The point where drawings turn into prices. How many builders to ask, and why what they're each given matters more.
How many builders should you get to quote? On a house, three. Two leaves you a high price and a low one with no middle. More than three or four asks a lot of unpaid time from people who mostly won't get the job, and Brisbane is small enough that goodwill is worth protecting.
The number matters much less than what they're each given. Prices coming back a long way apart on the same renovation is ordinary, and it's almost never that one builder is dearer than another — it's that each was asked to price a slightly different thing. A builder can only price what's in front of them, so my job is to make sure what's in front of them is complete and identical.
I also choose who gets invited: builders who do this kind of work, at this size, with room in their program. That list comes from working alongside these people rather than from a directory.
A builder can only price what's in front of them. Making sure that's complete is my job.
This step produces prices that can genuinely be compared — one complete document set at one revision, issued to a handful of builders at the same time, with every question answered for all of them.
This is the moment the project stops being provisional and becomes a number. You don't wait for it alone — I'll tell you beforehand what I expect the prices to say, and read them with you when they land.
On your own this is usually two verbal quotes on slightly different scopes, compared on the bottom line. On simple work that's often fine. What's harder is knowing whether the lower price is genuinely cheaper or simply covering less.
I choose who to invite and tell you why, issue one complete set to all of them at once, and answer their questions in writing so that every builder gets the same answer. Then I read what comes back — inclusions, exclusions, allowances, program — and tell you plainly what each price actually buys. The spread between comparable tenders is often wider than my whole fee.
Three is the working number on a house. Two gives you a high and a low with nothing in between. More than that asks a lot of unpaid pricing time from people who mostly won't get the job. I'd rather choose three carefully — similar work, similar area, similar size, with capacity around when you'd like to start.
Usually four reasons, and none are about character. They were given room to price different scopes. They carry different overheads and margins. They're at different points in their own workload. And each has made a judgement about the unknowns — an old Queenslander with unseen stumps gets an allowance for that, sized by how much the drawings told them.
Fixed price, for almost every domestic renovation. Under cost plus you pay actual costs plus a margin with no ceiling, which puts the price risk on you. Queensland limits when it can be used for domestic work, and the QBCC publishes clear guidance — worth a conversation with your solicitor if a builder proposes one.
You don't have to. It's a technical skill and it's part of what you're paying me for. I put them side by side in the same trade order, compare the parts rather than the totals, and read the exclusions on their own. You get one page saying what each price actually buys.
Yes, and negotiating with a builder you already trust is a legitimate way to build — I'm happy to run it. What you give up is the benchmark: without a competing price you know whether you can afford the number, but not whether it's a fair one. I can get an independent cost check instead, and I'll confirm their licence myself.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.
