Prepare a calculator. This is the fastest way you can determine if one firm is more expensive than the other.

Watch our tiktok video on this if you lazy to read.

Most line items are made up of a unit cost multiplied by the number of units, to arrive at the final cost.

Take your quotation, and zoom straight into flooring (tiling & vinyl) and carpentry. These two make up approximately 60% of your quotation.

Carpentry goes by per foot run (pfr) (i.e. unit cost x no. of foot run), while tiling goes by per square feet (psf) (i.e. unit cost x no. of square feet).

Let’s look at carpentry first.

Carpentry

Assuming you are doing a built-in wardrobe, and you are given this two quotes.

At first glance, company 1 seems more expensive, at $3,000.

However, you can see that company 1 quoted for 10 feet vs that of company 2 that quoted for 8 feet.

Breaking it down to the unit cost, you see that company 1 actually charges $300 pfr, $50 cheaper than that of company 2.

The question you should ask then, is whether you need that 10 feet, or does 8 feet suffice. If 8 feet does suffice, it is more economical to ask company 1 to reduce this, such that you can get it at $2,400 (8 ft x $300 pfr), rather than the $2,800 that company 2 is quoting you for.

Tiling

The same concept applies to tiling.

Tiling cost normally comprises of 3 things, the actual tile, the labour cost to install the tile, and the cement screed to level the ground before installation.

All these are charged by psf as mentioned earlier.

In the illustration above, you can see that company 1 and 2 are of the same price.

However, something interesting appears when you break them down into the unit price.

Both charge $15 psf for tiling.

However, there should not be a difference between the unit cost for wall and floor tiles.

After all, you are using the same set of tiles, and same labour, and same cement.

If you somehow end up with such a scenario, where the unit cost is the same, do look into the individual line items.

Company 1 definitely seems more transparent in the costing, compared to company 2.

While this is not a foolproof way to determine if one is cheaper or more transparent than the other, it does give a glimpse, and you can check with your designer/contractor if there is any exceptional reason for this unequal pricing.

Conclusion

If your objective is to compare the overall costing between two or more firms, you can use this method of breaking down the tiling & carpentry costs into its unit rates, rather than comparing the final number, which might not be an apple-to-apple comparison.

Furthermore, you can use this to “test” the “transparency” of the renovation firms.

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Understand your renovation quotation [part 3 of 4]

Understand your renovation quotation [part 4 of 4]

Understand your renovation quotation [part 2 of 4]