Budget builder
The quote is not the budget.
Renovation budgets rarely fail because the labour was mispriced. They fail because of the five things that were never in the quote. This adds them back, and scales the contingency to the age and complexity of your job.
Enter the quoted price and the full budget appears here. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Where the money actually goes
Contingency is not pessimism. It is arithmetic.
On any house over thirty years old, something is found. Not sometimes — routinely. The homeowners who cope well are the ones who budgeted for it before it happened, and the ones who do not are the ones who ran out of money with the kitchen half in.
- Money should always be slightly behind the work, never ahead of it
- Tie payments to completed milestones, not to calendar dates
- Price your actual selections before you sign, not after
- Reduce scope deliberately rather than running out halfway
- Never make the final payment before the deficiency list is done
A real number for a real property
This works on your quote. A walkthrough works on your house.
The tool can only structure the figures you already have. Getting a defensible cost range in the first place — and knowing which parts of the scope will not return their cost — takes ninety minutes on site.
Estimates are estimates.
This tool performs arithmetic on figures you supply and contains no renovation prices of its own. The contingency percentage is a rule of thumb based on experience with the risk that older and more complex work carries; it is shown on screen with every factor that set it, and you should adjust it against what you know about the property. Output is a planning aid, not a contractor’s quotation.
A straightforward first conversation
Not sure whether the quote you have is complete?
Tell me where you are in the process. We’ll discuss the property, the market, and the questions that matter most to you.