Send the same brief to three fit-out contractors and it's common to get back three numbers that differ by 30% or more, sometimes on the same floor, for the same headcount, with the same rough finish level requested. The instinct this creates — that two of the three contractors are either padding their price or cutting corners — is usually only half right. Most of the gap comes from what each number actually includes, not from one contractor being dishonest and another being generous.
Different specification tiers hiding under one number
"Mid-range finish" means something different to every contractor unless it's pinned to a real specification. One quotation's flooring allowance might assume a value-tier vitrified tile; another might assume a mid-tier engineered product at nearly double the material cost, with neither quotation stating the brand or grade explicitly. This is the single largest source of price variance, and it's invisible until someone asks each contractor to name the actual product, not just the category, behind every major line item. Our own 2026 cost benchmarks by city and tier exist specifically because "mid-range" without a named specification is not a comparable number.
What's included, and what's quietly excluded
Furniture, HVAC, fire-fighting systems, and even basic items like signage or window blinds are sometimes priced separately and left out of a headline number, especially in a competitive tender where a lower topline figure helps win the bid. A quotation that looks 20% cheaper on the cover page can turn out to be roughly the same price, or more, once every excluded package is added back in during execution. The only reliable defence is asking every bidder for a like-for-like scope of inclusions and exclusions, in writing, before comparing headline numbers at all.
Labour, site overhead and timeline assumptions
A contractor working to an aggressive timeline needs more labour on site at once, which costs more. A contractor assuming a longer, more relaxed schedule can quote a lower number by spreading the same work over more time with a smaller crew — which is fine, as long as the client's actual move-in date allows for it. Site overhead, supervision costs and how many shifts a contractor plans to run are rarely broken out in a quotation, but they show up in the final number regardless.
Payment terms and what happens after signing
A quotation with an unusually low upfront number and heavy back-loaded payments carries different risk than one with balanced milestone payments, and a quotation silent on price escalation for a project that will run for several months carries a real, unstated risk if material costs move during that time. None of this appears in a single comparable number, but all of it affects what the project actually costs by the time it's finished.
Why the cheapest quotation may not be the cheapest project
The number on a signed quotation is not the number a client actually pays. Change orders, scope gaps discovered mid-construction, and rework on finishes that don't hold up are where an apparently cheap quotation gives its savings back, usually with less negotiating leverage than existed before signing, since the contractor now has site possession and a partially built project. A contractor pricing tightly on materials to win a competitive tender has a direct incentive to substitute a cheaper product once work has started, and a scope with vague or missing exclusions gives them room to do exactly that without technically breaching the contract. The genuinely lowest-cost project is usually the one with the most complete, most specific written scope, not the one with the lowest number on the first page — a pattern our own CFO-focused checklist on fit-out budgets covers from the finance side.
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A worked example of where the gap actually comes from
Take a hypothetical 10,000 square foot office, quoted by two contractors at roughly the same headline number of scope. Contractor A's flooring line assumes a standard vitrified tile at a value-tier price point; Contractor B has quietly specified a mid-tier imported product at nearly double the material cost, and offset it by trimming the furniture allowance and assuming a tighter labour schedule with fewer supervisory staff on site. Both numbers can look nearly identical on a single-page summary. Once each is broken into cost centres — civil and finishes, MEP, furniture, and project management — the actual trade-offs become visible, and it becomes clear that the client is being asked to choose between two genuinely different projects, not two prices for the same one. Neither contractor is necessarily doing anything wrong here; the problem is that neither quotation made the trade-off explicit on its own.
Red flags worth asking about immediately
- A quotation with no named specifications — "vitrified flooring," "modular furniture," "false ceiling" with no brand, grade or model named is not a real specification, and makes the number impossible to actually compare.
- An unusually large gap between the lowest and highest bid for what was supposed to be the same brief, without an obvious explanation. A 10 to 15% spread is normal. A 40% or 50% spread usually means the bids aren't actually comparable in scope.
- Vague or missing exclusions. If a quotation doesn't clearly state what's excluded, assume the exclusions will surface later, at the least convenient time to negotiate them.
- No clear change-order process. A contractor who can't explain, before signing, how a mid-project change will be priced and approved is telling you something about how the rest of the project will go.
- Payment terms heavily front-loaded or back-loaded relative to the milestones they're tied to, which shifts risk onto whichever side is disadvantaged by the schedule.
A practical way to compare two quotations, line by line
- Match the scope first, before comparing any number. List every trade — civil, MEP, furniture, flooring, ceiling, painting — and confirm each quotation covers the same set, with nothing quietly excluded from one and not the other.
- Ask for named specifications, not categories. "Vitrified flooring" is not comparable across two quotations. The actual brand and grade is.
- Separate the number into cost centres. Civil and finishes, MEP, furniture, and project management or contractor margin, so you can see where two quotations actually diverge rather than comparing two opaque totals.
- Check the payment schedule and any escalation clause. A lower headline number with an unfavourable payment structure is not automatically the better deal.
- Ask how change orders are priced. A contractor who can't explain their change-order process clearly before signing is unlikely to make it easier once site work has started.
- Use a published benchmark as a sanity check. If one quotation sits well outside typical city and tier benchmarks in either direction, that's worth understanding before signing, not after.
Retention, warranty terms and what happens after the project ends
Two quotations at the same price can carry very different post-handover risk depending on their retention and warranty terms, and this is one of the more commonly overlooked parts of a comparison. A reasonable retention — a small percentage of the total value held back until the defects liability period closes — gives a client real leverage to get post-handover issues fixed promptly. A quotation with little or no retention, or a defects liability period noticeably shorter than the norm for the trade in question, is effectively asking the client to accept more risk after handover in exchange for a number that may look identical to a competitor's on the cover page. This is worth asking about directly, in writing, before comparing two headline totals as if they represent equivalent commitments.
Getting the scope right in the first place also depends on the floor plan itself being resolved before proposals go out — an unapproved or incomplete plan is one of the more common reasons quotations for "the same brief" turn out not to be the same brief at all.
Common questions
Is a single-source design and build quotation easier to compare than several separate contractor bids?
Generally, yes, because one accountable team quoting the full scope has fewer places for gaps to hide between packages than several separate vendors each pricing their own piece.
How many quotations should we actually compare?
Three is usually enough to see genuine variance without creating so much comparison work that the real differences get lost in the noise. More than four or five rarely adds useful information and mostly adds time.
Should we always choose the middle quotation?
No — the point of comparing scope and specification first is to understand why the numbers differ, then choose based on which scope actually matches what you need, not based on a number's position in the range.
If you'd like a second opinion on quotations you've already received, or want a single itemised proposal to compare them against, send us the brief and we'll put one together.
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