the low-voltage contractor, the owner's IT team, and Division 27 has become one of the most dispute-prone interfaces in commercial construction. We read the technology specifications at the system architecture level, not just the raceway plan.
SYSTEM EXPERTISE
Fire protection and life safety
Fire protection and life safety systems are the one category where the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) has final say regardless of what the spec says — and the gap between what the spec requires and what the AHJ will approve is a common source of change orders, re-designs, and schedule delays that the GC absorbs. We read these systems against the applicable code framework, not just the Division 21 scope header.
FUNCTION 05
Commercial review
How the contract moves money and risk — read as commercial terms, in construction terms.
CONTRACT & OWNER PATTERNS
Contract risk and owner patterns
The Supplementary Conditions modifications a standard review misses — the liquidated damages escalator, the deleted consequential-damages waiver, the indemnification scope that commonly exceeds what a standard insurance program is structured to cover. We flag them before the contract is signed. For an owner, that's before the bid documents go out; for a contractor, before the bid form is signed.
FINANCIAL STRUCTURE ANALYSIS
Cost and financial structure
The kind of payment application structure that can create a $100,000–$200,000 cash flow gap in Month 2 is a problem somebody carries all project long if the schedule of values and stored-materials provisions aren't structured before contract execution. We read the financial mechanics of the contract — not just the contract sum, but when the money moves, and what the pay application structure does to each side of it.
FUNCTION 06
Quality & commissioning
The commissioning, verification, and sustainability obligations written into the specifications — and the cost they carry.
ENERGY CODE & SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability and LEED requirements
The LEED documentation administration obligation buried in Division 01 is frequently not priced as a direct cost — typically $15,000–$40,000 in staff time and third-party commissioning review fees, depending on project size and certification level. We extract the requirement, quantify the cost range, and flag it as a direct GC cost, not an owner soft cost.
COMMISSIONING INTELLIGENCE
Commissioning and systems verification
When the contract requires an independent commissioning authority — common on healthcare, laboratory, and institutional projects — that is a cost the mechanical sub cannot self-perform. It typically runs $22,000–$35,000 on mid-range institutional and healthcare projects and appears only in Section 23 08 00, a spec section estimators rarely price as a GC line item. We read it, we flag it, we put a number on it.
FUNCTION 07
Market & procurement intelligence
What moves under an estimate — tariff exposure, lead times, sourcing, escalation — the read the documents alone don't carry.
SUPPLY CHAIN & MARKET CONDITIONS
Supply chain and market conditions
Tariff exposure on structural steel, aluminum curtain wall, and electrical gear is not a line item most bid packages quantify — but it is a number that can move a margin before the project breaks ground. We read the long-lead equipment schedule against current lead times, flag domestically-sourced alternatives where they exist, and note manufacturer-health flags that could affect delivery mid-project.
For how these functions read specific building types, see the sectors →
Every output from every module passes through principal review before it reaches you.