Builder Subcontractor Quote Comparison Before a Refurbishment

Two subcontractor quotes land for the same refurbishment package. One is cheaper, but it says nothing about access equipment, making good or certification. A builder subcontractor quote comparison must expose those gaps before you award the work.

The job is not to rank headline totals. Build one package, map each quotation against it and get the unanswered points priced in writing. Then compare the offers on the same basis.

Set the subcontract package before asking for prices

Choose the work before you compare its cost. If each subcontractor prices a different version of the package, the totals tell you very little.

Write the package independently of the quotations. Use the drawings, specification and site survey. Do not let the first quote become the scope by default.

Issue one scope pack

Send every subcontractor the same current information:

• Package description and work boundaries
• Drawing numbers and revision dates
• Required materials, products and finishes
• Quantities or a clear method for measuring them
• Existing conditions that affect the work
• Access hours, parking and delivery limits
• Protection and isolation requirements
• Planned start window and required completion point
• Work that must be finished before the package starts
• Testing, photographs, certificates and handover records
• Pricing return date and contact for questions

Mark old drawings as superseded. A subcontractor pricing an old layout is not offering a cheaper version of the same job. They are pricing different work.

Walk the package on site when access, structure or existing services cannot be understood from the drawings. Show the loft hatch, lined ceiling, occupied rooms, narrow stairs and waste route. Record every answer given during the visit and issue it to everyone pricing the package.

Draw the boundary around builder-supplied work

State who supplies labour, materials, plant, access, protection, power, water, skips and welfare. Name who removes waste and who makes good after the subcontractor leaves.

An exclusion does not remove work from the refurbishment. It moves the work into another package or back to you.

A subcontractor may expect a tower to be ready, openings to be formed and waste to be taken away. You may expect all three items in the price. Settle that before tender return, not when the van arrives.

Put every builder-supplied item into the project budget. A free issue item still needs ordering, delivery, storage and control. Builder labour still costs money even when it is not on the subcontractor’s quote.

Build the builder subcontractor quote comparison line by line

Do not compare quotations in the order the subcontractors wrote them. One may price by room. Another may price by work type. A third may give one total and a short exclusion list.

Map them all back to your package headings. That creates a subcontractor scope comparison based on the work required rather than the layout of each document.

Use a sheet with one row for each work item. Keep the columns boring and explicit.

Mark every package line as included, excluded, allowed for or unanswered. Never treat a blank cell as included.

If a quote bundles several lines together, ask the subcontractor to confirm the coverage. You do not always need a price against every row. You do need to know whether each row sits inside or outside the offered total.

Pull assumptions and exclusions into the price

Read the exclusions before the total. Then read every phrase that limits the offer: subject to survey, standard access, existing wiring suitable, by others, client supply, provisional quantity or making good excluded.

Turn each phrase into a direct question. Ask what condition was assumed, what work is excluded and what price changes if that assumption is wrong.

Send the question in writing. Put the answer into the comparison sheet. If the answer changes the price, ask for the amount rather than entering your own guess.

A clarification agreed before award belongs in the final scope and subcontract order. Do not leave it buried in an email thread.

Worked example: a visible exclusion

The Oak Street electrical job is the house example. R. Chen’s Quote Q-1847 covered a bathroom exhaust fan, 150mm and ducted through the roof, plus four LED downlights at 14 Oak Street. The quote total was 1,105 sample currency units.

The ceiling was lined and the quote excluded chasing. Extra cable and chasing were approved on site as a 160 variation. Invoice INV-1847 was therefore 1,265.

The lesson is not the amount. The exclusion left real work on the project. A proper comparison would have shown chasing as excluded, allocated it to the builder or another package, or asked for it to be priced before award.

When scope still changes on site, stop and record it. The electrician variation process for refurbishment jobs shows how to describe the changed work, get approval and carry it to the invoice.

If a genuine unknown cannot be opened up or measured before award, leave it visible. Use a controlled allowance rather than pretending the work is included. The builder provisional sums guide explains how to define and track that unknown work.

Check whether the subcontractor can deliver and hand over the package

A complete price is no use if the subcontractor cannot start when the package is ready. Ask who will do the work, when materials can be ordered and how long the package needs on site.

Record:

• Labour availability for the planned start
• Material and equipment lead time
• Expected working duration
• Required access and working hours
• Work that must be complete before arrival
• Inspections needed before work is covered
• Supervision and site contact
• Testing and handover dates

Check the sequence against the live programme. A quotation may assume clear rooms while your programme leaves other trades working beside them. It may assume one uninterrupted visit where the refurbishment needs several returns. Ask for the programme effect and price effect before award.

Check credentials for the actual work

Do not accept a general claim that the firm is registered or approved. Check the people and business against the package being awarded.

For gas work, check the relevant work category through the Gas Safe Register (opens in a new tab). Do not rely only on a logo or a sentence in the quotation.

Where domestic electrical work in England or Wales will be self-certified under Part P, check the registration through the named competent person scheme (opens in a new tab). Ask who will notify the work and what record you will receive.

For building regulations approval on a project in England or Wales, ask building control (opens in a new tab) what approval and inspection route applies. For a Scottish project, put the same project question to building standards (opens in a new tab).

Do not carry an England and Wales route onto a job elsewhere. Check the official building control, electrical certification and licensing route for the nation where the site sits. For a Northern Ireland project, use nidirect building regulations guidance (opens in a new tab) to find the building control route and ask that service what records the job requires.

Ask the subcontractor for current insurance evidence for the work being awarded. Read the business name, covered activity and dates. If anything is unclear, resolve it before the start date.

List the handover items in the package. Test results, certificates, commissioning records, product details and photographs do not appear because the work is finished. Someone must be responsible for producing them.

Compare the commercial terms around the work

Run a builder quote review after levelling the work included. Payment and supply terms can move cost and risk even when two adjusted totals look close.

Compare the same points across every offer:

• Whether VAT is included, excluded or shown separately
• Deposit or material payment requests
• Valuation stages and payment points
• Quote validity and material price qualifications
• Ownership and storage of paid materials
• Retention terms where used on the project
• Cancellation, delay and remobilisation terms
• Access, parking and delivery assumptions
• Waste charges and disposal responsibility
• Daywork or variation approval method

Do not change VAT treatment merely to make the columns line up. Ask HMRC (opens in a new tab) about the current VAT question for your business and transaction. Record the subcontractor amount and VAT treatment separately in the comparison.

Check payment points against completed work, not convenient dates. Define what must be installed, inspected or handed over before each payment point is reached.

If materials need early payment, name them. Record where they will be stored, who carries the risk and how they will be identified for the project. Do not treat an unsupported material request as completed site work.

Add known builder-retained costs before comparing offers

A subcontractor’s quotation is not always the full package cost. Add the builder costs needed to deliver each offer before choosing between them.

These may include builder labour, supervision, access equipment, protection, waste handling, temporary works, delivery handling and making good. Add an item only when your business will genuinely carry it.

Start with each subcontract amount. Add the known builder-retained labour, materials, plant and other package costs attached to that offer. The result is the total package cost you can compare.

Keep unresolved exposure in a separate column. Do not guess the cost of unanswered access work, unknown making good or an unconfirmed handover requirement. The visible unknown tells you what still needs resolving before award.

Establish the VAT treatment with HMRC and use it consistently across the comparison. Recoverable VAT may sit outside the total package cost, while irrecoverable VAT may be a real cost to the package.

Choose the complete offer, not the smallest headline number

Compare the total package cost only after the scope, builder-supplied items, commercial terms and programme have been levelled.

Read each remaining open item. A low quotation with unpriced access, waste, making good and handover work may leave you carrying more cost than a higher complete quotation. Do not hide that exposure inside a note.

Use these decision points:

• Does the offer cover the required package?
• What unresolved cost still sits with the builder?
• Can the subcontractor meet the programme and sequence?
• Can they test, certify and hand over the work required?

Create an award record. Name the selected quotation reference and revision, accepted scope, clarified total, clarification schedule, open allowances, agreed dates, award date and person approving the decision.

Run the final builder subcontractor quote comparison past the site lead before award. The person delivering the package may spot a missing access task, protection item or work that must happen first that the estimator cannot see from the office.

Apply the builder’s markup after selection

Here, subcontractor cost markup means the builder’s markup on the selected subcontract amount plus the builder-retained costs needed to deliver that package. It does not mean the subcontractor’s own markup.

The pricing framework is simple:

• Start with the selected subcontract amount.
• Add builder-retained labour, materials, plant and other package costs.
• The result is the total package cost.
• Apply your business’s chosen markup to that total package cost.
• Use the VAT treatment established with HMRC rather than treating VAT the same way on every job.

Use your own cost records and pricing policy. Do not borrow a markup from another builder or apply an invented trade benchmark.

Markup and margin are not the same. Markup is profit divided by cost. Margin is profit divided by selling price. Use the markup versus margin guide when setting the selling price for the package.

Worked example: measure against the original quote

On the Oak Street job, cost was 850 and profit was 255 when measured against original Quote Q-1847 of 1,105. The calculation is 1,105 − 850 = 255. Markup is 255 ÷ 850 = 30%, while margin is 255 ÷ 1,105, or about 23%.

Those are sample currency units, not market rates. The costs of the 160 variation are not given. Do not calculate profit from Invoice INV-1847 of 1,265 or combine that invoice total with the 850 cost.

Issue the order and transfer the package into site control

Make the order agree with the comparison. State the selected quotation reference and revision, clarification schedule, award date and approving person. Attach the final scope, current drawings, accepted clarifications, agreed dates, payment points and handover list.

Remove superseded totals and unanswered draft wording. If an unknown remains, name it and state who must resolve it. Do not let the signed order turn an open question into an assumed inclusion.

Enter the committed subcontract amount into cost tracking. Add builder-retained costs to their own cost codes. Keep allowances separate so the project record shows what is committed and what is still exposed.

Give the site lead the accepted scope and clarification list. Carry live assumptions, delivery promises and site changes into the builder daily log and refurbishment site record. That gives the office a dated record when the work differs from the order.

Match invoices to the order, the builder subcontractor quote comparison, approved variations and completed payment points. Do not approve a new line merely because the work is already finished. Find the instruction, record the approval and update the forecast.