How We Quote a Job (and Why We Walk Every Property First)

Once or twice a week someone asks if I can give them a ballpark over the phone. I understand why. Nobody wants to book a meeting just to find out a number was never going to work.

But I've been doing this for years, and I can tell you the phone ballpark is a disservice to both sides. Either it's padded so heavily it scares you off a project that was affordable, or it's optimistic and the real quote lands as a nasty surprise. So we walk every property before we put a number on anything. Here's what we're actually doing during that visit.

What the walkthrough tells us

Access. Can a machine get to the backyard, or is every tonne of gravel going through a 90 centimetre gate in wheelbarrows? Same project, very different labour.

Grades and drainage. Where does water come from and where does it go? A patio that ignores drainage is a skating rink in winter and a pond in April. If the yard slopes, something is holding soil back, and that something has a cost.

Soil and what's under it. Toronto clay, builder's rubble, old concrete pads, tree roots. Ten minutes with a spade tells us a lot about digging conditions.

Sun and shade. Planting plans live or die on this, and it can't be judged from photos taken at one hour of one day.

What you actually want. This is the biggest one. Standing in the space together, pointing at things, catching the "oh, and one more thing" items. Half of what ends up in a scope comes out of that conversation, not the first phone call.

What a real quote looks like

When the quote arrives, it should read like a plan, not a mystery number. Ours lists the scope item by item: what gets removed, what gets built, what materials at what depths and dimensions, what's included in planting, and how cleanup is handled. It also says what's excluded, because a quote that never mentions exclusions still has them, you just find out later.

That structure isn't bureaucracy. It's what lets you compare quotes honestly. If one company is pricing a patio on 20 centimetres of compacted base and another never mentions base depth at all, the cheaper number isn't the same job. It's a different job that looks the same for the first year.

A few things worth watching for

I'll keep this diplomatic, but if you're collecting quotes for spring, watch for these regardless of who you hire:

• A scope of work in writing. Verbal agreements grow fuzzy by August.
• Clarity on who calls in utility locates before digging. Someone must, every time.
• A payment schedule tied to progress, not a huge deposit up front.
• Named materials. "Natural stone" covers a very wide range of quality and price.

No surprises, both directions

The whole reason we work this way is in our process page: we agree on the plan first. When the scope is nailed down before anyone lifts a shovel, the build is calm. You know what's happening, the crew knows what's expected, and the final invoice matches the quote because the quote described reality.

The walkthrough is free and there's no obligation attached to it. Pick a time, and whether you build with us or not, you'll at least walk away knowing what your project actually involves.