Why three contractor quotes for the same job never match

Why three quotes for one kitchen arrive at three different numbers

The instinct on receiving three quotes is to look at the number at the bottom of each one and rank them. That instinct is the problem, because the number at the bottom of a quote is not the price of your project. It is the price of the work that quote describes, and three quotes almost never describe the same work.

The differences come from ordinary places, not from dishonesty. One bidder carries the appliances and another assumes you are buying them. One prices disposal and another has it inside a lump sum. One has walked the crawl space and one has not. One allowed for painting the adjoining hallway because the dust goes there anyway, and the other did not think of it.

A quote is a description with a number attached. Compare the descriptions, and the numbers start meaning something.

The lowest quoted total and the cheapest project are often two different bidders

This is the sentence that the whole comparison exists to test. A quote can be lowest at the bottom of page two and highest by the end of the job, and the mechanism is not mysterious: the work it did not price is work that still has to happen, and it gets priced later, when there is one contractor on site and no competition.

The arithmetic that shows it is simple enough to do on paper. Take each quote. Add back an estimate for every line it did not price, valued at what the other bidders charged for that same line. That figure is the adjusted total, and it is a far better comparison than the quoted total, because all three adjusted totals now describe the same job.

Then do it once more with the allowances. Pick your own assumption for how far over an allowance the thing you actually choose will land, apply it to the allowances in each quote, and you have a high end as well. The lowest quoted total and the lowest adjusted total are frequently two different names, and that difference is the only reason to run the exercise at all.

Typical range, verify with your professional. Any overrun assumption you apply to the allowances is your own number, not a market figure and not a prediction. It is there so the same assumption is applied to all three quotes. Pick it, write it down, and change it when you know more about what you are choosing.

A line nobody priced is not free

The single most useful thing a homeowner can do with three quotes is to lay them against one list of lines and mark every line that has no number on it. An empty line is not a discount. It is work that is still going to happen in your house, priced by somebody at some point, and the only question is whether that happens now or in week six.

Lines go missing in predictable places. The list below is where to look first.

Allowances, the placeholder that moves the total after you sign

An allowance is a sum a bidder carries for something nobody has chosen yet: tile, faucets, lighting, cabinet hardware, appliances, countertop by the square foot. It is a normal and necessary device, and it is also the quietest way a project goes over without anybody doing anything wrong.

Two quotes are not comparable while their allowances are different, because a lower allowance produces a lower total and tells you nothing about the business that wrote it. Total the allowances in each quote and write that figure next to the quoted total. Sometimes the ranking changes before you have asked a single question.

The question to ask about each one is the same every time: what exactly does this allowance buy, by product and by name, and what does the thing I actually want cost. Ask for a unit price alongside it. An allowance with a unit price beside it is a decision you can make later with arithmetic instead of a conversation.

The supply and install column that changes the ranking

Before comparing any two numbers, check that both quotes agree on who is buying each item and who is installing it. Cabinets, countertops, appliances, plumbing fixtures, faucets, tile, lighting, hardware and flooring are nine rows, and each one has two answers.

A quote where you supply the appliances and a quote where the contractor supplies them are not two prices for one job. They are two prices for two jobs, and the difference between them is a shopping trip you have not made yet. Writing one supply and install table into the scope before the quotes go out removes this problem entirely. Reading it out of three quotes afterward is slower, and it has to be done.

The second half of the question is the one people skip. Where you supply something and the contractor installs it, ask who is responsible if the wrong item arrives, if it arrives damaged, or if it arrives late enough to hold up a trade. That answer is worth having before the order goes in, not after.

Reading a quote that has one number on it

Some quotes arrive as a single figure with a paragraph of description. That is not automatically a bad quote, and it is not a comparison. Send it back with the list of lines and ask for the same figure broken out against them.

Asking for a breakdown is a normal request and it is also informative. A business that can produce one in a few days has priced the work. A business that resists it may be busy, or may have priced a feeling, and either way you have learned something before you have spent any money.

One caution on the other side. A quote that arrives noticeably below the other two is a question, not a verdict. The useful question is what is in the other two quotes that is not in this one, and it is answered by the line by line comparison rather than by suspicion.

How to do the comparison in one sitting

1. Write one list of lines for your project. If you issued a scope of work, the list already exists and the line numbers are already in the quotes.
2. Put each quote against the list and enter a price on every line that bidder priced. Leave the cell empty where the quote says nothing, and mark the ones the quote explicitly calls to be decided or by others.
3. Copy the exclusion wording from the quote itself rather than paraphrasing it. Their words are the thing you will be asking about later.
4. Count the empty lines for each bidder. That count, on its own, is often the most informative number of the afternoon.
5. Value each missing line at what the bidders who did price it charged, and add that back to the quoted total to get an adjusted total.
6. Total the allowances in each quote, apply your own overrun assumption, and note the high end beside the adjusted total.
7. Send every empty line back to the bidder it belongs to, as a written question, before you compare anything further.
8. Compare again when the answers arrive, because a quote that prices the work it forgot is a different quote.

What the comparison cannot tell you

A quote comparison tells you what each bidder priced. It does not tell you who will run your job well, who answers the phone in week seven, who protects a stair carpet, or who tells you about a problem on the day they find it rather than on the day it becomes visible.

Those things come from the register check, the insurance certificates, the interview and the reference calls, and they belong beside the money rather than after it. A bidder whose adjusted total is slightly higher and whose references describe the end of the job in detail is a real candidate, and the arithmetic is what lets you see the difference as a choice rather than as a hunch.

Nothing on this page tells you what a quote should cost, what any agreement means, or what to do in a dispute. It describes a method for reading three documents against one another. Questions about your own contract belong with a qualified professional in the state where the work is happening.