CPV Codes for Construction: the 45000000 Family Explained
Updated August 2026 · TenderPulse team
Direct answer: CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes are the EU's product taxonomy for public tenders. All construction work lives under division 45000000-7. If you search TED with the right 3–5 CPV codes for your trade plus a country filter, you will see practically every relevant tender; search with keywords alone and you will miss a third of them.
How the CPV system is built
A CPV code is an 8-digit number plus a check digit. It is a tree: each extra non-zero digit narrows the scope. For construction:
- 45000000-7 — Construction work (everything below sits here)
- 45100000-8 — Site preparation (demolition 45110000, earthworks 45112000)
- 45200000-9 — Complete or partial construction and civil engineering: buildings 45210000, bridges/tunnels 45221000, pipelines and utilities 45230000, roads 45233000, rail 45234100, water projects 45240000
- 45300000-0 — Building installation: electrical 45310000, plumbing/HVAC 45330000
- 45400000-1 — Completion: plastering 45410000, joinery 45420000, floors/walls 45430000, painting 45440000
- 45500000-2 — Hire of construction equipment with operator
Buyers often also attach design codes (71xxxxxx — engineering/architecture) to design-and-build contracts, which is why a pure 45-only alert misses D&B work.
Why buyers' CPV choices are messy — and how to exploit it
Contracting authorities pick codes manually, and they are inconsistent: a school renovation may be coded as 45214200 (school buildings), 45453000 (overhaul/refurbishment), or a vague 45000000. Three practical consequences:
- Search one level higher than your trade. If you do façade work, don't rely solely on 45443000 — include 45400000 and scan titles.
- Combine CPV with keywords, not instead of them. CPV catches miscoded titles; keywords catch miscoded CPVs. The overlap is your safety net — our TED search guide shows the exact filter setup.
- Track sibling codes. Authorities that miscode once tend to miscode consistently — if you win work from one, mirror their coding habits in your alerts.
The shortlist for common trades
- General contractor / buildings: 45210000, 45214000 (education/health facilities), 45262700 (alterations)
- Roads & civil: 45233000 (roads), 45221000 (bridges), 45112000 (earthworks)
- MEP / installations: 45310000 (electrical), 45331000 (HVAC), 45332000 (plumbing)
- Energy retrofit: 45443000 (façade), 45321000 (thermal insulation), 45261215 (solar roofing) — pair with 71314300 (energy-efficiency consultancy) for D&B
- Demolition & environment: 45110000, 45112340 (soil decontamination), 90500000-series for waste when relevant
Putting codes to work in TED
In TED's expert search you can combine CPV, country (NUTS), value range and deadline. A robust construction alert is: division-45 family codes for your trades + your target countries + "notice type: contract notice". Expect volume: across the EU, hundreds of construction notices publish on a typical business day — in the stream TenderPulse tracks, 2100 construction tenders were captured in the last 30 days alone. That volume is exactly why teams automate the filtering instead of reading TED manually: set your CPV + country profile once and get only matching tenders, daily.
Common CPV mistakes that cost bids
- Alerting only on one exact 8-digit code — you inherit every buyer's coding error.
- Ignoring the 71-series on design-and-build — you see the tender after the design partner is chosen.
- Forgetting national portals below EU thresholds, where coding is even looser — see our thresholds guide for what publishes where.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CPV code for construction work?
45000000-7 is the top-level CPV division for construction. Sub-families narrow it: 45210000 buildings, 45233000 roads, 45310000 electrical installation, 45400000 completion works, and so on.
How many CPV codes should a tender alert use?
Typically 3–5 family-level codes per trade plus your target countries. Search one level above your exact specialty and pair codes with keywords to survive buyer miscoding.
Why do relevant tenders sometimes have the wrong CPV code?
Contracting authorities assign codes manually and inconsistently — renovations, design-and-build and mixed contracts are frequently coded at a generic or adjacent level, which is why keyword filters matter.
Do design-and-build tenders use construction CPV codes?
Often they combine division 45 with 71-series design codes (architecture/engineering). Alerts that ignore the 71 series see design-and-build work late or never.
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