How to Quote a Job: UK Trade-by-Trade Guides

What Every Trade Quote Has in Common

Whatever the trade, a professional quote should always include: a clear breakdown of materials and labour (not just one lump sum), a valid-until date, your company details and payment terms, and a way for the customer to accept it without a phone call or a verbal “yes” that’s easy to forget. The trade-specific guides above go into the pricing detail; the principles of presenting that quote professionally are the same across every trade.

How to Price the Job

The basic formula is the same across every trade: (labour hours × your rate) + materials at cost + markup + a contingency buffer = your quote. Where tradespeople undercharge is almost always one of two places — forgetting to price in the time spent quoting, travelling and cleaning up (not just the “on tools” hours), or applying too thin a materials markup to actually cover the admin of sourcing and holding stock.

A worked example: a bathroom re-tile — 14 hours labour at £35/hour (£490), materials at £280 cost with a 15% markup (£322), plus a 10% contingency on the full job (£81). Total: £893 before VAT. Breaking it down this way, rather than quoting a single round number, makes the price defensible if the customer asks what they’re paying for.

Common Quoting Mistakes

Quoting from memory instead of a template — saved line items and a consistent structure are faster and more accurate than rebuilding every quote from scratch. No deposit on larger jobs — especially relevant for anything involving upfront materials cost. Underpricing to “win the job” — a job priced below its real cost isn’t a win, it’s unpaid work with extra steps. No way to approve digitally — quotes that require an email reply to confirm consistently convert slower than ones with a one-tap approval, and speed matters: most customers hire whoever responds first with something professional, not the cheapest bidder.

Quoting Faster Without Losing Accuracy

The biggest time cost in quoting isn’t writing the quote — it’s working out the prices each time from memory or old paperwork. Building a saved library of your materials and labour rates means every future quote is assembled from items you’ve already priced once, rather than recalculated from scratch on every job.