Two estimates for the same remodel can look nothing alike and both be honest. The gap is usually not the builders disagreeing about the work. It is that each document includes different things, organizes them differently, and assumes different answers to questions nobody asked out loud.
Reading them side by side is a skill. Here is what to look at.
Itemized beats lump sum, and it is not close
A single number at the bottom of a page tells you what a project costs and nothing else. It cannot be checked, compared or questioned in parts. When something changes mid-build, and something always changes, there is no line to point at.
An itemized estimate breaks the work into its parts so each one can be examined on its own. That is the version you want in front of you, and it is the version we write. Unwavering Transparency is one of the four commitments in our mission, and in practice it mostly means the estimate is honest, detailed and accurate rather than round and reassuring.
Ask where the mark-up is
Every contractor has a mark-up. It pays for running the business that shows up at your house. The question is never whether it exists. The question is whether you can see it.
Our estimates show ours as its own line. Folded into the individual items, a mark-up becomes invisible, and an invisible number is one you cannot discuss. Putting it on the page makes it a thing you and the builder can talk about plainly.
If an estimate you are comparing does not show one anywhere, that does not make it dishonest. It does mean you are looking at a document with a component in it you cannot locate.
Ask whether the number holds
This is the question that separates estimates more than any other, and it is worth asking in those words.
Ours is a detailed estimate that does not change as the home improvement project evolves. Adam Leckie prepares it, and the reason it can hold is that the scope was written down carefully enough at the start to survive the middle.
Where an estimate is built on assumptions that were never stated, the number moves as each assumption meets the actual house. You will hear that described as the project evolving. Often what evolved was the paperwork.
What a vague line item is telling you
Watch for items that describe a category instead of a piece of work. A line that reads as a general allowance for finishes is not a plan, it is a placeholder, and placeholders are where the surprises live.
You do not need to be an expert to test one. Ask what is inside it. A builder who has thought the work through can answer immediately and in specifics. A builder who has not will answer in the same general terms the line was written in, which is your answer.
Questions worth asking any contractor
- Is this itemized, and can you walk me through the items?
- Where is your mark-up in this document?
- Does this number change as the project goes on, and under what circumstances?
- What is inside this line item?
- What is not included here that I should expect to pay for separately?
- What is your CCB number?
That last one takes ten seconds and is worth asking every contractor you are considering. Ours is CCB #216870, held by Murrayhill Remodeling LLC.
Getting one
Our estimates follow a free in-home consultation, because writing a document this specific requires standing in the room first. We work in Beaverton, Portland, Tigard and Hillsboro. Call (503) 522-8288.