Compare quotes on one basis before you compare prices

Three builders will send you three completely different documents, and the bottom lines cannot be compared as they stand, because each number includes and excludes different things. Before looking at any total, rebuild the quotes onto one basis: what is actually included, what is excluded, and where the provisional sums sit - the allowances for work not yet properly priced, which are guesses wearing the costume of numbers. The lowest figure on the page is very often just the one that left the most out, and everything it left out comes back later as an extra, priced without competition on a job you can no longer walk away from.