Most cost documents present their figures as though they were equally true. A quoted window price and a rule of thumb sit in the same column with the same authority. Ours does not.
Illustrative extract. The method is real and so are the hold periods. The figures are a worked example and the suppliers are described rather than named. The coverage figure opens every plan, and we have not seen anyone else in this market publish one.
Most cost advice quotes the building works and stops. That figure is real, and it is not what leaves your account. On the worked example, the building was priced correctly and the budget still broke by sixty seven thousand pounds.
What a builder would quote. Accurate, and the number most people are given.
Adding VAT, a calculated contingency, and the professional and statutory fees nobody mentions at concept stage.
From £1,800. Two weeks. Four questions to start.
The open items on most projects are the same two. What the foundations have to do, and what has to hold up the wall you are taking out. Both can only be ranged until an engineer has looked. Pro appoints one, included, and turns both into prices.
Every plan states a range rather than a single number. If the building works come in outside that range, and the design has not changed since we priced it, we refund the fee in full.
We would rather carry that risk than publish a figure we are not willing to stand behind. It is also the reason the open items are declared as open instead of being quietly averaged into the total.
A full ground investigation where the engineer calls for one. Boreholes, contaminated land, made ground or former mine workings are passed on at cost, with the figure agreed before anyone instructs anything. On most extensions, trial pits and a site visit are enough, and that is what the fee assumes.
The percentages above come from the worked example on this page. Your project will differ, and we tell you the realistic coverage for both versions before you choose.
From £1,800. Four questions, and we tell you the realistic coverage before you choose.
Building the list is the slow part of this work, and it is done before your drawings arrive. Each firm has agreed to price a measured schedule at design stage and to state how long their figure stands. A cost plan is assembled from live quotes rather than from a book.
Holds run from thirty days to twelve months, depending on the trade and the firm. One supplier gives no written hold at all but has not raised a price in four years, which tells you as much. Whatever the position, it is written on the line beside the price, with the date.
Pink marks a trade we can price at design stage. Most come from a named supplier. Structure and foundations come from the chartered engineer appointed under Pro, which is why they show as ranges in the standard plan. Grey marks a trade we are still building out, and those lines come through as allowances with the benchmark stated. Never as a quote.
Tell us about the project and we come back within two working days.
The bridge between design and build
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