Responding to a stone masonry tender (restoration & masonry, EU 2026)

Stonemasons operate in a segment where public procurement and heritage clients (the State, local authorities, dioceses, foundations, owners of listed monuments) weigh heavily. Restoration contracts are frequently let under the project management of a chief architect of historic monuments (in France, an ACMH) or a heritage architect, which strongly shapes the requirements. Four families of contracts stand out.

• Restoration of historic monuments: replacing decayed stones, restoring mouldings, sculpting and copying stone on a listed or registered building (castle, cathedral, ramparts).
• Stone facade cleaning and restoration: cleaning, raking out, repointing, repair, replacement of dressed stones on old or public buildings.
• New or supplementary dressed-stone masonry: bonding, vaults, staircases, surrounds, on solid-stone construction or extension.
• Religious and heritage buildings: churches, chapels, cloisters, calvaries — often works contracts under ACMH project management with conservation constraints.

Across the EU the logic is identical in all 27 member states: a public operator publishes above the European thresholds on TED, below them on its national platform. An established stonemason may bid for a cross-border contract subject to freedom of establishment and recognition of qualifications — an advantage in Europe's stone-rich built heritage.

The first challenge is the price schedule. In stone masonry, each item combines three distinct components: the supply of stone, costed per m³ (blocks, rubble) or per m² (slabs, cladding) depending on the type and source quarry; the workshop cutting, expressed in labor hours according to the complexity of the bond or moulding; and the on-site laying, in masonry hours. The BoQ must aggregate consistent lines — stone cubage, cutting time, laying time, scaffolding, transport — with overheads, margin and contingency. A cubage error, an m³/m² confusion or an unsourced stone price distorts the price score, often 40 to 60% of the overall score.

The second challenge is the restoration technical proposal. The buyer, often assisted by an ACMH, scores technical value on precise heritage criteria: restoration methodology (removal, setting-out, surveying, re-laying), identity and provenance of the stone offered (quarry, compatibility with the original stone, tests), surveys and bonding layouts, treatment of mouldings, conservation of existing elements, compliance with the ABF and ACMH prescriptions. A generic proposal copied from one site to another is heavily penalized: you must answer the consultation rules criterion by criterion and demonstrate craftsmanship through real heritage references.

The third challenge is administrative and qualitative: heritage-specific qualifications, certificates, references of comparable buildings, and the ESPD/DUME for EU public procurement. On these contracts, the historic-monuments qualification and references often condition the very admission of the bid. False or expired documents lead to rejection — and even criminal penalties for false statements.

The assistant starts from the tender: you upload the tender file (PDF), it extracts the buyer, the project management (ACMH where relevant), the object, lots, award criteria and weighting, and the buyer's language. The technical proposal is then structured to develop first the most heavily weighted criteria on this type of contract — restoration methodology, identity of the stone, craftsmanship, heritage references —, in the contract's language.

For the price schedule, you enter your real data: stone price per quarry (per m³ or m²), workshop cutting time per type of work (hours × hourly rate), laying time, scaffolding, transport, overheads, margin and contingency. The assistant computes each line, distinguishing stone supply, cutting and laying, applies VAT and totals, and exports an editable Excel BoQ. No price and no quarry is invented: an item without a source is marked "to complete".

• Restoration proposal structured around the tender's award criteria.
• Itemized BoQ: stone (m³/m²) + workshop cutting + laying, costed from your data (Excel export).
• Methodology template: removal, setting-out, surveys, bonding layouts, re-laying.
• Pre-filled ESPD/DUME draft for EU public procurement.
• Deliverables in PDF, editable Word and Excel, in the buyer's language.
• Your stone prices, rates and heritage references stay confidential, reusable across tenders.

You stay in control: the assistant produces a solid base that you verify, complete with your real references, stone identity and tests, then sign before submission. It replaces neither your stonemason craftsmanship nor legal advice — it removes the hours of formatting and calculation where the cubage error risk is highest.

A controlled response follows a stable sequence, whether the contract is public or private, in France or elsewhere in the EU.

• Monitoring: spot relevant restoration, stone-facade and stone-masonry tenders on the platforms (TED, buyer profiles).
• Tender analysis: object, project management (ACMH), ABF prescriptions, lots, award criteria and weighting, deadlines, required documents and qualifications.
• Go/no-go decision: technical capacity, historic-monuments qualification, comparable heritage references, workload, achievable deadlines.
• Costing: BoQ for stone (m³/m²) + workshop cutting + laying, from your quarry prices and rates, with scaffolding, transport, overheads, margin and contingency.
• Restoration proposal: answer the criteria item by item, methodology (removal, setting-out, surveys, re-laying), identity of the stone, references.
• Administrative documents: ESPD/DUME, qualifications (stone masonry / historic monuments), certificates, building references.
• Electronic submission before the deadline, with e-signature where required.

The BoostPro IA assistant handles steps 4 to 6 — the most time-consuming and riskiest — producing proposal, BoQ and DUME in under ten minutes from your real data. You focus your time on strategy (choice of stone, quarry identity, differentiation through craftsmanship and references) rather than formatting.