Should I negotiate the cost of this quote?

[ThisOneNoThatOne]

I'm in the middle of getting quotes for an extension. So far I've had three quotes (1st at 210k, 2nd at 170k and 3rd at £150k) so there's quite a variance.

The builder with the middle quote has been my favourite so far although the builder with the lowest quote has been v good too. What I'm wondering is if I should see if the middle quote builder will match the lower quote? Do you negotiate with builders? That's quite a lot to ask them to reduce by and I don't want to annoy them! Thanks

Negotiate negotiate negotiate

Beware of asking someone to go lower as they may cut out all sorts of things that would have otherwise been included in the original quote but just not listed. Or they may find problems that need extra payment that might not have otherwise.

The point of 3 quotes is usually to gauge what the real price is. Personally I would usually go with a middle one as the low ones frequently want extras! It might be worth showing him the lower one though but go through it item by item together to see if there is a reason for the difference -you may be lucky.

I don't think you can negotiate something like that, the best you can do is ask if they can simplify anything to save money.
That's what the tender process is for, to make sure they're interested in the work.
We managed to reduce ours by doing more of the work ourselves, but there wasn't really scope for negotiation with the ones who were decent as they have plenty of other work anyway.
Good luck though, sounds big as it's triple the cost of ours and we thought ours was costly!

Can you get a breakdown of the costs?

Thanks, it's a difficult one isn't it!?

We have a breakdown of the costs, so I'm pretty sure that the like for like quote is £20k more expensive.

john it's not a huge extension- just adding a double storey side and a single back extension to a 1930's semi. Just being nosey- what did you have done for a 3rd of price?

ThisOne That's basically exactly what we're doing although ours is 1920s not 1930s, and they're rebuilding the whole roof and a few internal alterations to the layout involving 4 ground floor steels plus new 4 lintels added to existing walls. The actual extension isn't that big.
However we are only getting it to second fix stage, so only plasterboard/floor boards and no skirtings or internal doors.
They said it will take 10 weeks if that's anything to go by, although I just found out they also work Saturdays as well as Monday to Friday!