Estimate vs. Quote: What’s Binding and What Isn’t
Key takeaways
– An estimate is a professional opinion of what a job should cost. A quote — a written price — is a commitment a contractor can be held to.
– Anyone who guarantees a final price from a photo or video is guessing. The guess gets corrected later, in change orders, when you have the least leverage.
– Our scan estimate is free and non-binding, on purpose. The binding number comes after a free in-home measure, in writing, good for fourteen days.
Two Words, Two Different Promises
Homeowners use “estimate” and “quote” like they mean the same thing. In this business, they don’t — and the difference is where a lot of people get hurt.
An estimate is a judgment. A contractor looks at a job and says: based on what I can see and what I know, this should cost about this much. It’s a range, an opinion, an educated read. Honest contractors label it that way.
A quote is a price. Written, scoped, signed — it’s the contractor saying: for this exact work, this is what you will pay. That document can be enforced. The handshake that came before it can’t.
When a contractor blurs those two words — lets you believe his estimate is his price — he’s keeping an exit open for himself. Here’s how ours works, so there’s nothing blurry about it.
Why No Video Can Bind a Price
Our Scan Estimate prices your remodel from your video, and we’re proud of the number it produces. We still won’t call it binding, and here’s the honest reason: a video shows surfaces.
It can’t show the rot behind a tub surround. It can’t show whether the plumbing under your slab is the original cast iron or a replacement. It can’t measure a room to the quarter inch, read the condition of the wiring in the wall, or know what your city’s inspector will require when the permit is pulled.
Every contractor knows this. The ones who promise you a guaranteed final price sight-unseen are doing one of two things: guessing high enough to cover any surprise — which means you overpay on a clean job — or guessing low to win the job, then “discovering” the extra cost after demolition, when your bathroom is a hole and your leverage is gone. The second one is the oldest play in the business.
We’d rather give you an honest non-binding number and a binding one in the right order than a fake binding one first.
What the Free Measure Changes
The measure is the bridge between the two documents. A measure tech comes to your home, free, and verifies the three things a video can’t:
- Dimensions. Exact measurements of the room, the openings, the runs — the numbers materials get ordered against.
- Conditions. What’s actually there: the floor, the plumbing state, the access, the surprises, found while your walls are still closed and your options are still open.
- Requirements. What the job needs to pass inspection in your city, priced in before the work starts instead of argued about during it.
Once we’ve measured, we can sign our name to a number. That’s the quote: one written price, for a written scope, good for fourteen days. The number we write is the number you pay.
How to Read Anybody’s Estimate — Including Ours
Hold every estimate to the same three tests:
- Is it itemized? A price should be a list — demolition, labor, materials — not one lump number. A lump can’t be checked, and what can’t be checked can’t be trusted.
- What’s the range anchored to? Our ranges start at the floor — that same job built with builder-grade selections, the full written scope, done to code and permitted — and rise with your selections. Any contractor’s range should have a stated basis, not just a feel.
- What’s excluded? The scope should say what the job is. If a step isn’t written, assume it isn’t included — and ask why.
The Questions Everyone Asks
Can the written price change after signing? Only if you change the scope. Add a bench to the shower, upgrade the tile after the fact — that’s new work, priced in writing before it’s done. The price for the scope as written holds.
How long is the scan estimate good for? It’s a should-cost snapshot, not an offer. The written price after the measure is the document with a clock on it: fourteen days.
Why not skip the measure and just guarantee the video number? Because then we’d be guessing, and you’d be paying for the guess one way or the other. We don’t sell guesses.
Onel Construction LLC is a licensed Florida general contractor, CGC1511492, working from twenty-five years of licensed contracting experience and tens of thousands of estimates written. Send your video to (561) 462-9293 for the estimate. Let us measure, and you’ll get the quote — the binding kind.
Financing is available on everything we do. Payments start at $120 a month on smaller jobs, and most projects land in the low $200s to $300s a month with approved credit. Rates run as low as 4.49% APR for qualified buyers. Ask at the free measure and we’ll lay the options out in writing, next to the estimate.
Insurance savings vary by carrier, policy, and home — figures shown are ‘up to’ amounts, not guarantees. Grant eligibility, amounts, and funding availability are determined by the program and may change. Financing subject to lender approval; rates and payments vary by credit profile. All financing examples assume approved credit through our financing partner.
