Quoting carpentry while timber prices move

A carpentry quote prices labour the business controls and materials it does not. The labour holds for months. The timber does not.

A quote written in March and accepted in June pays a March price from a June invoice. The gap lands on the margin.

Every quote carries a date and an expiry

An expiry is the cheapest protection in the trade, and the one most businesses omit. Thirty days suits most domestic work.

The customer who accepts on day forty is not a problem, because the conversation is now a repricing rather than an argument. A quote with no expiry has no conversation to open.

Split the price so the moving part is visible

A single number hides which half moved. Separate lines for labour and materials let a repriced quote change one line and leave the other alone.

That split also answers the customer who wants a cheaper job. Labour is where the scope lives, and materials is where the specification lives, and they take different decisions.

Order long lead items when the job is confirmed

The deposit exists for this. Engineered timber, custom joinery and anything imported all carry a lead time that outlasts a quote's expiry.

Ordering at acceptance fixes the price and starts the clock. Waiting until the week before the start hands both to the supplier.

Say who wears a rise, in the quote

Three arrangements work, and each is honest as long as the quote says which one applies.

• Fixed, with an expiry. The business carries thirty days of risk and prices it accordingly.
• Fixed, with a rise and fall clause. A supplier increase above a stated percentage passes through, with the invoice attached.
• Cost plus on materials. The customer pays the supplier price plus a stated margin, and sees the dockets.

The wrong answer is silence, because silence resolves as the business paying. A customer told at quote time rarely objects; the same customer told at invoice time always does.

Record what the timber actually cost

Materials recorded against the job turn a feeling into a figure. After twenty jobs the pattern shows which species and which supplier move most.

Our guide to materials markup covers what the markup on those lines is really paying for, which is mostly the hours around them.

Reprice the price list, not each quote

A carpenter quoting from memory reprices nothing, and a carpenter repricing every quote by hand loses an evening a week.

A priced item list, reviewed monthly against supplier invoices, does both jobs at once. Each new quote then starts from current prices without anybody thinking about it.

Offcuts are a cost, and a recoverable one

How a carpentry job is set out decides how many offcuts it generates. A cutting list drawn before the first cut reduces them more than any supplier discount.

The waste allowance in a quote should reflect the real figure rather than a round ten per cent. Sheet goods and long lengths behave very differently.

Usable offcuts belong back in the rack with the job they came from noted. A workshop that reuses them is quietly cheaper than one that skips them.

Fixings and consumables disappear from most quotes

Screws, glue, sealant, abrasives and blades rarely appear as lines, and together they add up across a year.

A consumables percentage on the materials line captures them without itemising every box. The figure comes from a quarter of real spend rather than a guess.

What to change first

• Every quote carries its date and a thirty day expiry
• Labour and materials sit on separate lines, so one can move alone
• Long lead items get ordered the day the deposit lands
• The quote names who wears a supplier increase, in one sentence
• Materials record against the job, so the pattern becomes a figure
• A priced item list gets reviewed monthly against supplier invoices