How to write a quote as a builder

Building work is rarely one task and rarely one trade, which is exactly why it's so easy to underquote. By the time you've coordinated a plumber, an electrician and a plasterer, allowed for materials the customer hasn't chosen yet, and carried the job for weeks before the final payment, a one-line figure on a scrap of paper is a recipe for losing money and trust. A clear written quote keeps the scope tight, makes the price defensible, and sets out how you'll get paid along the way. Here is how to write one as a builder: handling multi-trade jobs, using provisional sums, when to estimate rather than fix a price, and structuring staged payments.

Be clear which trades the job pulls in

A builder's quote usually covers more than your own hands. State plainly which parts you're doing yourself and which need a plumber, electrician, plasterer or specialist, and whether their work is priced into your figure or arranged separately by the customer. The biggest disputes come from a customer assuming the wiring, the plastering or the gas connection was in your price when it wasn't. Decide, then write it down. If you're subcontracting trades in, price their work into your quote and own the coordination, because that's part of what the customer is paying a builder for.

• List the stages and the trade each one needs, so the customer sees the whole job.
• State whether each trade is included in your price or arranged separately.
• If you're coordinating subcontractors, say so, because managing them is real work.
• Flag anything that needs certification or sign-off, like electrics or gas, and who provides it.

Use provisional sums for what isn't decided yet

On bigger jobs the customer often hasn't chosen everything when you quote: the kitchen units, the tiles, the bathroom suite, the flooring. Don't guess a number and bury it, and don't leave it out and absorb it later. Allow a provisional sum, a clearly labelled placeholder figure, and state that it'll be confirmed once they choose. When they pick the £4,000 kitchen instead of the £2,000 one you allowed for, the provisional sum is exactly what lets you adjust the price without it looking like you're moving the goalposts. Label it provisional on the document so there's no confusion between a fixed price and a placeholder.

When to quote and when to estimate

Building work has more genuine unknowns than most trades, especially anything involving existing structure, foundations, or what's behind old walls. If you've surveyed the job and the scope is clear, a defined extension footprint, a known spec, give a fixed quote. If there are real unknowns you can't see until you start, ground conditions, the state of an old roof structure, what's under the floor, give an estimate for that element and say plainly what could change the figure. Mixing the two is fine and often sensible: quote the parts you can see, and estimate or use a provisional sum for the parts you can't. Our guide on quote vs estimate covers exactly where that line sits, and for the documents themselves, what every professional quote should include lays out the standard sections.

Price your own labour and materials

Work your labour from the realistic days each stage takes across all the trades involved, and price materials from your suppliers, including the consumables and waste that a big job generates. Price the job in front of you rather than a rate borrowed from another builder, because your overheads, your area and the spec on the table are what decide the number. If your day rate underpins it, our guide on how to set your day rate as a tradesperson shows how to build a rate that actually covers your costs.

Structure staged payments and put them on the quote

On a job that runs for weeks, a single payment at the end puts all the risk on you: you fund the labour and a pile of materials before any money comes in. Stage payments fix that by tying each payment to a completed, visible stage of the work, a deposit to book and order materials, milestone payments as stages finish, and the balance on completion. Set the whole schedule out on the quote in writing, agreed up front, rather than mentioning it on the phone and arguing about it mid-build. Our guide on stage payments covers how to structure them, and how much deposit should a tradesperson ask for covers tying the deposit to your real costs.

Why a clear builder's quote wins

A customer spending serious money on building work is taking a real risk, and a quote that explains the scope, the trades, the provisional sums and the payment schedule reads as a builder who's done this before. That earns trust over a higher figure scribbled at the kerb. KeenQuote turns a plain-English description of the job into a structured quote in about a minute, so you can get a professional document back fast while the customer is still deciding. It's free for five quotes a month, and Pro is £19.99 a month for unlimited.