Underquoted a Job? What to Do in the Next 48 Hours
The short answer
Don't walk off and don't keep working blind. Re-cost the job today, separate what was in your price from what wasn't, have one honest conversation with the client, then finish on a tight plan and fix how you price.
- Stop and re-cost first. Cost to date plus honest cost to complete, against the price. You can't decide anything until you know the real gap.
- A signed fixed price is usually binding. A mistake in your own maths is normally your loss, so the money is in what was never in the price, not in arguing about the price.
- Extras are not your loss. Client changes, hidden conditions, items you excluded and provisional sums are priced as variations, agreed in writing before you do them.
- Walking off is the most expensive option. Talk to the client once, with numbers, finish on a tight plan, then fix how you price.
You underquoted a job. You signed it, started work, and now the numbers don't add up. Maybe you missed a whole item, maybe the labour is taking twice as long, maybe the client keeps adding things.
Most builders do one of two things here: carry on and hope, or walk off. Both usually cost more than the problem. Here is what to do instead, in order. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on the numbers, book a free strategy call.
To stop it happening on the next job, run our checklist of hidden costs builders forget to price. Is the problem a client who got a cheaper quote and wants you to match it? Then read how to hold your price instead.
This is general information from a contractor's experience, not legal or financial advice. For your situation, speak to a solicitor or accountant.
First 4 hours: re-cost the job honestly
You can't fix a number you don't know. Before you call the client, your merchant or your mate, sit down and build a cost-to-complete sheet.
| Line | Example: £24,000 kitchen and rear room refit |
|---|---|
| Price agreed (ex VAT) | £24,000 |
| Paid by the client so far | £12,000 |
| Spent so far: labour, materials, subs, skips | £14,500 |
| Honest cost to complete | £13,000 |
| Total cost | £27,500 |
| Gap before your own overheads | −£3,500 |
The example is illustrative. Use your own figures: invoices, timesheets, merchant accounts, sub quotes for what's left.
- Price every remaining task, not a gut feel for "about another two weeks".
- Count your own days as labour at a real day rate. Your wage is a cost, not profit.
- Add the prelims you forgot: skips, protection, parking, travel, waste.
- Mark each cost in the quote or not in the quote. That split decides everything next.
Hours 4 to 12: find what was never in your price
A fixed price the client accepted is usually binding. If you simply priced the plastering too low, that is normally your loss. For consumer jobs, what you told the client about the work becomes part of the contract, and changing it needs their agreement.
But a lot of "underquoting" isn't underquoting at all. It's extra work done for free. Go through the quote line by line and look for:
- Client changes: a moved wall, a different tile, another socket, "while you're here".
- Exclusions you wrote down: making good, decorating, skips, building control fees, anything listed as not included.
- Provisional sums and allowances: a £35/m² tile allowance and the client chose £90/m².
- Hidden conditions: rotten joists, no lintel, old wiring behind the plaster, drainage nobody could see at quote stage. See who pays for unforeseen works.
- Client delays: waiting for their choices, access or another trade they appointed.
Each of these is priced as a variation (here is how to get variations paid). If no price was ever agreed for extra work on a consumer job, the law gives you a reasonable price for it. Better: price it and get it signed before you do it.
Doing the extra and "sorting it out at the end". By then the client remembers it as included, and you have nothing in writing.
Hours 12 to 24: choose your option
Put the gap from step 1 against the extras from step 2. Then pick one route. Here's how they compare.
| Option | When it fits | What it costs you | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recover the variations, then finish | Extras cover most of the gap | Time to price and agree them | Low if each one is in writing |
| Reduce scope or change spec | Client wants to stay on budget | A smaller job | Low, agree the change in writing |
| Ask for a goodwill adjustment | A genuine mistake, a good relationship | A short, honest conversation | The client can say no; they owe nothing extra |
| Finish and absorb the loss | Small gap, client worth keeping | The gap | Known and capped |
| Walk off | Almost never | Usually more than the gap | Breach of contract, the client's cost of finishing, reviews |
Walking off a signed job usually puts you in breach. The client can then claim what it costs to get someone else to finish, which is often more than your loss. If you are thinking about stopping, speak to a solicitor first. To test the other options against your numbers, book a free strategy call.
Sitting on a job that's losing money right now?
Book a free call and we'll go through the numbers with you.
Hours 24 to 48: the honest client conversation
Have one conversation, face to face or on a call, with the sheet in front of you. Not a text. Not a "we need to talk" message the night before.
Use this as a script. Change the words, keep the order.
| Step | What you say |
|---|---|
| 1. Where the job is | "We're on track to finish by [date]. I want to go through the costs with you before we get there, so nothing is a surprise." |
| 2. What's extra | "These items weren't in the quote: [list]. Here's the price of each one." |
| 3. The options | "We can keep them, swap them for [cheaper option], or drop them. Your choice." |
| 4. If you got it wrong | "I under-priced [item]. That's my mistake and I'll carry most of it. I'm asking if you'd meet me on [amount]. If not, I'll still finish to the same standard." |
| 5. Confirm | "I'll send you an email today with what we agreed." |
Then send the email the same day. Use something like this:
Subject: [Address] — variations agreed [date]
Thanks for your time today. As discussed, these items were not in our quote of [date] and are added as variations: [item, price]; [item, price]. Total variations: £[x]. [Item] is removed from the scope, saving £[y]. The revised contract sum is £[z] and the completion date is [date]. Please reply to confirm you agree. Work on the variations starts once we have your reply.
Raising the price without showing why. "It's costing me more" starts an argument; "these four items weren't in the quote" ends one.
Days 3 to 7: finish without bleeding
Now protect what's left. The aim is to stop the gap getting bigger.
- Plan the remaining days: task, who, which day. Finish one room before opening the next.
- Order materials once, in full. Every extra trip to the merchant is labour you're paying for.
- Fix the crew to the job. Pulling people to another site stretches the programme and the prelims.
- Check cost against the sheet every Friday. If it drifts, you know in a week, not at the end.
- Snag as you go. A short snag list at the end gets you paid faster.
Trade by trade: where underquotes usually hide
The pattern changes by trade. If you run one of these businesses, check these first:
Interior and fit-out trades
- Plastering: backgrounds you didn't see (bonding coats, boarding, beads, making good after other trades) and drying time. See our plastering business margin guide.
- Electrical: access, chasing and making good, plus the hours for testing and certification. See our electrical contractor margin guide.
- Decorating: prep on poor surfaces, mist coats on new plaster and extra coats on strong colour changes. See our decorating margin guide.
- Dry lining: fire and acoustic systems priced at the plain-partition rate, plus openings and heads left out. See how to price dry lining jobs.
- Tiling: square-metre rates that leave out strip-out, boarding, tanking, levelling and setting out. See how to price tiling jobs.
- Kitchen fitting: per-unit rates that leave out strip-out, worktop return visits and the electrician and plumber. See our kitchen fitting margin guide.
- Bathroom fitting: rot under the old floor, tanking squeezed into the tiler's time and dearer suites chosen late. See our bathroom fitting margin guide.
- Windows and doors: survey errors that become remade frames, making good reveals and upper-floor access. See our window fitting margin guide.
Groundworks, structure and outside trades
- Groundworks: spoil that turns out to be mixed waste, water, obstructions and unmarked services. See how to price groundworks jobs.
- Scaffolding: extra hire weeks, alterations and weekly inspections nobody invoiced. See our scaffolding margin guide.
- Bricklaying: per-thousand rates that leave out blockwork, openings, cavity work and scaffold waits. See how to price bricklaying jobs.
- Lofts and extensions: engineer's calculations, building control and party wall surveyors left out, plus steel and scaffold from old prices. See how to price loft conversions and extensions.
- General building: prelims (skips, protection, welfare, parking) and the packages you didn't get sub prices for.
- Landscaping: muck-away, sub-base and slab cuts, plus weather days on a fixed price. See our landscaping margin guide.
Fix the pricing so it doesn't happen again
One underquote is a bad week. A pricing system that guesses is a business that never makes money. These are the fixes from our Builder's Pricing Playbook. To score your pricing against the other five areas of your business, take the free 4-minute Construction Business Scorecard.
- Rates library: what each item actually cost you on finished jobs, updated after every job.
- Packages: price each trade separately, with two or three sub prices for anything you don't do.
- Prelims as a line: skips, protection, scaffold, welfare, parking, supervision.
- Margin, not markup: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). A 25% markup is only a 20% margin. See what margin a builder should make.
- Exclusions, allowances and provisional sums written into every quote, with a validity date. If supplier prices rise after you quote, see what you can and can't charge.
Ghennadi, a decorator from Northampton, went from £2K to £13.5K a month profit in 60 days, largely by pricing jobs properly and presenting quotes live. Individual results, not typical or guaranteed.
If you'd rather have someone price the big ones for you, our estimating and pre-construction service prices like a contractor, because it is one.
The Builder's Pricing Playbook
The package-by-package estimate sheet and the before-you-send quote checklist we use, so the next price covers the job.
Get the free guideWant every job priced to make money, not just to win?
Book a free strategy call.
Before you price your next job
This is general information from a contractor's experience, not legal or financial advice. For your situation, speak to a solicitor or accountant. On the tools and under £500K a year? Watch our free training first.
Before you go
- You know the real cost to complete on every live job
- Every extra is priced and agreed in writing before you do it
- Your quotes list exclusions, allowances and provisional sums
- Prices come from your own rates, plus prelims, overheads and margin
- You check cost against price every week, not at the end
