Two documents on the kitchen counter. One is three pages, tidy, with a single number at the bottom and the word “estimate” near the top. The other is fourteen pages, broken out by trade, with allowances listed for tile, plumbing fixtures and lighting. The numbers are far apart. Nothing on page one lines up with anything on page four. And a decision worth more than a car is supposed to come out of this.
Homeowners bring us this exact pile all the time, usually with the same question: which one is telling the truth? Almost always, both are telling a version of it. They are just describing different projects — and that is the thing to unpick before you look at the totals again.
Why do two bids for the same kitchen look completely different?
Because “the same kitchen” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Without a finished design, each firm is pricing its own idea of your project. One assumed the existing cabinet layout stays and the wall between the kitchen and dining room stays with it. The other assumed the wall comes out, which means a structural engineer, a header, a permit through Seattle’s Department of Construction and Inspections, and a ceiling to repair afterward.
The same divergence happens under the floor. In a 1920s bungalow, one bid may include re-supporting a bouncy floor and rerouting a drain; the other may have assumed the existing subfloor is fine and priced accordingly. Neither firm is lying. They are answering different questions, and you are being asked to compare the answers as though the questions were identical.
What do I line up side by side first?
Before you compare a single dollar figure, compare scope. Take a blank sheet and write down every item that appears in either document, then mark which bid includes it. The gaps will be obvious within twenty minutes, and they are the whole story.
- Demolition and disposal. Who hauls it, and is the dumpster in the number?
- Structural work. Engineering, headers, posts, footings — included, excluded, or unmentioned?
- Permits and the drawings for them. Fees and the labor to obtain them are separate things.
- Electrical and plumbing scope. New circuits, panel work, moving supply and drain lines, venting for the range hood to the exterior.
- What happens to what you cannot see. Insulation, subfloor repair, replacing knob-and-tube found in the walls.
- Cabinetry, by specification. Box construction, drawer hardware, finish. Two cabinet lines can differ enormously and appear on paper as one line item.
- Finishes, by actual selection or by allowance.
- Site protection and cleanup. Floor coverings, dust containment, daily cleanup.
- Project management and supervision. Someone is running the job; someone is paying for that.
If a line exists in one bid and nowhere in the other, you have not found a saving. You have found something that will be paid for later, by you. Our post on what a remodel bid should actually contain goes through this in more depth.
What does an allowance actually mean for my number?
An allowance is a placeholder standing where a decision has not been made. The tile line says a figure per square foot; you have not chosen tile. The lighting line carries a sum; you have not chosen a single fixture. The bid totals cleanly and looks complete, and then the day comes when you walk into a showroom, fall for the handmade zellige, and the number moves. It moves again with the plumbing fixtures. It moves a third time when the cabinet hardware you like is not the hardware the allowance assumed.
We want to be clear about our position here, because a lot of the industry treats this as simply how remodeling works. We do not. An allowance-heavy bid is not a price — it is a starting point with a slope on it, and the slope always runs one direction. When you compare two bids, count the allowances in each. A bid with more open allowances is a less certain number, regardless of which total is lower today.
Is the lower bid really lower?
Sometimes. Often it is a smaller project wearing the same name. The gap between two bids usually resolves into one of four things, and it is worth knowing which:
- Scope. One includes work the other left out entirely.
- Specification. Same work, different quality of materials and cabinetry.
- Risk. One firm investigated the house and priced what it found; the other priced optimistically and will handle discoveries as change orders.
- Overhead and staffing. A firm with a designer, a project manager and its own crew costs more to run than one that subcontracts everything and coordinates by phone. What you get for the difference is supervision.
The fourth deserves a note, because it is invisible on paper and very visible at eight in the morning on a Wednesday. Somebody has to be watching whether the tile pattern breaks where it was drawn, whether the outlet landed where the design put it, whether the crew has what it needs today. If nobody is paid to do that, it does not happen, or it happens to you.
What questions should I ask before I sign anything?
Three, and they are more revealing than any line item. First: is this a fixed price, or an estimate that will be reconciled later? Ask for the word in writing. Second: what happens when you open the wall and find something unexpected — how is that priced, who decides, and do I see it before the work happens? Third: what is still undecided in this document, and what determines that cost when it is decided?
A firm that answers those three clearly is a firm you can compare. A firm that gets vague at the second question is telling you where the risk has been parked.
Why don’t we hand out bids like these?
Because the comparison problem we have just spent a thousand words on is a symptom of pricing before designing. If nobody knows exactly what is being built, everyone prices a guess, and you get handed the job of reconciling guesses.
At NOR Design & Construction we run it the other way. We design your project completely — layout, structure, cabinetry, every fixture and finish selected and specified — and only then do we produce a bid. It is a fixed price for a fully drawn project, which is what a fixed-price bid means and why it can only come after design. There are no allowances waiting to move, because there is nothing left undecided. You can see exactly where that step sits in our process.
If you are holding two bids right now and cannot make them agree, bring them to us. We are glad to walk through what each one is really covering, then show you what pricing looks like when the design comes first and the number stops moving. Schedule a design consultation, or call 206.979.3420 and ask for us directly.
