Blog  Why specifications are essential for quoting  21st August 2019  John Bransby We are frequently asked by builders, home owners and even architects to provide a quote on the basis of drawings that are preliminary or concept quality only. Sometimes we are provided with internet images or random photos on which to base a quote. Quite often these are Development Application (DA) drawings that are provided to Councils in the DA process. They are next to useless when sourcing quotes because they don’t provide any details of what is required. They may have notes that describe a set of gates as ‘metal gates’ or something equally meaningless. It’s a bit like ringing around 3 car dealers and asking for a quote on a 4 door sedan. Without details (specifications) it’s impossible to get a meaningful quote. The trend in building these days seems to be that the design costs are passed on down the chain to the builder or contractor, using the 'Design and Construct' method of tendering. This saves money initially by avoiding the cost of architects or building designers doing the specifications and detailing, but it nearly always results in low quality work. The reason for that is simple; the contractor doing the work quotes on the basis of doing work he thinks will be accepted by the client at a price that will be the lowest. Without specifications and details, the client has no idea of exactly what is being quoted on. Then, once the successful tenderer has got the job, there is a conflict of interest. The contractor or builder wants to maximise profit by doing the job at the lowest possible cost. Because there are no specifications to say how the job should be done, the client has little recourse if the job is not done to the standard expected. The architect has been sidelined early in the process but the job has the appearance of being 'architect designed'. It's one reason why there is a near total lack of confidence now in building work in Australia. Anyone in the industry knows how risky it is buying a new apartment these days. Back to our car dealer analogy….. asking 3 car dealers for a quote on a new 4 door sedan car, without going into the exact specifications. Even if they all quoted on the same make and model, one dealer may be quoting on the base model to keep the price low while the other dealers might be quoting on the same model with all the optional extras. The same car could differ in price by 40%. Metalwork is no different- 2 images of work can look identical, but the specifications could vary enormously, which in turn affects pricing. High quality specifications are very important when quoting- whether it be for building work or cars. This is why we refuse to quote without a good quality specification being provided. However, we will create a high quality specification for a fee and you are free to shop around with our competitors using the specification we created. We direct clients to our design and quoting process BROCHURE. Our thorough design process can save clients a fortune by avoiding work of low quality that either corrodes in a few years or doesn’t function as intended. While designing costs a relatively small amount at the outset, it can save a lot of money by making sure the metalwork is fit for the purpose and fit for the environment. It also virtually ensures that the new metalwork will add value to the property. Badly designed and specified metalwork detracts from a property and therefore devalues it. The devaluing effect is the most expensive part of a job if it happens. Our design and quoting process is second to none and in fact architects often engage us to do detailing and specifying for the clients because it is such a specialised field.