A client sends a photo of a bathroom and writes "what will this cost". Answer with one number and the talk ends fast. The job does not. Two weeks later there is demolition you never priced, a cabinet that stayed in place, and tiling the client is sure was included because "that is how a renovation works".
The loss does not start with a discount. It starts with work you did not write down. Anything missing from the quote stays open, and on site that open space almost always lands on you.
Why one total does not protect you
One total is easy to send on WhatsApp. It is a poor document for an argument. When the client says "that is expensive", the only thing you can cut is your profit. When they say "that is included too", there is no line that shows it is out. A renovation quote with lines does two things: it explains the price, and it keeps unagreed work outside the deal.
A contractor who drops ten percent "to close it" on the same scope did not save the client any work. They paid that ten percent themselves. If the price has to come down, take work out. Do not thin the profit on every line.
What to write before the price
- Address or job name, and the date of the quote
- Which rooms are in, and which are out
- What you demolish and what stays
- Who buys materials: you, the client, or a split
- Who hauls waste away, and to where
- How long the work takes, and what pauses the clock when material is late or the client has not decided
- How long the quote stands, for example 14 days, because material prices move
Put that at the top of the page, not in a small note under the total. The client reads the price. If the scope sits above it, it is harder to say later "I did not notice".
A price per trade, not only a total
Split by work you can measure on site: demolition, plumbing, power, tiling, wall tile, paint, carpentry. Each line gets a quantity when you have one, a price, and a short line about what is included. A line with no quantity is hard to check when the site changes, for example when another wall has to move or a column cannot.
An example of the shape, not a price list
Take one bathroom. The lines below show how a quote sits on the page. They are not market prices, and they are not a quote you can copy onto another apartment.
- Remove the existing fixtures and haul them out of the apartment
- Plumbing: move points to a plan, not a replacement of the main line
- Power: points in the bathroom only
- Floor and wall tile including skirting, client supplies the material
- Floor waterproofing before the tile
- Install fixtures the client bought
Under the list, write what is not in it: a new vanity, work on the main drain, repairing a wall after a leak found during demolition, work on Friday afternoon or Saturday. If you find damp, old steel, or old wiring, stop and bring a price before you continue. Then the extra does not disappear inside "the renovation".
Holes that show up in almost every apartment
- Damp behind old wall tile
- Old wiring with no earth in a wet room
- Tile the client brings late, while the crew is already on site
- Haul-away left as "someone will do it"
- Protection for the floor and the building lift
- Parking and truck access in the middle of a city
Each of these can be a priced line, or a sentence under "not included". What you do not write, the client assumes is in. You absorb the day, the delivery, or the repair.
VAT, materials, and waiting days
Write whether the price includes VAT or is before VAT. A mix-up here is almost a fifth of the bill, and it shows up only when it is time to get paid. If you buy materials, write whether that price is an estimate or a closed sum. An estimate with no ceiling becomes a fight when the tile costs more than you thought on the day you wrote the quote.
If there are waiting days because the client material is late or a decision did not arrive, write that those days do not count inside the work time you agreed. Otherwise a week of late tile looks like your delay.
When they ask you to lower the price
Do not take a percent off every line. Take work out. The client hauls the waste, you skip moving a point, or the paint stays for the end as its own job. The price goes down and the scope goes down with it. A discount on the same scope is money out of the profit while the work stays the same size.
After the client agrees, keep the quote with the name, the date, and what was approved. The job budget opens from that page. When an extra shows up in the middle, you compare it to lines that are already closed, not to a memory of the WhatsApp chat.