PLAIN-ENGLISH PROJECT GUIDES
What costs am I probably missing?
Look beyond the obvious building items to the enabling work, connections, finishes and project costs that are easily overlooked.
Follow the project from start to finish
Think through how the contractor reaches the site, protects what stays, removes waste and makes the property usable again. Access equipment, temporary services, protection, testing and making good can disappear from an early wish list even though the work still needs doing.
Check the boundary between packages
Who supplies the kitchen, installs it and connects it? Who reinstates a garden after drainage work? Gaps occur where two quotations each assume the other party is responsible. A short responsibility schedule is often more useful than a longer list of headline prices.
Include costs outside construction
Surveys, design and other professional appointments, approvals, finance and temporary occupation arrangements can sit outside the building contract. Their applicability and tax treatment must be confirmed for your circumstances. Avoid counting the same allowance twice.
Turn the list into decisions
For each item, name an owner, a source for the allowance and a date for confirmation. Keep unresolved costs visible in the budget. If the list takes the project beyond your limit, change the scope before treating the budget as agreed.
Your practical checklist
- Trace access, work, testing and reinstatement.
- Check all supply-versus-install boundaries.
- Record costs outside the main quotation.
- Keep assumptions and exclusions beside the total.
Useful independent guidance
RICS: home extensions and improvements · Planning Portal: finance and budget
General guidance, not a quotation or project-specific legal, design, valuation or financial advice. Services and professional responsibilities are agreed separately.