Keeping it Real!!

Having work for nearly two decades in the Construction Industry, one question I am constantly being asked by friends is "When you receive a quotation for work, how do you know if you are paying the right price?"
People have now become increasingly aware of "Cowboy Builders" due to various programmes within the media spotlight - which highlight the plague of "dodgy" builders within the Industry. Now whilst anything which routes out people giving our Industry a bad name is a welcome thing, this does have a detrimental effect in creating a generalisation about builders. What the programmes do not highlight is a common practice within the building industry, particularly the domestic building market of under pricing work to ensure you get the contract. This has gone on for years, but due to the very competitive nature of the current market this is unfortunately becoming ever more common. The practice works like this - several contractors bid on a job, but one or more of those contractors gives a price well under the "cost price" of carrying out the work. The estimate or quotation will be very vague on specification purposely. Once the cheapest contractor has been awarded the contract and work has commenced - they will then start to add to the cost of things - qualifying this extra cost as "it was not quoted for". What this will mean for the customer is that they may very well end up paying far more the work than they perhaps should have.  Okay, so what is the answer? Fixed price contracts - These are just what is implied in the title, the price is fixed so from a contractors point of view a great deal of time and effort will be put into the quotation to ensure that an accurate price has been provided, as omissions or miscalculations could cost the contractor dearly.
I should also point out that there is a difference between an estimate and a quotation - a big difference! An estimate is just that, an estimation of labour and materials and does not necessarily reflect the true cost. With an estimate a contractor has no incentive to provide an accurate price as they are not contractually obligated to keep within a given cost. A quotation should be more detailed and provide details of the specification on which the quotation is based - this provides for a far more accurate measure of the cost. Beware though of quotations which have little or no detail within them because it makes the quotation baseless.
So in summary try and get a contractor to offer a fixed price quotation which by its very nature should have a lot of specification and detail.
If your project is reasonably large, you might want to consider hiring a quantity surveyor - whose job it is to accurately apportion materials and labour construction projects. Although this service does come at a cost, it could potentially save you money in the long term and also help you with selecting a contractor.
So in summary, remember that any project has a real cost - so beware of any low quotations and if in doubt insist on fixed price quotations. If you are really struggling -  pay a professional to cost the project.