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What should a builder's quote include?

Guide · Updated

A building quote has to do something a single-trade quote does not: describe a job made of stages, other people's trades, and decisions the customer has not made yet. So alongside the usual — itemised scope, VAT, a valid-until date, exclusions — it needs who supplies what, provisional sums for the parts that genuinely cannot be priced yet, a programme, a stated way that variations get agreed, and payment tied to stages rather than one deposit.

Break the job into stages, not one number

A single figure for “single-storey rear extension” tells the customer nothing and protects nobody. Price it the way it will be built: groundwork and foundations, structure, roof, windows and doors, first fix, plastering, second fix, finishes, making good outside. Each stage its own section, with the work described inside it.

This is more work to write and it is the difference between a quote that survives the job and one that becomes an argument. The customer can see where the money goes and ask about a stage rather than the whole thing. You can point at a stage when they ask for a change. And when you come to invoice, you are invoicing against something you both already agreed to.

Say who supplies what, and who fits it

Most building disputes are not about workmanship. They are about somebody assuming the other person was buying the kitchen. Every item a customer might choose themselves needs a line saying who supplies it and who fits it: kitchen units, sanitaryware, tiles, flooring, doors, ironmongery, light fittings.

Be equally clear about the trades. If you are pricing the electrics and plumbing through your own subcontractors, say so, because the customer is entitled to know who is standing behind that work and what certificates they will end up with. If a trade is excluded and the customer is arranging it, say that too — and say what you need from them and when, because a trade that turns up in the wrong week costs you a stage.

Provisional sums: price the unknown honestly

On a build there is always something nobody can price yet: what is under the floor, what the drains are actually doing, a finish the customer has not chosen. The wrong responses are to guess low and hope, or to load the price with contingency and lose the job to somebody who did not.

Use a provisional sum: an allowance, clearly marked as one, for a defined item, with a sentence saying it will be adjusted up or down against the real cost once known. “Allowance of £3,000 for kitchen units, supply only, to be adjusted against the units chosen” is honest, comparable against another builder's quote, and impossible to mistake for a fixed price. Keep the list short — a quote that is mostly provisional sums is an estimate, and should say so.

The programme, and what moves it

Customers living in the house want to know how long, and they will remember whatever you say whether it is written down or not — so write it down. A start date or window, the expected duration, and the things that legitimately move it: weather on groundwork or roofing, building control inspections, lead times on windows, anything the customer is supplying late, and work found once things are opened up.

Naming those in advance is not hedging. It is the difference between a delay you explained before it happened and one you explained afterwards.

Variations are the biggest risk on a build

On a job lasting weeks, the customer will ask for changes. That is normal and often good business. What ruins it is doing the work on a conversation and presenting the cost at the end — which, as the guide on whether a quote is legally binding explains, asks somebody to pay for something they never agreed to buy.

So state the process on the quote: changes are priced and agreed in writing before the work is done, and the programme is adjusted if the change affects it. A line saying that is worth more than any other sentence on a building quote, because it turns every later change into a small, normal transaction instead of one big conversation at the end.

VAT, and why building work is the awkward case

Show the subtotal, the VAT as its own line and the total, the same as any trade. Building work is where the rate is most likely not to be the standard one — new builds, certain conversions and some work on long-empty properties are treated differently, and the conditions are specific. Check the current position on gov.uk or with your accountant for the job in front of you rather than assuming, and see the guide on showing VAT on a quote for the general cases.

Payment stages, not a deposit

On a build, a single deposit is the wrong instrument: tie payments to the stages you have already written. Each one is an amount and a visible trigger — foundations signed off, roof on, plaster complete — so neither side is far out of pocket at any point, and every stage gives you a natural moment to raise anything that has changed. The guide on deposits covers how to set the first one.

Exclusions, and what you are registered with

The usual exclusions on a building quote: decoration beyond making good, landscaping and reinstating the garden, anything found once the ground or the structure is opened up, asbestos, planning and building control fees where the customer pays them directly, and party wall matters. Then your registration — FMB, TrustMark, or a warranty provider — in the header, with a line saying what the customer ends up holding: building control completion, electrical certificates, a Gas Safe notification, any insurance-backed guarantee.

A structure to copy

That is a long document to type and a short one to say out loud. Speak to Quote takes a dictated walk through the job and gives back the line items priced from your own price book, with your registrations, terms and exclusions already on the document; a stage you build every time can be saved as a template and reused. The builder page shows a worked example from what was said to what was sent.

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