For most of us, building our dream home is one of the biggest decisions we’ll make in life. It is an exciting journey and process that involves intricate and detailed planning to ensure a smooth and successful outcome.
Before you begin, your builder should provide you with a professional quotation to avoid any unnecessary delays or budget blowouts. This is an important part of the process as it also demonstrates the commitment between yourself and the renovation builders. However, you should be wary of builders that offer you “free quoting”, as a professionally drawn up quote should involve a fee or charge.
Why you may ask? Many industries offer “free quoting” for their services, why then should your builder charge you for the quote?
Firstly, let’s look at the difference between an Estimate and a Quote. Many of us (including builders) use these two terms interchangeably, however, most of the “free quoting” you receive for trades and services are actually just “Estimates”.
What is an ESTIMATE?
An ESTIMATE is a general guess of the cost for your project, it is a ballpark figure based on your basic criteria of the build. This ballpark cost is simply to give you an idea as it is an approximation without the knowledge of the exact extent of materials and labour involved in completing the project.
Hence, Estimates are useful when you initially consider building a home to see if your general requirements can be met within your budget before progressing further. This gives you an idea of whether you should change your structure (for example, a one storey instead of two storey build) and the basic outline of the project to suit your financial situation.
What is a QUOTE?
A QUOTE however, would involve professional estimations and detailing of costs in every stage of the building process including materials, installation, cost of subcontractors and labour. It should show the transparent scope of works, detailing what is and is not included. A quote should also aim to avoid Prime Costs and Provisional Sums as much as possible, which means that the builder needs to spend more time with you to quantify these items. The quotation stage should be a clear and comprehensive discussion with your builder and should not be a ‘quick’ chat or rushed through.
The preparation of a Quote is a lengthy process that often involves many hours of work for your builder. It requires the expert knowledge and experience of your builder and can take multiple consultations with you to discuss your preferences and to fine-tune your project before a Quotation can be presented.
As you can see, this is why your builder should charge for quoting. This ensures your build project stays on track, on budget, and on time. SmartReno offers a professional custom build service with a fully transparent process from Consultation to Completion, so there are no unpleasant surprises. Our quotation charge includes advice and consultation on the material selection process and covers the finishing schedule, so your build project is in good hands all the way through.
Get in touch with the SmartReno team to discuss your build project today: 0406 616 690