Quote:
Originally Posted by surferguy
I struggle with this, I agree with the statement and have been burned by it in the past. There have been a few occasions where I have met with clients and done up designs based on their wants and needs only to have them be shocked by the costs in the end. I will always ask up front a budget so I can design within the constrains. Materials are a major cost in any job and if I know budget X then that allows me to choose tile A or B. 90% of the time my labour is not affected by materials.
Because I do design and build I can usually nail down my exact cost right from the get go because I know what I am building, layouts, materials are predetermined and are accounted for in the quote based upon the agreed design.
People can feel that the budget question is disingenuous (because most contractors will do the exact thing you mentioned) but those are the reasons I ask it.
In the end it costs me some jobs, I am just trying to separate myself from other contractors by being as open as possible. Most appreciate the open communication and those are the people I want to work for anyway.
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I do agree with what you are saying but for his bathroom reno he already stated he wants to keep it as low as possible so not mentioning what his max budget is won't hurt. But if you did your homework you would get a rough idea of what a basic washroom reno would cost and go from there.
Like my basement reno, I had a rough idea of what I wanted but really didn't have a budget set, I only had a few examples of friend's basements and what they paid. So if they could convince me to spend x over x + y then all the power to them. Another thing is most contractors have enough experience to read people. They aren't going to sell me a benz when I am looking for a kia.