Glazing bid scope letters, drafted from Division 08 for your estimator to check.

A glazing bid arrives as spec sections, elevations, door and window schedules, and addenda that can change any of them. Your estimator has to pull out the storefront and curtain wall systems named, what each glass type is made of, the performance numbers and tests the spec demands, and where your work stops and another trade's starts. All of that becomes the letter your general contractor reads.

For the test, AI reads copies of each package and drafts the scope letter: systems by section, glass types and make-ups as the schedule designates them, performance requirements and test methods, the testing the spec calls for, warranties, and a list of inclusions and exclusions your estimator must decide, each with its page. It writes no price. Your reviewer then reads every draft beside the letter your team sent.

Who pays for testing changes from owner to owner. The University of Houston's master curtain wall section has the owner engage the testing agency, then charges the contractor for retesting replaced work. Its field program wants at least three air tests to ASTM E 783 and three water tests to ASTM E 1105, each on an area at least 30 feet wide by one story, plus five AAMA 501.2 water spray tests before interior finishes begin. Northern Illinois University's bridging documents, issued through the Illinois Capital Development Board in 2021, have the contractor engage the preconstruction testing service. New York's 2024 master spec can move mockup and field testing into an allowance. The draft states who hires and who pays, and marks it when the package doesn't say.

A laboratory mockup is a program, not a line. The example sequence in New York's section 08 44 13 starts with structural loading at half the test load, then ASTM E283 air leakage, ASTM E331 static water and AAMA 501.1 dynamic water, then drift under AAMA 501.4, vertical movement under AAMA 501.7 and thermal cycling under AAMA 501.5, with air and water repeated after each, ending at full and one and a half times the test load. Its notes warn that such testing can be expensive and that some adhesion tests take four weeks. They also say AAMA 501.1's idea of leakage still allows up to half an ounce on an interior stop or stool in 15 minutes; the other bracket reads no uncontrolled water at all, and the letter has to carry whichever one the owner kept.

Glass is written as types, and the numbers disagree. Houston's Glass Type IG-2 is a 1 inch clear insulating unit with 6.0 mm heat-strengthened lites and air or argon between them, with its own U-factor and solar heat gain limits written in. Houston limits center-of-glass deflection to 1/200 of the short side. New York's glazing section offers 1/50 as its example and notes that the building code sets no deflection limit for glass and that ASTM E1300, Standard Practice for Determining Load Resistance of Glass in Buildings, only requires that deflection not cost the edge support. Glass design can also be delegated to an engineer who signs and seals the analysis, so the draft lists that as something to include or exclude. Whether a make-up works stays with your estimator and the engineer.

Scope edges live in other sections. New York's curtain wall section sends perimeter fire containment to 07 84 43 and joint sealants to 07 92 00, and warns that its submittals are subject to a re-evaluation fee under the general conditions. Its storefront section folds in an entrance door hardware schedule and, where doors are electrified, wiring diagrams showing power requirements. Its glazing section wants both exposed glass surfaces washed no more than four days before the inspection that sets substantial completion, unless closeout covers it. The American Subcontractors Association of Metro Washington's June 2025 guide on scope says caulking is often double scoped across trades, and that exclusions carried as boilerplate are a recurring complaint from general contractors. The draft names each edge with its page and leaves in or out to your estimator.

What your reviewer will watch. Warranties alone vary widely: Houston asks two years on the assembly and 20 on the finish, Northern Illinois 10 and 20, and New York's note says AAMA 2604 is meant to represent five years of finish performance and AAMA 2605 ten. Your chief estimator will look for systems tied to the right section, glass types carried as the schedule writes them, every test with who pays for it, addenda applied to the right line, and any exclusion your team took that the draft never raised.

When your reviewer says yes, new packages get the same draft letter for about 30 days.

Your estimator checks every scope before it reaches a general contractor, and every number in the bid stays with your estimator.

Drafts keep being compared with what your team sends. The fixed price for the live job is agreed before you sign, any later job is priced separately, and monthly support begins once a job runs.