SLED Opportunity · COLORADO · BOULDER COUNTY
AI Summary
Boulder County seeks a technical consultant to support its Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Pilot Program by training contractors, reviewing bids, assisting participants, and inspecting work on 100 pilot projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk through home hardening measures.
Launched in 2014, Wildfire Partners is Boulder County government’s wildfire mitigation program. Wildfire Partners offers a long list of programs to help residents and partner organizations reduce wildfire risk and prepare for future wildfires. To learn more about Wildfire Partners, visit www.WildfirePartners.org. Successful bids will have a very strong understanding of Wildfire Partners.The Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Technical Consultant (consultant) will train the contractors, review bids, assist the participants, and inspect the work of contractors associated with the Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Pilot Program (See RFP-257-26). The consultant also will provide advice and counsel to Wildfire Partners staff throughout the pilot program. The training will total eight hours of in-person sessions for three to five contractor teams at the beginning of the pilot program. The consultant will also provide on-going technical support to the contractors as they complete 100 unique pilot projects—reviewing bids and performing on-site inspections.This RFP is separate from the Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Pilot Program RFP-257-26. One consultant will be awarded RFP-258-26 and multiple contractors will be awarded RFP-257-26. A vendor may bid on both RFP-257-26 and RFP-258-26; however, one vendor may not be awarded both contracts.The pilot program is designed to test a potential new on-going program and service: The creation of a Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Contractors List and development of a Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Financial Award. For the pilot program, Wildfire Partners is looking to select three to five home hardening contractors to complete 100 home hardening pilot projects. Wildfire Partners will identify the 100 pilot projects and divide them up between the selected contractors. Each pilot project will be unique and will be customized to fulfill the home hardening mitigation check-list requirements of the participating homeowners.The design of the Wildfire Partners Home Hardening Pilot Program is based on Wildfire Partners forestry efforts. Since 2014, Wildfire Partners has provided $2.3 million directly to contractors on its Wildfire Partners Forestry Contractors List. Wildfire Partners Forestry Financial Award is a 50-50 cost-share program with homeowners participating in the Wildfire Partners home assessment program; the Wildfire Partners share of the total project cost capped at $2,000. As a result, contractors on this list have completed projects totaling more than $4.6 million. Wildfire Partners has had lists of home hardening contractors in the past, but it has never had a home hardening cost-share program. Wildfire Partners is interested in the possibility of a home-hardening, cost-share program. Funding for a potential program is available from the Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Tax. This pilot program is an effort to develop some of the other essential pieces of a permanent program, including experienced home hardening contractors.Wildfire Partners is seeking to hire a technical consultant through this RFP to help implement this pilot program.What are Examples of Specific Home Hardening Measures to Reduce Wildfire Risk for this pilot program?Wildfire Partners Mitigation Specialists have performed 4,772 individual home assessments with participating homeowners as of January 2026. These assessments identify all a home’s vulnerabilities to wildfire. Homeowners receive a customized assessment report with a checklist of required, recommended, or priority mitigation measures to complete to help reduce their wildfire risk. Wildfire Partners maintains a database of these mitigation measures. As of January 2026, the database had 40,701 required mitigation measures with an average of 11.17 required mitigation measures per assessment. A complete breakdown of these mitigation measures is included in Attachment A. A sample assessment report is included in Attachment C. It is important to note that the average of 11.17 mitigation measures per home include both home hardening and defensible space measures. This RFP is only focused on home hardening measures. The average number of home hardening mitigation measures is 3.82 per home. Again, the number of mitigation measures to be performed for this pilot program will vary with some above and some below this average number.Examples of 10 home hardening mitigation measures and how often they are required is listed below:• Create a noncombustible surface extending 5 feet around the house (54.74% of homes) • Mitigate accessory structures as identified in your assessment report (37.16% of homes) • Use caulk to fill holes, gaps & other areas where embers may penetrate (31.08% of homes) • Mitigate vents as specified in your assessment report (29.17% of homes) • Mitigate siding to obtain 6 inches of clearance where it extends to grade (21.97% of homes) • Install metal flashing between deck surface and the combustible siding (19.01% of homes) • Retrofit fence so it ends in noncombustible material (7.71% of homes) • Protect unenclosed floor areas as specified in your assessment report (7.36% of homes) • Install metal flashing or noncombustible siding at roof to siding junction (6.56% of homes) • Convert open eave framing to a boxed-in design or a design with soffits (4.71% of homes)When reviewing the mitigation measures in Attachment A and how often they were required (numbers and percentages), you will note that the most expensive home hardening measures are not required very often. Because these numbers are low and costs are high (and for shake shingle roofs, regulations are in place), this home hardening pilot project does not target the major home retrofits of roof replacement, siding replacement, window replacement, and deck replacement.If you have any questions about the Boulder County procurement process, please email procurement@bouldercounty.gov.Americans with Disabilities Act and Equal Opportunity Notice
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
SamSearch Platform
AI-powered intelligence for the right opportunities, the right leads, and the right time.