Know the difference between quotes, proposals and estimates

There’s no one size fits all approach when providing a quote or proposal within the building industry, all builders do things a little differently. Some may provide a quote for their services after a quick chat and understanding of works. On the other hand, some builders may take significantly more time preparing a proposal and offer a detailed outline of works, processes and what to expect with specific project goals in mind.

 

Proposals and fees

Experienced builders will often charge a fee for providing a proposal, due to the level of precise information and accurate estimations of the project in discussion.

Unlike a simple scope of works, the level of detail you will expect to find will cover all bases of the project, including materials, labour, lead times and will ensure no hidden costs down the track.

The proposal fee is an investment to ensure the project runs smoothly and the professional builder delivers on the brief discussed prior. It also covers communication with external trades and consultants, discussions with you and other interested parties and the detailed outline.

discover-session-thumbnail
Ready to Create the Lifestyle Home of Your Dreams?

We’d be honoured to help you make your ideal home a reality so you get the luxurious, spacious, and beautiful style you deserve.

You can expect an outlined brief of your project, along with recommendations, an itemised list of specifications and inclusions, including full cost breakdowns.

The proposal you can expect will be anywhere between 10 and 30 pages long, possibly more.

 

Free quotes

While a quote might provide you with a pricing estimate, specific details which are essential in any building project, won’t be included. Where a quote may indicate the bare minimum, it leaves room for error and hidden costs as the project proceeds.

Some may say less is more, this rule simply does not apply in these circumstances. Going into a building project with a two-page quote is almost equivalent to going in blind, as it will often lead to unnecessary variations, disputes during construction and pesky hidden costs that weren’t budgeted for to begin with. Then comes the disappointment, and quite a bit of regret when you add up the out-of-pocket expenses which could’ve been avoided with a fee-based proposal.

 

Estimates

After a brief discussion of the project at hand, a professional builder will be able to provide you with a rough estimation. This is generally a verbal, ball-park figure which will be based on a small amount of detail. This will give the client an idea of what kind of budget you might be considering.

 

The Emerald approach

By providing full transparency to clients from the initial consultation, it avoids the big question mark looming over our clients head, ‘how much is this going to cost?’ We are open and honest about our proposal fees and the reasoning behind them, we are here to provide the best possible service, and with that comes our time. After initial discussions and consultations with our clients and trades, our proposals are thoroughly drawn up to perfectly suit your custom project, there’s no cookie cutter approach here.

Our clients are educated throughout the process and the detailed proposal will outline the steps and keep you informed and in the loop for the duration. Our approach is simple, to the point and exceptionally comprehensive to ensure that you get the best results for your investment.

You may also be interested in:

Ready to Design Your Most Beautiful & Efficient
Passive Home?

Then go ahead and book your 100% Free Discovery Session.

Our calls are led directly by Tim, the founder and Company Director–  so you can capitalise on his expertise, 18+ years of knowledge, and  65+ successful home renovation projects! You’ll leave our conversation excited by the possibility of joining this new, exciting wave of sustainable design & construction.

Ready to chat? We’re here to help!

ready to design

Privacy Policy

This following document sets forth the Privacy Policy for this website. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Crh), which sets out a number ofprinciples concerning the privacy of individuals using this website.

Collection of your personal information

We collect Non-Personally Identifiable Information from visitors to this Website. Non-Personally Identifiable Information is information that cannot by itself be used to identify a particular person or entity, and may include your IP host address, pages viewed, browser type, Internet browsing and usage habits, advertisements that you click on, Internet Service Provider, domain name, the time/date of your visit to this Website, the referring URL and your computer’s operating system.

Free offers & opt-ins

Participation in providing your email address in return for an offer from this site is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose your information. You may unsubscribe at anytime so that you will not receive future emails.

Sharing of your personal information

Your personal information that we collect as a result of you purchasing our products & services, will NOT be shared with any third party, nor will it be used for unsolicited email marketing or spam. We may send you occasional marketing material in relation to our design services.

What Information Do We Collect?

If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses.

Cookie Based Marketing

Some of our advertising campaigns may track users across different websites for the purpose of displaying advertising. We do not know which specific website are used in these campaigns, but you should assume tracking occurs, and if this is an issue you should turn-off third party cookies in your web browser.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies?

As you visit and browse Our Website, the Our Website uses cookies to differentiate you from other users. In some cases, we also use cookies to prevent you from having to log in more than is necessary for security. Cookies, in conjunction with our web server log files or pixels, allow us tocalculate the aggregate number of people visiting Our Website and which parts of the site are most popular.

This helps us gather feedback to constantly improve Our Website and better serve our clients. Cookies and pixels do not allow us to gather anypersonal information about you and we do not intentionally store any personal information that your browser provided to us in your cookies.

IP Addresses

IP addresses are used by your computer every time you are connected tothe Internet. Your IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer. IP addresses are automatically collected by our web server as part of demographic and profile data known as traffic data so that data (such as the Web pages you request) can be sent to you.

Sharing and Selling Information

We do not share, sell, lend or lease any of the information that uniquely identify a subscriber (such as email addresses or personal details) with anyone except to the extent it is necessary to process transactions or provide Services that you have requested.

How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?

You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by using our contact page form.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. If you have objections to the Privacy Policy, you should not access or use this website. You may contact us at any time with regards to this privacy policy.