Contractor Bids $50K Apart? Why Lowest Bid Isn't Cheapest Project
Contractor bids arrive $30K to $50K apart and you're staring at three different numbers with no idea what's inside them. One includes upgraded fixtures. Another caps everything at allowances. The third excludes half the work you assumed was included. You're comparing prices but you're actually comparing three different projects. David Esses spent 28 years in construction—managing 200-home subdivisions for Richmond Homes, developing superintendent systems, running commercial projects and insurance scopes. When a 2015 hail storm damaged his Colorado home, he applied his checklist mentality: verified the contractor's license, confirmed insurance coverage, checked the Better Business Bureau. The permit hung on his front door. He hired a roofing contractor who lived four doors down. Ten thousand dollars later David learned that checking boxes isn't the same as understanding them. The fence got built on the wrong side of the house. The deck didn't match what they'd discussed. The shed was never completed. Nothing was documented beyond generic line items—replace fence, build deck—and David had no recourse. He knew construction but he'd never been the homeowner making payments and managing decisions under emotional pressure. David founded Struction Built in Aurora, Colorado to give homeowners independent decision support. Not project management. Not contractor supervision. Decision clarity—helping you understand what contractors are asking you to approve, what's included in those bids, and what questions unlock problems before they cost money. ABOUT DAVID ESSESDavid Esses founded Struction Built in Aurora, Colorado, after 28 years in residential and commercial construction. He developed Richmond Homes' superintendent system, managed large subdivisions, and handled commercial project scopes and insurance work. Today he provides independent homeowner decision support—not project management, but clarity on the choices contractors ask you to make. struxionbuilt.com 720-736-1600 | [email protected] FREE AI Tool WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVERBill and David unpack why contractor bids vary wildly when the plans look identical. Allowances function as cost placeholders, not fixed prices. One contractor assumes builder-grade tile at three dollars per square foot. Another assumes custom stone at fifteen. The bid difference isn't padding—it's a completely different material assumption you haven't discussed yet. Scope of work protects homeowners by documenting exactly what gets built and how. When a contract says "replace deck," it means nothing. Replace with what materials? What dimensions? What railing style? If those details live only in your head or in casual conversation, you're financing the contractor's interpretation, not your vision. David shares his $10K hail damage story in detail. He knew to verify licenses and insurance. He didn't know to verify that the permit covered all the work or that the contract should specify which fence, which deck design, and which shed configuration. Assumptions filled the gaps and cost became the teacher. The lowest bid isn't automatically the cheapest project. Three bids at different prices likely describe three different scopes. Before you compare numbers, compare what's inside them—materials, exclusions, allowances, and whether the written scope matches what you discussed on the phone. Allowances confuse homeowners because the word means something different in construction than in everyday life. An allowance isn't what the cabinets will cost. It's a placeholder inserted before you've chosen anything. When you finally visit the showroom and select flush inset cabinets with polished brass hardware and a painted glaze