NAVIGATING QUOTES IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

With materials costing more each week, it pays to have a clear and fair way of dealing with the unexpected before your builder starts on site

- Andy Stevens

Over the last few months, there has been growing uncertainty over quotes for building works, solely down to the rising costs of materials. Some materials have more than doubled since Covid, and they're continuing to rise, mainly down to the situation in Ukraine. We're also experiencing a shortage of labour, and although this is more of a long-term problem, there is no sign of this improving.

In all the years of pricing up work, I have never been so uncertain about what to put down in the pricing document. I may send something on a Monday and by the following week, it could be out of date price-wise. So how does any builder or contractor price a job, especially if it's months away? What is fair for both the homeowner and contractor? These are unprecedented times and I have heard many different proposed solutions. I will go into these later in this article.

If a builder prices a quote for a job today, they will be using the most up-to-date figures for all their materials from their respective builders' merchants. If the homeowner then books in the work for six months' time, until recently, this wouldn't have been an issue. Now, it is highly unlikely that the quote will be accurate.

From a contractor's point of view, there is no way we should have to bear the brunt of the price rises of materials. It's certainly not our fault they have risen since we submitted the original quote.