Free builder quote template
A free quote template for builders and small works contractors, visible in full below, downloadable as a PDF, no signup asked. It carries a stage schedule with an amount against each stage, provisional sums for what genuinely cannot be known yet, and exclusions in plain words. Most extension disputes are about what somebody assumed was included.
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Your Business Name
Phone · Email
Address
| Description | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Stage schedule: 6 stages, amount against each | ||
| Groundworks & foundations to building control approval | ||
| Shell: walls to plate, roof structure & covering | ||
| Provisional sum: drainage diversion if existing run is found | ||
| Excludes: planning fees, decorating, kitchen & bathroom fit | ||
| Add your own lines… |
What a builder's quote must include
- Your business name and contact details (and logo, if you have one)
- A quote number and the date
- The client's name and the job address
- Itemised lines: each piece of work and each material, with its price
- The total, and whether VAT (or your local sales tax) is included
- How long the price holds, where 30 days is standard
- What's excluded, stated plainly
- Deposit and payment terms, so the money conversation happens before the work
- A stage schedule with an amount against each stage, so a long build does not end in one enormous invoice
- Provisional sums with a rate and a stated trigger for anything that genuinely cannot be known yet
Tips from the trade
- Publish the stage schedule inside the quote, with an amount against each stage. It is the single thing that stops a long build ending in one enormous invoice and a fortnight of silence.
- Use provisional sums for the things that genuinely cannot be known yet, like a drain nobody has found, with a rate and a stated trigger. That is a price they have accepted, not a disclaimer you will be arguing about.
- List exclusions in plain words, especially planning fees, decorating and anything another trade will fit. Most extension disputes are about what somebody assumed was included rather than about the quality of the work.
- Say what happens to the price if materials move over a long build. A quote priced in March and built in September is a quote made of guesses unless it says so.
Common questions
- What should a building quote exclude?
- Planning and building control fees, decorating, kitchen and bathroom fit-out, landscaping afterwards, and anything depending on what the ground turns out to be. Most extension disputes are not about workmanship, they are about something the customer assumed was in the price. Exclusions are cheap to write now and very expensive to establish later.
- How do I handle material prices on a job quoted months ahead?
- Say on the quote how long the material prices hold and what happens after that, whether you re-price or pass the difference through at cost with receipts. A build quoted in March and started in September has been priced on guesses about a market nobody can forecast. A sentence naming that is far easier than a conversation about it once the steels are ordered.
- Quote or estimate: which should I send?
- A quote is a fixed price for defined work; an estimate is an informed guess that can move. Customers prefer quotes, so quote whenever the scope is knowable and keep the genuinely unknown out as a stated exclusion or provisional line.
- How long should my quote stay valid?
- Thirty days is the common default. Shorten it when material prices are moving, and say so on the quote. A validity window also gives an undecided customer a gentle reason to stop drifting.
Won the job and ready to bill it? Builder's invoice template is the other half of the same paperwork, written for the same trade. Not a builder? The blank UK quote template works for any trade, in Word, Excel, PDF or Google Docs.
The same quote for other trades
Related reading: How to Write a Quote That Wins the Job
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