A contractor is not lying when they quote 84,000 PLN and finish at 112,000 PLN. They really did calculate it that way. The problem is how they calculated it — and that is something you can check in fifteen minutes.
Problem
A renovation crew is a building team, not a quantity surveying practice. People who lay tiles brilliantly rarely have the tools or the time for a rigorous take-off. The quote gets written between two jobs, usually in the evening, off the back of a twenty-minute visit.
This is not bad faith. It is a structural feature of the market: quoting is a cost the contractor absorbs, not a service anyone pays for. The faster it is done, the better for them.
Below are ten mechanisms that make such a quote systematically come out low.
Solution
1. Estimating by eye, with no take-off
The visit lasts 20 minutes, the contractor walks through and gauges. No height measured, no wall perimeter counted, no corners tallied. The measurement error alone is typically 10-18%.
2. Anchoring on the last job
The last 55 m² flat came to 78,000 PLN, so this 58 m² one gets 82,000 PLN. The area is similar, but the build year, the state of the services and the layout may be nothing alike.
3. Nobody looks under the old layers
Under the tiles there may be a damp screed, under the laminate a cracked subfloor, in the wall aluminium cable. Until the strip-out starts this is guesswork — and the guess runs optimistic.
4. Costing by floor area when the work is on the walls
The classic. A 60 m² flat has 170-200 m² of wall and ceiling. Quoting against 60 m² understates painting, plastering and priming by an order of magnitude.
5. Deliberate under-quoting to win the job
The contractor knows the client will compare three numbers and take the lowest. Extras arrive later, once switching crews has become practically impossible.
6. No logistics in the quote
Fourth floor without a lift, narrow stairwell, no parking at the entrance, nowhere to put a skip. Each of these adds a real 4-9% to labour — and almost never appears in the quote.
7. Prep and clean-up left outside the quote
Strip-out, sheeting, carrying rubble down, cleaning between stages. On a 60 m² flat that is 4,000-11,000 PLN of work that somebody will do anyway and somebody will pay for anyway.
8. Materials with no waste allowance
Tiles costed to the exact square metres of the room, with no 10-15% for cuts. The missing tiles get bought from a different batch, in a different shade — and then the rework cost arrives too.
9. A March quote used in September
Quotes are usually valid 14-30 days, but renovations start 2-4 months after the conversation. With rates rising 12-18% a year, that alone is a 3-6% difference.
10. No contingency line
A proper estimate has a contingency line. A sales quote does not, because it would raise the number at the bottom of the page — and that number is what wins the job.
Five questions that expose all ten
1. What wall area did you calculate? (if the answer is 60 m², go back to point 4) 2. What happens if the screed under the tiles turns out to be damp? 3. Are debris removal and the skip in the price? 4. What waste percentage did you allow on the tiles? 5. How long is this quote valid?
A contractor who answers all five concretely has costed properly. A contractor who brushes off three of them has yet to start costing — at your expense.
Checklist
- Ask what wall area was calculated, not floor area
- Check whether the contractor measured at all or gauged by eye
- Agree in writing what happens when something is found under old layers
- Confirm debris removal and the skip are in the price
- Ask what waste percentage was allowed on materials
- Check the quote validity date against your planned start
- Describe the logistics: floor, lift, parking
- Ask for a contingency line — its absence is a warning sign
