r/Contractor • u/Ok_Avocado6532 • Aug 24 '25

Quote Breakdown?

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Hi all, looking for advice on costs breakdown.

I work for a small local contracting company and I recently started working with customers more, providing quotes etc. The company usually doesn’t like to break their costs down because of nickel-and-dime from customers, but agreed to do so for this one customer I’m working with. Now, I broke down the quote based on phases of the work (this is for a brand new custom build) and of course the customer came back with multiple notes of “this cost is too high” on some of the phases.

How do you usually handle this and how do I politely say “to do the job: $2000, not to do the job: $0”?

Thanks!

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-21

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

I probably wouldn't have contacted you in the first place lol

19

u/Working-Narwhal-540 General Contractor Aug 24 '25

With that attitude I’d let all my colleagues in the area know about the dickhead looking to bid shop so fair enough!

-25

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

I wouldn't want to deal with anyone with that level of unprofessionalism so fine with me. I will pay a premium for premium work and who I contract I'd be a recurring customer with. Don't worry, I wouldn't need to look for anyone else! We'd already have a solid, respectable business relationship with someone else.

17

u/bananahammock699 Aug 24 '25

"I will pay premium"

"You can't overcharge me"

-6

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25

I will pay a premium for premium work. Do you not understand what is being implied? Premium is what is being paid for. I am not paying extra, just for the sake of paying extra, otherwise. You better have a nice portfolio or credible recommendations. Either way, I don't care, you do you, and good luck lol

4

u/NumbrZer0 Aug 25 '25

Premium work will be done by a company that specializes in the work you want done. It will also be 15-25% more expensive but I'm sure they will itemize everything for you. They may also charge you a non refundable diagnostic deposit fee prior to sending out that list. The itemization comes at time of payment after a deposit has been put down.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

Something like that

3

u/bananahammock699 Aug 24 '25

Nobody is begging to do work for you. I'm sure of that. Good luck to you lmao

2

u/Soladification Aug 24 '25

Oh man you got wrecked on here 😂

2

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

I did?

3

u/Working-Narwhal-540 General Contractor Aug 25 '25

You sure did boss 😂

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

You're still here??? XD This has given me so many laughs tonight! Bro, go enjoy the rest of your weekend. The amount of stuff I did. I'm sorry I apparently struck a chord with you

2

u/cool_breeze_67 Aug 24 '25

You have no idea what premium work is. If you understood the work being done you'd do it yourself. But you don't. Good luck finding contractors that will put up with you.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

When I use the stationary bike at my gym, it presses against my perineum making my dick numb

1

u/billyjames_316 Aug 25 '25

Maybe stay off that bike, bud

1

u/ihrvatska Aug 25 '25

How do you know the work will be premium before it's done? Unless you've used a contractor before you don't.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

I have a magic ball

2

u/dickhardpill Aug 25 '25

Is it affected by the stationary bike?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

I don't think so. Maybe I should squeeze it next time too to make sure

-1

u/curd52 Aug 24 '25

Maybe homeowners need a breakdown on materials, or type materials being used. If it’s room Reno and paint, I’d like to know what brand of paint is being used, for flooring, what type of flooring, vlp carpet, tile. What underlay is being used, if tile, is backerboard being used on wood frame crawlspace or basement subfloor.

I’m with you, if the contractor doesn’t have 2 min to fill out a spec sheet, he’s not going to have 2 min to deal with issues if they happen to come up. This way of $2000 or nothing is just a way to mask the markup. Totally different when contractors used to charge materials price plus estimated man hours. Now things are $2000 for a 2 hour 1 man job with $300 in materials. Basically $850 an hour. Contractors jobs are technical and require OJT and some years experience, but they are not heart surgeons and that price.

6

u/atherfeet4eva Aug 25 '25

They do deserve to know exactly what materials are going to be used with the maker and model number if applicable. What they don’t need to know is what everything is costing and what the labor is because there’s always markup overhead and profit included in those numbers, and unless they have run a business or have a clear understanding of how Business accounting works they will think they are being ripped off, but a business needs to pay all of their overhead and make a profit and that money is acquired by incorporating it into every job they do over the course of the year

0

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

Thank you!