What We Check Before a Price Goes Out the Door

Start with what you have actually been given

Before anything gets priced, gather every drawing, the specification, any site survey information and whatever compliance documents exist. Half finished information leads to a price built on assumptions, and assumptions are exactly what come back to bite you once the job starts. Get the paperwork straight first.

Check rates against where they actually stand now

A price is only as good as the rates behind it. Labour and material costs move differently depending on where the job is, a price built on London rates does not hold up in a rural job three counties away. Rates need checking against current supplier quotes and local labour costs, not carried over from whatever the last job used.

Measure the quantities properly

Every item gets measured, to NRM2, not estimated by eye or lifted from a similar job without checking it actually matches. A proper bill of quantities, itemised and complete, is what lets you price accurately and what a subcontractor can price against without guessing what you meant.

Get someone else to check it

Whoever built the price is the wrong person to check it. A second person going through the take-off, the rates and the final figure, someone who was not involved in building it, catches the assumptions and gaps the first person cannot see because they already know what they meant.

Set the final price out clearly

Once the figure is checked, it needs setting out so anyone reading it can see the total, the breakdown behind it, and where the contingency sits. A price nobody can follow gets questioned. One set out clearly, line by line, does not.

That is the process behind every estimate we build. Send your drawings over and we will take it through all five steps. See a sample estimate first to see what you get back.

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