Formwork pricing has a reputation for being craft-driven and hard to standardize, and the reputation is earned — form facing material, tie pattern and reuse cycles all move the number in ways a simple concrete-volume takeoff never captures. Less talked about is the placing risk that comes bundled with it. This is the trade that pours and vibrates the concrete it forms, so it owns the formed-surface defects a strip reveals, whether or not the spec ever says so directly.
The formwork you own outright
- Formwork supply, erection and stripping — forms for every element bid: footings, walls, columns, beams, slabs on deck, stairs, plus ties, accessories, release agents, chamfers, reveals and rustication. The accessories are where a fast takeoff loses money; chamfer strips and rustication joints are labour on every linear foot they touch.
- Blockouts, boxouts, bulkheads and edge forms — openings, penetration blockouts, construction-joint bulkheads and slab edge forms. Counted work with real material and labour, not incidental extras.
- Shoring, reshoring and falsework — design, supply, installation and removal, including engineered falsework drawings where required, plus the stripping-strength and reshore sequences that govern the whole cycle.
- Setting of cast-in items, when assigned — anchor bolts, embed plates, sleeves and waterstops set into forms, when the documents assign that duty here. Extract the assignment either way; it isn't always yours.
The pour you're liable for
Placing formed and structural concrete (pouring, consolidating and vibrating what this trade forms: footings, foundation walls, grade beams, piers, columns and suspended slabs) is where the real exposure sits. Defects revealed at strip belong to whoever vibrated, not whoever built the forms. Formed-surface make-good follows from the same liability: tie-hole treatment, fin removal, and sack or patch repair to the specified finish class after stripping. This is routine work, not a rare fix.
The boundary that trips up the most bids sits on suspended slabs specifically. Tenders routinely lump "place and finish" into a single line, as if it describes one scope for one trade. It doesn't. A finishing trade that refuses to vibrate concrete it didn't form is standard practice, not an unusual position: this trade pours and vibrates, the finisher works the top surface once that's done. On slabs on grade and slabs on deck the finisher usually places its own concrete, so the boundary only goes live on structural suspended slabs. Extract what the documents draw for each slab type, and flag it explicitly whenever they draw nothing — a silent tender is exactly the scenario where both trades assume the other has it.
Architectural forming is a different price class
Form liners, specified tie-hole patterns, board-form finishes and required sample panels have little in common with standard structural forming — matching a specified reveal pattern or liner texture across an exposed wall isn't the same job as plywood-form structural work. Whether it's in scope at all depends entirely on what the finish schedule calls for on this particular tender. Treat it as conditional, and give it its own line once triggered rather than folding it into the general formwork rate.
What crosses the line
- Flatwork placing and all finishing — slabs on grade and slabs on deck are placed and finished by the finishing trade, and top-surface finishing of the suspended slabs this trade pours is the finisher's too. What stays yours is the formed surface underneath, which is exactly the line the "place and finish" ambiguity above blurs.
- Concrete supply — the ready-mix belongs to the supplier. What still stays yours to extract: placing-driven mix requirements like pumpability, slump at the pump, or self-consolidating concrete for congested walls, since those exist because of how this trade places the mix, not what it's made of.
- Reinforcing steel — a separate trade's supply and placement entirely.
- Permanent works design — falsework and shoring engineering is your responsibility; the structure's own design is never yours to carry.
- Waterproofing systems — membranes belong to waterproofing. The nuance: form-tie type at waterproofed walls, specifically waterstop-compatible ties, is still your cost, because the tie choice is a forming decision even when the membrane isn't.
Six clauses that never make it onto the formwork drawings
- Formed-surface finish classes. SSD or architectural finish classes, form facing material requirements, tie-hole patterns, and reuse limits on exposed work are usually stated once — and that one clause is the difference between pricing plywood and pricing liner panels.
- Stripping strength and reshore requirements. Minimum concrete strength before stripping, plus reshore levels and durations, are cycle-time facts that directly set how many sets of formwork you need to own or rent.
- Tolerance class call-outs. ACI 117-style tolerances tighter than standard, and plumb requirements on tall walls and columns, are labour multipliers that read like general-note boilerplate but change productivity assumptions materially.
- Anchor bolt and embed setting ownership. Templates, setting and survey verification of cast-in items get assigned inconsistently between forming, rebar and steel. Extract the assignment for this tender, and flag it when there isn't one.
- Pour sequence and construction joint restrictions. Maximum pour heights and lengths, mandated joint locations, and checkerboard sequences set form quantities and reuse cycles — schedule constraints wearing a structural-notes disguise.
- Crane and hoisting access. Whether gang forms or flying forms are viable depends on the site's hoisting notes. A single logistics paragraph can change the whole forming method, and with it the cost basis of the bid.
Who else is on the pour schedule
| Trade | What to reconcile before you price |
|---|---|
| Reinforcing trade | Access windows between forming one side, placing steel, and closing forms — plus who reopens forms when an inspection fails. |
| Concrete placer | Pour schedule drives form cycling; stripping-strength results gate reuse; blowout and alignment responsibility during the pour itself. |
| Steel trade | Anchor bolt templates and embed plates set in forms — the supply, setting and survey sign-off boundaries between the two trades. |
| Mechanical & electrical trades | Blockouts, sleeves and boxouts in forms come from M/E drawings — late information means re-forming, at real cost. |
| Waterproofing trade | Below-grade walls: waterstop tie types, tie-hole treatment, and form release compatibility with the membrane system. |
| Finishing trade | The suspended-slab handoff — this trade pours and vibrates, the finisher works the top surface. Timing, access and who accepts the pour need to be agreed, not assumed. |
Read the structural general notes for stripping strength, tolerance class and pour sequencing before pricing form sets off the drawings alone — those three clauses set how much formwork you need to own to hit the schedule. Then check every suspended slab individually for a stated placing/finishing split; a tender silent on one slab isn't necessarily silent on all of them.