Free checklist · 4 pages
Eight questions to ask every builder.
Two quotes for the same house can differ by hundreds of thousands of dollars and still both be honest. Usually they are not quoting the same thing. These eight questions make them comparable, and they take about ten minutes to ask.
What is inside
- 01A quote you can actually readScope, materials and boundaries — in appendices, not in a lump sum.
- 02A contract, every timeFixed price or cost-plus, chosen to suit how much you know at the start.
- 03Your job, its own bank accountA separate account and credit card, so no other site can touch your money.
- 04A photographic record before we startPre-inspection and dilapidation reports filed before the fence goes up.
- 05Someone on site, running itYour site is supervised. It is not left to sort itself out.
- 06A written report every monthWork done, red flags, critical path, safety, variations.
- 07A site tidy enough to live besideOn larger projects, a full-time labourer whose whole job is tidiness.
- 08A door that stays openVisit any time. Talk to clients still living in what we built.
Plus tick boxes for three builders, so you can take one sheet into three conversations and compare them on the same eight things rather than on the number at the bottom.
Would rather just talk it through?
Paul answers his own phone. Twenty minutes, no fee, and not a sales call.