12 Reasons Your Building Estimate May Be Wrong

a builder on site looking at his phone
(Image credit: getty images)

There's no doubt that your builder will press home that a building estimate is a best guess, not the final figure that your project will cost, but with the financing of the project often hanging its hat on the estimate, any large deviations could prove problematic for the build. 

While it's possible to do your best to cost control a build as you're going along, if the estimate is way off in the first place, it will be almost impossible to bring down the price, no matter how much you put cost efficiency ahead of the design. 

Bob Branscombe

Bob is one of the UK’s leading Chartered Surveyors and with over 30-years’ experience in both self build and construction. A career spent with several main contractors and major surveying consultancies has helped reinforce his approach that cost-estimating and control are a fundamental tenet of self building. He's previously led seminars at Homebuilding  & Renovating Shows across the country.