Found out why my custom home quotes were all over the place

I was comparing bids from 3 different builders for a kitchen remodel last month and couldn't figure out why one was $15k higher than the other. Finally I asked the expensive guy straight up and he said his quote included engineered trusses and insulated headers while the cheap guys skipped them. Nobody tells you that small framing details can double your invoice. Has anyone else gotten burned by lowball quotes that left out basic structural stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_ben15d agoMost Upvoted

Respectfully, I see it a little different. In my experience, a lot of those cheaper builders aren't trying to hide stuff - they just bid to the bare minimum of code, which is different from building something that actually holds up over time. Insulated headers and proper trusses aren't fancy upgrades, they're the difference between a wall that sweats in winter and one that doesn't. Take it with a grain of salt, but those $15k gaps often mean you'd be paying twice that in energy bills and rot repairs down the road.

black.amy16d ago

Those cheaper builders may have given you exactly what you asked for.

the_fiona16d ago

Right, but sometimes "exactly what you asked for" is a disaster if you didn't know what to ask.