Paying Tradespeople - breakdown of costs

[Misty9]

We're about to pay a large bill to our builder for some garden work but would you expect a breakdown of the costs, such as materials, to be provided? I've questioned the quote before and he got a bit shirty...

Did he give you an initial quote?

I assume so...and I assume you were happy with that. Is the final price a lot more than that quote?

Did he not provide you with a general written quote before he started work, so you knew how much the final cost would be? If he did then I would ask for a more detailed invoice or at least an invoice that separates material costs and the cost of labour.
I think if you both approached the job informally and you just got a verbal quote of a ball park figure from him, then that's what he will charge and just put on the invoice.

I'm not sure that this is to be expected.

Do we ask Mars to give us a breakdown of the components in a Mars bar and ask how much it costs to produce each one?

I would expect a quote and the final invoice to match that unless your builder has spoken to you about any problems likely to increase the final cost.

He did provide a written quote but that included things he hasn't ended up needing (like skip hire) and the design changed a bit during the work meaning he needed less materials.

Tough you accepted the quote. The work has been done at a price you agreed too, you dont get to complain after the fact. If he hadnt quoted the skip and needed one i presume you would of complained about having to pay extra too.

Was it a quote or an estimate? DH is a tradesman no only ever gives an estimate for the fact that costs can go down or up depending on what happens when you actually start the job.

If your builder has factored in for £xxx worth of say tiling but in the end you only needed £xx amount of tiling done, surely his final price should be adjusted? You shouldn't be paying for stuff he has not bought or used.
Similarly if it turned out that the job was going to require more of something, you would have to stand that cost.

Rather than asking for a complete breakdown of materials, labour etc ( this takes a lot of time and work to do), can you not simply say to him you've quoted for a skip which we haven't needed, plus the final design involved less materials, surely there should be some reduction in what we owe you? And negotiate from there.

unconventional the initial quote went up (think by 20%) to account for those extras - which weren't then needed. Of course if extra costs had been incurred we would have paid for them but I feel we are paying for things that weren't in the end needed.

curls that's sort of what we thought would happen- we've never commissioned work costing so much so it was a bit of a learning curve for us. Might try that, thank you.

If you had a fixed quote, you should have an invoice for that amount. If you had an estimate you get a bill for time and materials.

Yes...was it an estimate or a fixed quote? It should say on whatever he sent you...an email or letter or both.

@Misty9, bit of a tip. If my DH is anything to go by, most tradespeople are not the biggest fans of doing paperwork, lol. So to first do an estimate/quote and then be asked for a further breakdown of costs of materials etc would quite honestly really piss him off.

That's not what you need anyway, the cost of all materials and labour is not the point. The point is if you're being charged for materials not used like the skip, then that should be deducted from what you owe.

Talking rather than emails or texts is your best strategy in my experience.

You changed the design thats taken the tradesmen time to alter his plans. Waste will still have had to be removed whether thats in a skip or the trade taking it to a waste transfer station themselves. He is quite rightly pissed off.

He's not pissed off as my query to him was ages ago before he started. Fair enough, we are paying the agreed quote I just wondered that's all.

And the design change was on his (good) suggestion