How to Bid on Government Welding Work in Burlington, Vermont

Public-sector work around Burlington is real money, but it’s paperwork-heavy and slow-moving compared to private jobs. The good news: if you can read a bid packet carefully, hit deadlines, and run your shop like an adult, you can absolutely get in. The bad news: you can be the best welder in Chittenden County and still lose because you missed one form, one signature, or one insurance line.

TL;DR

• City of Burlington bid postings (CivicEngage): https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/Bids.aspx (burlingtonvt.gov)
• Vermont statewide bid opportunities + free notifications (Vermont Business Registry & Bid System): https://www.vermontbusinessregistry.com/ (vermontbusinessregistry.com)
• State of Vermont Office of Purchasing & Contracting bid docs often live here (old but still referenced in many packets): http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php (governmentcontracts.us)
• Expect timelines like: 2–6 weeks from posting to bid due date; 2–8+ weeks to award; 30–90 days to actually get paid (sometimes longer if something’s wrong with your invoice or vendor setup). (burlingtonvt.gov)
• Odds for a first-time bidder: you’ll probably lose your first few if you swing at bigger, formal RFPs/RFBs. Your best shot early is smaller RFQs, on-call service contracts, and subcontracting under primes already doing municipal/site work.

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Who Actually Wins These Contracts (And Why)

In Burlington, the winners usually fall into a few buckets:

The first bucket is the established local contractors who already do steady work for municipalities, utilities, campuses, and larger property owners. They know the routine: how to format pricing, what insurance limits get flagged, how to submit on time, and how to answer bid questions without accidentally disqualifying themselves.

The second bucket is vendors already “in the system” with the agency—meaning they’re set up as a vendor, have the right paperwork on file, and someone in Public Works/Facilities already knows they respond quickly and don’t create drama. Public agencies care about performance risk. If you’re new to them, you are risk by default.

The third bucket is the lowest compliant bidder on simple scopes. “Compliant” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. In public purchasing, being low and being right beat being great and being messy.

If you’re a solo welder or a two-person shop, your edge is speed, responsiveness, and doing weird one-off repairs that the bigger outfits either don’t want or can’t schedule fast. But you only get credit for that edge if you look clean on paper.

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What Agencies Around Burlington Actually Hire Welders For

Most public welding work is maintenance, repair, and fabrication—stuff that keeps buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure working without turning into a capital project.

Around Burlington, you’ll see needs like:

Department and facility maintenance: handrails, guards, brackets, bollards, gate repairs, stair/landing fixes, steel reinforcement, equipment mounts, and “someone hit this with a plow” repairs. The City’s bid board sometimes includes on-call service requests (generator service, small construction, etc.), and similar patterns show up for metal work when they bundle it into facilities maintenance scopes. (burlingtonvt.gov)

Public works and water/wastewater support: structural supports, access hatches, frames, ladder repairs, grating, and miscellaneous fabrication that has to survive corrosion and abuse.

Parks and recreation: field equipment repairs, fence/gate hardware, custom mounts, small fabricated parts that aren’t worth shipping from a catalog vendor.

Vehicle and equipment support: not always “welding” on paper—sometimes it’s described as repairs or fabrication services tied to fleet maintenance, snow equipment, trailers, and specialty attachments.

The key pattern is recurring needs. Governments like vendors they can call repeatedly without re-bidding every small job—so you want to position yourself for “on-call” or “as-needed” contracts when they exist, or smaller RFQs that get you into their vendor list.

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Timelines (Bid Window, Award, and Getting Paid)

This is where public work feels different. In private work, if you’re trusted, you can look at it Tuesday, quote Wednesday, start Monday, invoice Friday, and get paid in a couple weeks (or you chase it).

With government, the clock is formal.

Bid windows: short, fixed, and unforgiving

For City of Burlington postings, you’ll see hard close dates/times listed right on the bid board. Missing it by minutes is usually a no-go, even if you “have a good reason.” (burlingtonvt.gov)

Typical window for a straightforward RFQ might be 1–3 weeks. Bigger construction bid packages can run longer (and may include mandatory pre-bid meetings/site walks).

Award timing: slower than you want

After bids close, there’s an evaluation period. On easy low-bid jobs, it can move quickly. On anything that requires review, references, interviews, or internal approvals, it drags.

A realistic expectation is 2–8+ weeks from bid close to award notice, depending on complexity and whether they need board/council approval or internal signoffs.

Payment timing: “net” is just the beginning

Even if the terms say Net 30, your actual cash timeline depends on whether:

• you’re set up correctly as a vendor,
• your invoice matches the PO/contract exactly,
• whoever is approving the invoice is on vacation,
• the agency is in a year-end freeze or system transition.

Vermont’s state procurement world has been transitioning systems (VTBuys), and those transitions are famous for creating vendor confusion and payment delays during changeovers. (aiavt.org)

If long payment timelines are going to squeeze your cash flow, this is where invoice financing can help. Toolbox lets you advance 80–90% against approved public invoices at competitive rates, so you can keep crews working and bids moving without waiting 30–90 days to get paid. (See if you qualify at https://apply.toolboxlending.com/)

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Where Bids Are Posted (Burlington + Nearby “Public-ish” Buyers)

You don’t need 15 bid aggregator subscriptions. You need to know where Burlington-area public entities actually post, and then check them consistently.

• City of Burlington (VT) — Bid Postings (CivicEngage): https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/Bids.aspx
  Jobs refresh whenever departments publish them—sometimes clusters, sometimes quiet. You’ll see everything from RFQs to full construction bids, and it’s worth checking weekly (or setting alerts). (burlingtonvt.gov)

• Vermont Business Registry & Bid System — statewide + municipal postings + awards: https://www.vermontbusinessregistry.com/
  This is a good “one stop” feed for Vermont opportunities and it’s free to register if you’re a Vermont business. (vermontbusinessregistry.com)

• State of Vermont Office of Purchasing & Contracting — bid documents page (commonly referenced): http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/pca/bids/bids.php
  Many Vermont solicitation packets still point vendors to this page for documents and addenda, and it’s explicitly called out in bid language in circulation. (governmentcontracts.us)

• University of Vermont (UVM) Purchasing (not government, but behaves like it): https://www.uvm.edu/finance/ufs/purchasing-services
  UVM is a major institutional buyer in Burlington and runs formal procurement with thresholds and competitive quote requirements. (uvm.edu)

• Quasi-government/regional entities (watch the Registry)
  Places like solid waste districts and regional authorities often post through the Vermont Business Registry and/or their own sites. (cswd.net)

Typical job sizes for welding-related scopes are often small-to-mid (a few thousand to tens of thousands) unless you’re part of a bigger construction package as a subcontractor.

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Registration and Paperwork Realities (What You’ll Actually Get Stuck On)

Public buyers don’t want your life story. They want you to be an eligible vendor who can be paid, insured, and held accountable.

Vendor registration is not “optional admin”—it’s the gate

If you’re in Vermont, start with the Vermont Business Registry. It’s built to both list your business and connect you to bid opportunities, including notifications. (vermontbusinessregistry.com)

For City of Burlington bids, you don’t always need a separate “vendor portal” account to read a posting, but you do need to follow the submission instructions precisely. Sometimes that’s upload-only, sometimes email, sometimes sealed bid delivery, sometimes a specific form set.

Insurance wording matters more than your premium

You’ll see requirements like:

• general liability minimums,
• auto liability if you have vehicles on site,
• workers’ comp (or a compliant exemption/statement if you’re truly solo),
• additional insured endorsements,
• certificate holder language.

The gotcha: even if you “have insurance,” your COI might not match the bid language. If the bid says the City must be listed as additional insured, they mean it. Get your agent used to turning these around fast.

Bid bonds and performance/payment bonds (sometimes)

For larger construction-related bids, bonding can show up. This is more common on VTrans-style construction and bigger municipal projects than on small maintenance weld/fab, but you need to recognize it early because it’s a hard barrier if you don’t have bonding lined up. (Even towns will mirror state/federal-style language on infrastructure jobs.)

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Small Business Certifications / Set-Asides (What Helps, What Doesn’t)

In Vermont local work, “set-asides” don’t always look like federal set-asides. You may not see a steady stream of welding-only contracts reserved for small businesses.

What does help in practice:

Being a Vermont-based business listed in the Vermont Business Registry can help you get found and get notifications. (vermontbusinessregistry.com)

For bigger projects where you’re subbing under a prime, primes sometimes care about using local subs, and some funding sources push participation goals. It’s not magic, but it can be a tie-breaker when they’re building a team.

If you’re chasing work that’s federally funded (transportation, some infrastructure), then federal categories and compliance can matter more. That’s a separate rabbit hole, but it’s one reason to get your business “paper-ready” early.

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How Agencies Evaluate Bids (High Level, Real World)

For small RFQs, it often comes down to: did you submit the required stuff, and are you the lowest price (or best value) among compliant bidders.

For RFQs/RFPs, it can be qualifications-heavy. Example: Burlington posts RFQs for on-call services where they’re looking for qualified firms and pricing proposals, not just “lowest number wins.” (burlingtonvt.gov)

A few realities that surprise first-time bidders:

They don’t reward creativity. If they ask for a specific format, give them that format. If they ask for three references, give three references with complete contact info.

If you include exclusions, clarifications, alternate materials, or “we’ll figure it out onsite,” you might be making yourself non-responsive. In private work you can negotiate; in public work you can disqualify yourself.

If there’s a Q&A deadline, use it. If the scope is unclear, ask the question the way they want it asked, by the date they want it. After that, you own your assumptions.

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Common Public-Sector Gotchas (Stuff That Burns Good Tradespeople)

The fastest way to lose is not being expensive—it’s being non-responsive. A few common ways that happens:

You miss an addendum. Many public solicitations explicitly say you’re responsible for monitoring postings for updates and addenda, and you often have to acknowledge receipt in your bid package. (governmentcontracts.us)

Your bid is late. “Late is late” is real. If it closes at 2:00 PM, don’t plan to hit submit at 1:59 PM from a jobsite with spotty service.

Your pricing doesn’t match their structure. If they want unit prices (hourly rate, per weld inch, per mobilization, per fabrication hour), don’t send a lump sum unless they asked for a lump sum.

You don’t follow site access/security rules. Some facilities will have badging, escort requirements, or limited work windows. If you assume you can roll in whenever, you’ll blow the schedule and make your contact look bad.

You don’t understand prevailing wage when it applies. Not every job is subject to it, but when it is, it changes your labor math and your paperwork. If the bid packet references it, treat that as a major cost/compliance item.

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Realistic Entry Points for First-Time Bidders (Where You Can Actually Win)

If you’re new to public work in Burlington, your best first wins usually come from one of these paths:

1) Small RFQs that look “too small to bother”

Those are often perfect for a solo operator: quick turnaround repairs, small fabrication, handrail fixes, bracket builds, and other “get it done and don’t make it weird” work. They’re also where buyers are more open to a new vendor—because the risk is lower.

2) On-call service contracts (the quiet gold)

An on-call contract is how you turn public work into repeat work. Agencies like on-call arrangements because it reduces procurement friction for recurring needs. Burlington’s bid postings include on-call style requests in other trades, and metalwork can show up the same way or inside facilities scopes. (burlingtonvt.gov)

Even if you don’t win the first one, read the packet like it’s a training manual. You’ll learn exactly what they care about.

3) Subcontract under primes already doing municipal/campus work

A lot of welding scope in public projects is buried inside larger jobs (building renovations, sitework, equipment buildings, structural repairs). If you wait for “Welding Services RFB,” you may wait forever.

Find the primes who consistently bid City/UVM/regional authority work and get on their sub list. Your pitch is simple: you can price fast, show up when scheduled, document your work, and not derail their compliance.

4) Get into the “known vendor” loop without being annoying

Public agencies can’t just hand you work because they like you, but they can:

• tell you where they post,
• tell you what categories to watch,
• answer questions about upcoming maintenance needs,
• steer you toward the right process for small purchases.

Use the bid portals for the formal stuff, and use normal human communication to understand what’s coming.

The play is consistency: watch the postings, bid the right-sized work, submit clean packages, and build a track record. Once you’ve successfully done a couple of small public jobs without drama, your odds improve fast—not because the system gets nicer, but because you’ve proven you won’t create a compliance headache.