You get three quotations for the same house. One says Rs 1,750 per sq ft, one says Rs 1,900, one says Rs 2,150. The obvious move is to take the cheapest.
The obvious move is usually wrong, because the three of them are not quoting the same thing.
The first question: per sq ft of what?
This single definition moves a quote by 8% to 10%, which on a 1200 sq ft house is nearly two lakh rupees.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Carpet area | Floor you can actually walk on. Smallest number. |
| Built-up area | Carpet plus wall thickness. What most honest quotes use. |
| Super built-up | Built-up plus shared areas. Largest number. |
A contractor quoting Rs 1,900 on built-up area may well be cheaper than one quoting Rs 1,750 on super built-up. Get every quote onto the same basis before you compare anything.
The follow-up questions
- Are balconies counted fully, at half, or not at all?
- Is the staircase included in the area?
- Is the parking or portico counted?
- Is the overhead tank slab counted?
Ask all four. If a contractor gets vague here, that vagueness is the quote.
The second question: which materials, by name
"Standard quality" means whatever is cheapest that week. Get brands and grades written into the agreement:
| Item | What to specify |
|---|---|
| Cement | Brand and grade — OPC 43 or OPC 53, or PPC |
| Steel | Brand and grade — Fe500 or Fe550D |
| Bricks | Type and size, or AAC block brand |
| Tiles | Rate per sq ft you are being allowed |
| Sanitary | Brand, and the rate allowance |
| Wiring | Brand and whether it is ISI marked |
| Doors | Wood type for frames, and shutter type |
The third question: what is excluded?
Do not ask what is included. Ask what is excluded. You will get a much shorter and much more honest answer.
Almost always excluded:
- Compound wall and gate
- Borewell, sump, overhead tank
- Plan sanction and approval fees
- Site levelling and soil filling
- Electricity and water connection charges
- Modular kitchen, wardrobes, furniture
The fourth question: what happens if it takes longer?
A per sq ft contract with no completion date is an open invitation to a slow site. Put a target date in writing. You do not need a heavy penalty clause — just the date being written down changes behaviour.
Payment stages
Never pay a large advance. A normal, safe schedule:
Hold that last 5% until every small pending item is genuinely done. It is the only leverage you have at the end, and the end is exactly when things stop moving.
A quick way to sanity-check any quote
Ask for the material list. A contractor who has actually estimated the job can give you one. For 1200 sq ft it should be near:
If his cement figure is 350 bags, ask why. Maybe he is planning a different structure and has a good answer. Maybe he has not estimated at all and quoted a number that felt right. Either way you have learned something.
The honest summary
The cheapest quote on paper is very often the most expensive by handover, because the gap gets recovered through thinner specification and extras billed later.
Working through a real comparison
Three quotes for the same 1,200 sq ft house:
| Quote A | Quote B | Quote C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline rate | Rs 1,750 | Rs 1,900 | Rs 2,150 |
| Area basis | Super built-up | Built-up | Built-up |
| Balconies | Counted full | Counted half | Counted half |
| Cement grade | Not stated | OPC 43 | OPC 53 |
| Steel | Not stated | Fe500 | Fe550D |
| Flooring allowance | Not stated | Rs 70/sqft | Rs 95/sqft |
| Completion date | None | 14 months | 12 months |
Quote A looks cheapest and is the least comparable. It quotes on the largest area basis, counts balconies fully, names no material grades and commits to no date. Every one of those is a place where cost comes back later.
Once you convert all three to built-up area with balconies at half, the gap between A and B narrows to almost nothing — and B tells you what you are actually getting.
The questions that expose a thin quote
Ask these five, in this order. The answers matter less than the willingness to answer.
- "Is this rate on built-up or super built-up area?" A contractor who has to think about it has not estimated carefully.
- "Can you write the cement and steel brands into the agreement?" Reluctance here tells you where the margin is planned.
- "What is the flooring and sanitary allowance per sq ft?" Vague answers mean you will be shown the cheapest option and asked to pay extra for anything else.
- "What is excluded?" A short list means he has not thought about it. A long, specific list means he has.
- "What is your target completion date, and what happens if it slips?" You do not need a penalty. You need the date written down.
Rate allowances: the technique worth using
Most finishing disputes come from arguing about brands. Rate allowances remove the argument entirely.
Instead of "good quality vitrified tiles", write "flooring allowance Rs 90 per sq ft". Now you can pick any tile you like. If it costs Rs 90, nothing changes. If it costs Rs 130, you pay the Rs 40 difference and everyone knows exactly why.
| Item | Typical allowance, standard finish |
|---|---|
| Floor tiles | Rs 70 – 110 per sq ft |
| Wall tiles, bathroom | Rs 50 – 80 per sq ft |
| Sanitary and CP fittings | Rs 35,000 – 60,000 per bathroom |
| Main door | Rs 25,000 – 45,000 |
| Internal doors | Rs 8,000 – 14,000 each |
| Kitchen platform and sink | Rs 40,000 – 70,000 |
Reading the payment schedule
A schedule tied to completed stages is safe. A schedule tied to dates is not, because you can end up having paid 60% for 35% of the work.
Two rules that matter more than the exact percentages:
- Never pay ahead of a stage. Payment follows completed work, not promised work.
- Hold the final 5% properly. It is your only leverage on the pending list, and the end is exactly when small items stop getting finished.
Clauses worth adding
| Clause | Why |
|---|---|
| Defect liability, 12 months | Covers leaks and cracks that show up in the first monsoon |
| Who bears material wastage | Prevents the argument at the end of a labour rate contract |
| Structural drawing to be followed | Stops on-site improvisation on steel |
| Site to be handed over clean | Debris removal is otherwise billed as extra |
| Written approval for any extra | No verbal extras appearing on the final bill |
Questions people ask
Is the cheapest quote always bad?
No. Sometimes a contractor is between projects and wants the work, or lives nearby and saves on travel. The point is not to reject cheap quotes — it is to make sure it is cheap for a reason you can identify.
Should I show one contractor another's quote?
Better to share the specification and ask everyone to quote against it. Sharing prices invites matching on number while quietly cutting elsewhere.
How many quotes should I get?
Three is enough. More than that and you spend weeks comparing without learning anything new.
What if he refuses to write brands in the agreement?
That is your answer. A contractor confident in his costing has no reason to resist naming what he already intends to buy.
Spend your effort on the specification, not on beating down the rate by fifty rupees. A well-specified contract at Rs 1,950 beats a vague one at Rs 1,750 almost every time.