You've had three builders round. You've made them all a brew, walked them round the house and explained what you're after. Now there are three quotes on the kitchen table, and one of them is a fair bit lower than the other two.
It's hard not to be drawn to it. Nobody wants to pay over the odds, and on a big extension or renovation the gap between quotes can be the price of a new kitchen.
But here's the thing about a quote. It isn't a price for your finished home. It's a price for whatever the builder has written down. More often than not, the cheapest quote is simply the one that's written down the least.
So before you pick a number, it's worth knowing how to read what's behind it.
Why quotes for the same job can be so far apart
You'd think three builders looking at the same drawings would come back with roughly the same figure. They rarely do, and it isn't always because someone's trying it on.
One builder might have gone through the drawings line by line. Another might have had a walk round and put a number on it. One might include the steels, the building control fees and the decorating. Another might leave all three out and not mention it.
To be fair, sometimes a lower price is perfectly honest. A smaller firm with lower overheads can be cheaper and still do a good job. The point isn't that cheap is always bad. It's that you can't tell which kind of cheap you're looking at until you know what's been left out.
What a low quote usually leaves out
Money for the unexpected
Every renovation turns something up once the walls come down. A lintel that isn't there. Joists that have been notched half to death by a plumber in the seventies. A drain running exactly where the new foundations need to go.
A sensible quote is honest that this can happen and explains how it'll be dealt with. A cheap one prices the job as if nothing will ever go wrong, which means the first surprise lands straight in your lap. Many in the trade would tell you to keep 10 to 15 per cent aside on a renovation, and more on an older house. [STEVEN TO CONFIRM OR AMEND THIS FIGURE]
Proper materials
Watch out for phrases like "or similar" and "to client's choice", or a quote that just says "new windows" or "insulate roof" with nothing else. Two quotes for "new windows" can be thousands of pounds apart, because one is pricing a decent timber or aluminium frame and the other is pricing the cheapest uPVC going.
If the materials aren't named, you've no way of knowing what you're getting. And you won't find out until they turn up on site.
A realistic amount of time
Labour is the biggest cost on most building jobs, so it's the easiest place to make a quote look smaller. Price a job at six weeks when it really needs ten and the numbers look great on paper.
The trouble comes later. Either the work gets rushed, corners get cut, or the builder comes back halfway through asking for more. Sometimes they take on a second job to make the sums work, and you're left with the half-finished extension where nobody turns up on a Tuesday.
The bits nobody wants to price
These are the dull items that often go missing from a low quote:
- Scaffolding and skips
- Building control fees and a structural engineer
- Protecting the rest of your house while work goes on
- Making good, plastering and decorating
- Electrical testing and certificates
- Clearing the site when it's finished
None of them is huge on its own. Add them up and you can be looking at a serious sum that was never in the figure you agreed to.
Allowances that won't buy anything
If you haven't picked your kitchen or flooring yet, a builder will often put in an allowance, sometimes called a provisional sum. It's a perfectly normal thing to do.
The catch is when the allowance is set far too low. A £6,000 kitchen allowance makes the total look lovely, but if the kitchen you actually want is £20,000, the difference is coming out of your pocket. [STEVEN TO CHECK THESE EXAMPLE FIGURES ARE REALISTIC] Always ask whether each allowance would genuinely buy what you have in mind.
VAT
It sounds obvious, but check whether each quote includes VAT. Some do and some don't, and on a £200,000 job the difference is £40,000. It's the quickest way for one quote to look far cheaper than the rest.
How a cheap job ends up costing more
Everything left out of a quote doesn't disappear. It comes back later, usually at a worse time and a higher price.
Extras. Anything that wasn't in the quote becomes an extra, priced by the builder halfway through the job. By then you can't shop around. You're living in a building site and you just need it finished.
Delays. A job that was underpriced tends to run late. That can mean months without a kitchen, extra rent if you've moved out, more time off work and a lot more stress than anyone planned for.
Putting things right. Poor work has to be done again, and you pay for it twice. The worst of it doesn't always show straight away. Damp, cracking and doors that stick can turn up a year or two down the line, long after the builder has moved on.
Add those up and the cheapest quote on the table can easily become the most expensive job.
How to read a quote properly
When you sit down with your quotes, these are the questions worth asking of each one:
- Is it broken down into parts, or is it one figure on a single page?
- Does it say clearly what's included and what isn't?
- Are the main materials named, rather than "or similar"?
- Are any allowances realistic for what you want?
- How will surprises be handled, and how will extras be priced?
- Does it include VAT?
- Is there a start date and a realistic length for the job?
- Are payments tied to stages of the work, rather than a big sum up front?
- Is the builder insured, and who deals with building control?
- Who will be on site each day, and who do you call if you have a question?
One useful trick is to put the quotes side by side and add in the cost of everything each one leaves out. What you're comparing then is the real cost of a finished job, not three numbers that were never measuring the same thing.
Why it matters even more in an older home
If you live in a period or character property, everything above goes double. Older houses are full of things you can't see until you start: solid walls, lime mortar, old timbers and the odd surprise from a previous owner's DIY. If you're in a conservation area there may be rules about materials and appearance too.
A builder who hasn't allowed for any of that will find out on your money. It's worth choosing someone who has worked on houses like yours and can tell you up front what they're likely to find. You can read more about how we approach renovations and extensions on older homes.
[IMAGE: a period property renovation from Projects, with alt text describing the house and the work]
How we put our quotes together
We've been building, extending and renovating homes around Warrington and Cheshire for more than 35 years, and the way we price work comes down to one thing: you should know what you're paying for before we start.
Every project begins with a proper conversation about what you want and what's achievable. Then we put together a detailed quote and agree a clear timeline before any building work begins. You'll have one point of contact from start to finish, so there's always someone to ask.
[STEVEN: two or three sentences in your own words on how you handle the unexpected, allowances and extras in your quotes]
We won't always be the lowest number on your kitchen table. What we aim for is a price you can trust from the first day of the job to the last. [STEVEN TO APPROVE THIS LINE]
You can see examples of the work behind our prices in our projects.
Thinking about an extension or renovation?
If you're planning work on your home and want a quote that tells you the whole story, we'd be glad to have a chat. Call Steven on 01925 550011 or 07365 143 949, email steven@builtbyrosedale.co.uk, or get in touch here.