We are not the cheapest. We do not aim to be. That sentence sits on our About page and it is worth explaining properly, because it is the question most people are thinking and almost nobody asks.
When three builders quote the same renovation and the numbers come back thousands apart, most people assume the low one found efficiencies. Occasionally that is true. Far more often, one of three other things is happening.
The scope is not the same. Two quotes for the same job are rarely for the same work. One includes the electrical upgrade the house will need, the other assumes the existing board is fine. One prices proper waterproofing to the new wet areas, the other prices the minimum. You are not comparing prices. You are comparing two different projects that happen to be described with the same words.
The assumptions are different. Every quote rests on assumptions about what is behind the walls, under the floor and in the ground. A builder who has investigated makes fewer assumptions and prices closer to reality. A builder who has not investigated makes more assumptions, prices lower, and finds out later. You pay for the difference as variations.
The allowances are doing the work. A quote can be made to look competitive by putting soft numbers against everything not yet chosen. The kitchen, the tiling, the joinery, the site works. Each one is a place the price can move after you sign.
How to compare quotes properly
Do not start with the total. Start with three questions.
What is excluded. Ask each builder for a written list of what is not in the price. The differences between those lists explain most of the gap.
What is allowed rather than priced. Ask for the allowance schedule and what percentage of the total it represents. A quote where twenty per cent of the value sits in allowances is not really a fixed price.
What happens when an assumption is wrong. Ask each builder what happens if the soil classification comes back worse than assumed, or if there is unapproved previous work behind a wall. The answer tells you who carries that risk.
What a higher quote usually buys
A properly investigated house, so fewer surprises become your problem. A fully scoped job, so the number at the end matches the number at the start. A builder who is not running so many jobs that yours becomes the one that waits. And time, in the form of a completion date somebody is prepared to put in writing.
You are not paying more for the same house. You are paying for a different level of certainty about what the house will cost and when you will get it back.
The honest version
There are builders cheaper than us who will do a good job. There are also builders cheaper than us because they have not priced the work properly, and the difference will find you in month four.
We would rather have the harder conversation at quote stage than the much harder one halfway through your build. If our number is higher than another, ask us to show you why, line by line. If we cannot justify it, you should not pay it.
