This brief says what you want done and what you are not asking for. It specifies no materials, methods or regulatory requirements, and you are not telling anyone how to build it. Eight open questions found, and the first four move the price most. ### Questions to settle first 1. **The wall.** Do you know whether the wall is holding anything up, who finds that out before work starts, and who pays if the answer changes the work? This is the largest swing between quotes, and without an answer each bidder will price their own guess. 2. **What is in or on the wall.** Are radiators, sockets, switches, pipes or cables in or on the wall to be put back in the new room, moved, or removed and not replaced? Each choice is a different amount of work for the trades. 3. **Appliances and the island.** Which appliances are going where (hob, oven, extractor, dishwasher, washing machine, fridge), who supplies them, and is the island in or out? If it is in, does it need power or water? Services moved or extended are priced by the run. 4. **The floor.** What state should the floor be left in, who lays the flooring you are buying, and what happens to the programme while you wait to decide the levelling? Finished floor against ready-for-flooring is a different job, and your flooring purchase is waiting on this. 5. **Opening up.** If something unexpected is found once plaster, floor or wall is opened, does work stop until you decide, and who pays for putting it right? Without a rule, each bidder either pads the price or leaves it out. 6. **Waste.** Is everything removed from the house by the contractor (old kitchen, floor coverings, plaster, rubble), or do you keep or dispose of any of it yourself? With no side access, every load goes out through your hall, so this is real labour. 7. **Fitting what you supply.** Is the contractor to fit all of it, including cutting the worktop and connecting sink and tap? Who receives and stores the units that arrive 9 February, a week before work starts, and who is responsible if something is missing or damaged? This sets whether fitting is in the price and who carries the risk on your goods. 8. **Decoration and edges.** Does "replaster and decorate the whole room" include the ceiling, woodwork and doors? Does the work stop at the room's doorway, or does it include protecting and making good the hall after everything has come through it? Does "usable by 4 April" mean fully decorated, or a working kitchen with finishing to follow? Each reading changes the days and the paint. ### The brief *Note for the owner, delete before sending: nine standard trade exclusions that would apply on any job in the country were struck from the Not included list. Every item left is specific to this job.* **Job and location** Kitchen and dining room, 1930s mid-terrace house, [address to be added]. Take out the wall between them to make one room, then rework the layout and finishes as set out below. **Scope** 1. Take out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to make one room. What the wall holds up: TO CONFIRM (Q1). What is in or on it: TO CONFIRM (Q2). 2. Move the sink from the side wall to the back wall under the window. 3. Fit new units along two walls. Island if it fits: TO CONFIRM (Q3). Appliances and their positions: TO CONFIRM (Q3). 4. Level the floor. The dining room is a step down from the kitchen by "about 40mm". The state the floor is left in, and who lays the flooring: TO CONFIRM (Q4). 5. Replaster the whole room, then decorate it. Which surfaces: TO CONFIRM (Q8). 6. Fitting of the owner-supplied items listed below: TO CONFIRM (Q7). **Not included** 1. Supplying the units, worktop, sink, tap or flooring. The owner is buying all of them. 2. Any change to the window above the new sink position, or to any other window or door. 3. Replastering or decorating any room other than the new one. The hall is covered only as answered at Q8. 4. Parking permits beyond the one visitor permit a day the owner can provide. **Supplied by the owner** Units, already ordered, arriving 9 February. Worktop, sink and tap, bought by the owner. Flooring, bought by the owner, but not until the levelling is decided. Delivery, storage and responsibility for the supplied items: TO CONFIRM (Q7). **Access and working hours** - There is no side access. Everything comes through the front door and the hall. - Street parking with a permit. One visitor permit a day is available. - The baby sleeps 1pm to 3pm most days. Work in that window needs to be quiet. - The cat must not get out of the front door, so the door must not be left open. - Work cannot start before 16 February. The room needs to be usable by 4 April, because the owner's parents are staying from the 6th. What "usable" includes: TO CONFIRM (Q8). - The owner has given no other working hours. Each quote should state what it assumes. **Waste and making good** - Waste: TO CONFIRM (Q6). - Making good: the whole room is replastered and decorated. Where the work stops at its edges, including the hall: TO CONFIRM (Q8). - Anything found once something is opened up, and who pays for it: TO CONFIRM (Q5). **How variations are priced** Anything added, left out or found during the work is priced from a day rate and a materials markup, not a lump sum. Every quote must state both figures up front: the day rate per person, and the markup as a percentage on materials. **The four questions every quote must answer** 1. Start date. 2. Duration in working days. 3. Payment stages, and what has to be done for each to fall due. 4. What the quote assumes that this brief did not say. ### What a comparable quote looks like | Line to look for | Why it matters | What a vague version sounds like | |---|---|---| | Start date and duration in working days | The 16 February start and 4 April finish are fixed, and a range hides slippage | "Around six weeks, depending" | | Payment stages | Shows how much you pay before the work is proven | "Stage payments as work progresses" | | Day rate and materials markup | Fixes what discovered work costs before it is discovered | "Extras at cost plus a bit" | | The wall and what it holds up | The biggest unknown, so each quote must show who found out and who pays | "Allowance for any steelwork" or silence | | What happens to the waste | Everything leaves through your hall, so labour is hidden here | "Rubbish removed" | | Fitting your supplied items | Shows whether worktop cutting and connections are in or out | "Fitting of units" with no mention of worktop, sink or tap | | Where the floor is left | Decides whether your flooring can go straight down | "Floor levelled" | | Assumptions list | Shows where each bidder filled a gap differently | "Subject to survey" | **Next:** answer the eight questions, replace each TO CONFIRM with your answer, add the address, and send the same page to all three before any of them measures anything.