Builder quote template and how to quote a building job

How builders usually price a job

Builders usually price larger jobs as a fixed price built up from measured quantities and labour days, with separate allowances for anything that cannot be priced yet. Smaller and less certain jobs are often priced by the day.

What to include on a building quote

On a building job the quote is close to a contract, so it needs to be specific enough that both of you can tell later what was and was not agreed.

1. Your details, including your VAT number if you are registered.
2. A quote number, the date and a valid-until date.
3. The customer's name and the site address.
4. The scope, stage by stage, quoting drawing numbers and revisions where you have them.
5. What is not included, such as planning and building control fees, party wall surveyor fees, decorating, landscaping and utility connections.
6. A price for each stage, split into materials, labour and other costs.
7. Provisional and PC sums listed separately, each with a short description.
8. VAT, shown clearly, or a line saying no VAT is charged.
9. A stage payment schedule and a rough programme, including what could delay it, such as weather or late customer choices.
10. How changes are priced and agreed, and how to accept.

How to quote a building job, step by step

Quote a building job by breaking it into stages, measuring each one, pricing materials, labour and plant for it, then adding allowances for what cannot be known. A price you can explain line by line is a price you can defend.

1. Fix the scope before you price anything

Work from drawings or a written specification wherever you can, and write down who is responsible for planning permission, building control and any structural engineer. If the brief is only verbal, write your own short specification and ask the customer to confirm it.

2. Break it into stages and measure

Typical stages are strip-out or demolition, groundworks, structure, roof, first fix, plastering, second fix and finishes. Measure quantities for each stage from the drawings and on site.

3. Price materials, with a waste allowance and markup

Price from your own merchant accounts, allow for cutting and breakage from your own experience, and add your markup. Know the difference between markup and margin:

4. Labour days, and subcontractors in writing

Put labour days against each stage for each trade. For work you subcontract, get the subcontractor's price in writing and add your own cost of managing it.

5. Plant, skips, scaffolding and site costs

Machine hire, skips or grab lorries, scaffolding, welfare, site protection and security all cost money, and all are easy to leave off.

6. Allowances, then VAT

Use provisional sums for work you cannot price yet and PC sums for items the customer has not chosen.

Add VAT only if you are VAT registered. GOV.UK says you must register if your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, measured on a rolling 12 months rather than your tax year. The standard rate is 20%, but some goods and services carry a reduced or zero rate, so check GOV.UK's VAT rates if you are unsure. If you are not registered, say on the quote that no VAT is charged.

Extras, variations and what you find when you open up

On a building job, changes are close to certain, so write the process into the quote: every change is described in writing, priced, its effect on the programme stated, and agreed by the customer before the work is done.

• The customer changes their mind on layout, finishes or fittings.
• Hidden problems such as old drains, rot or poor existing foundations.
• Building control asks for something extra.
• Delays caused by items the customer is supplying.

Keep a running variations list with the price and date of each one, so the final account holds no surprises.

Deposits, payment terms and how long the quote lasts

Put the deposit, any stage payments, the due date for the balance and a valid-until date on every quote. Customers rarely argue with terms they agreed before you started. They argue with terms they first hear about on the invoice.

Deposits and stage payments

How much deposit you ask for is your decision, but tie it to something real, such as materials or a structural steel you are ordering for that job. Citizens Advice tells customers that if a deposit is worth more than the work done so far, they can propose a figure and ask for the difference back, so a deposit that matches what you have spent on their job is easier to defend than a round number. On bigger jobs, set out stage payments linked to finished stages, such as foundations signed off or roof on, rather than to calendar dates, and put the schedule on the quote.

When the balance is due

Write the due date in plain words, for example "balance due within 7 days of completion", and say how to pay. If your customer is a business, GOV.UK explains that on late business-to-business payments you can claim interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt. If no payment date was agreed, the payment counts as late 30 days after the customer gets the invoice or you finish the service, whichever is later.

How long the price stands

There is no fixed rule, so choose a period and write a valid-until date on the quote. Material prices and your diary both change, and a clear date stops an old price being held against you. Citizens Advice says a trader generally cannot raise an accepted quote just because their own costs have gone up, so that date is what protects you if a customer comes back months later.

Rules builders should know before quoting

Building quotes touch more rules than most trades: building regulations, neighbours, the public highway, waste and CIS.

Building regulations

GOV.UK explains when building regulations approval is needed and lists alterations that might need it, from replacing windows and doors to installing a bathroom. If a competent person scheme member does the relevant part, the customer does not need to get approval for that part themselves. Write on the quote who is applying and who pays the fees.

Party walls

GOV.UK says neighbours must be told about work on or near a shared boundary or party wall in England and Wales, and that a party wall agreement is separate from planning permission and building regulations approval. Say on the quote who is responsible for it.

Scaffolding on the road or pavement

GOV.UK says you need a licence from the local authority to put up scaffolding or hoarding on a public highway. Include the time and any fee.

Taking waste away

If you take waste away in your van, check your registration. GOV.UK says a business that transports waste in England must register as a waste carrier, and that registration usually costs nothing if you only carry waste you produce yourself. Put disposal on the quote as its own line so the customer can see it.

Paying subcontractors under CIS

GOV.UK says you must register as a contractor if you pay subcontractors for construction work, and deduct money from their payments to pass to HMRC. Build that admin into your costs.

Working for a contractor: CIS and the VAT reverse charge

If you work as a subcontractor for a builder or main contractor, the Construction Industry Scheme will usually apply. GOV.UK says contractors deduct 20% from payments to registered subcontractors, 30% from unregistered ones and nothing for those with gross payment status. The deduction is worked out after taking off VAT and materials the subcontractor paid for, among other items, so show materials as their own line on your quote and invoice.

If you are VAT registered and you work for a VAT-registered contractor who reports the payment under CIS, the VAT domestic reverse charge usually applies: the customer accounts for the VAT to HMRC instead of paying it to you. HMRC's technical guide says the invoice must say "reverse charge" and make clear the customer must account for the VAT. It does not apply to work for householders, or to a customer who has told you in writing that they are an end user or intermediary supplier (GOV.UK guidance).

Put it in writing, and know the cancellation rules

Send every quote in writing and get the acceptance in writing too: a signature, an email reply or an online accept button. Citizens Advice describes a quote as a promise to do the work at an agreed price, and an estimate as the trader's best guess at the cost. If you can see and price the whole job, call it a quote. If part of it cannot be known until you start, say so, and either call it an estimate or quote the known part and list your assumptions.

If you agree the job with a customer in their home, it is usually an off-premises contract. Business Companion, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute's guidance for businesses, says the customer then normally has 14 days to cancel a contract for services, starting the day after the contract was made. If you do not give them the cancellation information, that period can be extended by up to 12 months. To start inside the 14 days, the customer must expressly ask you to in a durable medium such as an email, and if they then cancel they pay for the work done up to that point. Contracts of £42 or less are exempt.

Common building quote mistakes

Building jobs rarely lose money on the bricks. They lose it on the things around them.

• Pricing from a verbal brief with no written scope.
• Leaving out skips, scaffolding, welfare or site protection.
• Hiding allowances in the total instead of listing provisional and PC sums.
• A payment schedule that is missing, or one that leaves you funding the job.
• No programme and no mention of weather or customer delays.
• Subcontractor prices taken over the phone.
• Not saying who pays building control and party wall fees.

Quote on site with Graft'd

Graft'd is a quoting, invoicing and job app for UK tradespeople. Talk or type the job and it builds the quote with a plain-English scope of works for you to check. Parts are priced from supplier guide prices or your own rates, and it is set up for the way builders price, per m², per day or per job. Your customer accepts the quote online, you invoice in one tap and get paid through your own payment link, and Graft'd chases late payers for you. Job notes, photos and receipts stay with the job, and CIS and the VAT reverse charge are handled on invoices.

It runs in your phone's browser, so there is nothing to download from an app store.