DDwellingerby RCB Group
Guide · about 6 minutes

How to quote a loft conversion so the client can actually compare it

You are rarely the only quote. This is how RCB Group structures a loft conversion quotation so it wins on clarity rather than losing on price.

Why the thin quote loses

A homeowner with three quotes cannot compare "£58,000" with "£64,500". They can compare two scopes that list the same sections. When yours is the only one that does, you set the standard the others are judged against, and you stop being the number in the middle.

How long should it take?

RCB Group's standard is a scope of works within 24 to 48 hours of the site survey, and the estimated quotation shortly after. The first draft of a dormer loft scope from a template and a set of drawings is a morning's work. Without a template it is often a weekend, which is why it slips.

The sections a loft scope needs

  1. Preliminaries: scaffold, skip and waste, welfare, protection, Building Control fees, Party Wall where relevant (as the client's cost unless agreed).
  2. Strip-out and access: ceiling, water tanks, insulation, forming the stair opening.
  3. Structure: steels and timbers to the engineer's design, padstones, floor joists, dormer frame. Always "subject to structural engineer's drawings".
  4. Roof and envelope: dormer roof and cheeks, flashings, roof windows, rainwater goods.
  5. Insulation and fire: to current Building Regulations, fire doors, fire-rated plasterboard, means of escape, interlinked alarms.
  6. Staircase: code-compliant stair, handrail, balustrade.
  7. First fix: electrics and plumbing to exit points, heating pipework, drainage roughed in.
  8. Second fix M&E: faceplates, consumer unit, sanitaryware connected, radiators hung, testing.
  9. Finishes: skim, standard white decoration, skirting and architrave, doors.
  10. Allowances and client supply: sanitaryware, tiles, flooring, decorative fittings. State who supplies and who fits.
  11. Exclusions: carpet, furniture, anything not drawn.

Quote in tiers, not one number

Shell to Building Control standard; shell plus first fix; shell plus first and second fix; finished. The client chooses the stopping point and sees what each step costs. Most second-fix choices have not been made at quotation stage, so holding them as allowances keeps your price honest and your variations visible.

Three things that stop the price rising later

  • Write "subject to structural engineer's design" on every structural line.
  • Put M&E as provisional until layouts are final and the existing installation has been checked.
  • State the programme in weeks per stage next to the price. It answers the question they will ask next.

Send it, then follow up with something useful

Send by email and by WhatsApp link. Then follow up with the next useful thing: a list of decisions they need to make, a note on planning or permitted development, a photo of a similar finished loft. "Any update?" is not a follow-up.

If you are rebuilding this structure by hand for every quote, see how the templates on the estimating and scope page do it.

Published 2026-10-10 by RCB Group. General information for contractors, drawn from RCB Group's own estimating practice. Not advice for a specific project.