Why 3 Contractor Bids Can Differ by $30k, and How to Compare Apples to Apples

Three bids for the same kitchen can land $30,000 apart because they are almost never bids for the same kitchen. One includes demolition and permits and the other does not. One carries a $4,000 cabinet allowance and the other prices the cabinets you picked at $7,000. One assumes the walls are fine and one assumes they are not. Design and Remodeling Team, a remodeler, says bids for the same project commonly vary by 20% to 40%, and the cause is usually scope, not skill or greed. To compare them, put the bids on one written scope and one set of selections, then add back whatever each one left out.

The r/HomeImprovement thread behind this guide is about exactly that: three kitchen bids with a big spread and no obvious way to tell which one is right. The tools below fix that.

The four places the money hides

Allowances

An allowance is a number the contractor puts in the bid for something you have not picked yet. It is a guess. If you pick something dearer, the difference comes back to you as a change order.

Ask the Builder’s guide to allowances gives a clean example. A contractor carried a $4,000 cabinet allowance, and the cheapest cabinets the homeowner could find cost $7,000. That is a $3,000 gap, and it was a “major problem” if you do not have spare money. It also gives a $250 bathtub allowance where nobody knew if the drain assembly was included.

The same guide says to ask what each allowance covers: sales tax, delivery, contractor profit and overhead, special kits, labor. It also says to ask whether the number is based on retail price or the contractor’s cost. Asking for cost-based allowances can get you more competitive pricing, with the markup shown in the base bid.

The best fix is to choose cabinets, tile and fixtures before bidding, so every bidder prices the same items. If you cannot, the guide says every contractor must use the same allowance amount and conditions.

Exclusions

Design and Remodeling Team lists what low bids often leave out: permits, demolition and haul-off, dust protection for the rest of the house, structural fixes hidden in older walls, project management and final cleanup. A bid that does not mention these may still be fine, but you need it in writing either way.

The Building Club checklist adds the responsibilities that often go unspoken: who handles design, engineering, inspections, temporary protection, hazardous materials, debris removal and restoration of disturbed finishes. It also says to check how concealed damage and code upgrades are handled.

Assumptions

Design and Remodeling Team describes some bids as optimistic. They assume nothing unexpected behind the walls, materials arriving on time at current prices and the crew staying on your job. When those assumptions fail, costs rise. It calls a low bid “the down payment on the real price,” with change orders stacking up until the total passes a complete proposal.

Thin pricing

A bid that is too low may not fund the job. The same guide says crews can leave mid-project for other work, which causes long delays. This is a risk to weigh, not a reason to reject the lowest bid.

What a kitchen costs, as a sanity check

Know the usual range so you can spot a bid that is far outside it. Fixr’s kitchen remodel page, updated September 2026, gives:

Item	Figure
National average	$22,500
Typical range	$10,500 to $30,000
Low end	$8,000
High end	$200,000
New cabinets, average	About $8,000 (around $300 per linear foot)
Labor share	50% to 60%, or about $11,250 on average
Major appliances (fridge, oven, dishwasher, microwave)	$2,500 to $7,000

Countertop prices on the same page vary a great deal by material. For a 30 square foot run:

• Laminate at $8 to $30 per sq ft = $240 to $900.
• Quartz at $50 to $75 per sq ft = $1,500 to $2,250.
• Granite at $70 to $140 per sq ft = $2,100 to $4,200.

So a countertop allowance set for laminate and another set for granite can differ by $1,200 to $3,960 before anyone has swung a hammer. The Countertop Cost Calculator will price your actual run, and the Tile Installation Cost Calculator does the same for a floor or backsplash.

A worked example (illustration)

These totals are made up to show the method. Only the cabinet gap and the countertop prices come from the sources above.

Three bids for a kitchen:

	Bid A	Bid B	Bid C
Bid total	$42,000	$58,000	$72,000
Cabinet allowance	$4,000	$7,000	$9,500
Countertop allowance	Laminate, 30 sq ft × $20 = $600	Quartz, 30 × $60 = $1,800	Granite, 30 × $100 = $3,000
Permit and demolition	Excluded	Included	Included
Cleanup and dust protection	Not mentioned	Included	Included

The spread is $72,000 minus $42,000 = $30,000. Now level the playing field to what you actually want, say $7,000 cabinets and granite at $3,000:

• Bid A: cabinets add $7,000 minus $4,000 = $3,000. Countertops add $3,000 minus $600 = $2,400. Adjusted total before exclusions: $42,000 + $3,000 + $2,400 = $47,400.
• Bid B: cabinets add $0. Countertops add $3,000 minus $1,800 = $1,200. Adjusted: $58,000 + $1,200 = $59,200.
• Bid C: cabinets save $9,500 minus $7,000 = $2,500. Countertops add $0. Adjusted: $72,000 minus $2,500 = $69,500.

The gap went from $30,000 to $69,500 minus $47,400 = $22,100, and Bid A still has permits, demolition and cleanup unpriced. Ask A to price those. If they come to $4,000, A is at $51,400 and the gap is $18,100. Whatever is left should show up in the line items for labor, schedule and who runs the job, and that is the conversation worth having.

Four questions for every bidder

Design and Remodeling Team’s checklist boils down to four things. Ask the same four of every contractor:

1. Are you pricing my exact plan and my exact selections, or your own?
2. What does the bid leave out, in writing? Permits, demolition, protection, project management, cleanup.
3. What assumptions is the price based on, and what happens if they are wrong?
4. Who runs the job day to day, are they licensed, and what does the warranty cover?

A line-item checklist

Building Club’s bid-comparison checklist has six items. Here they are as a table you can run through for each bid.

Check	What to compare
Same scope	Drawings, rooms, quantities, demolition, repair limits, finish level, owner-supplied items
Materials and allowances	Manufacturer, model, grade, finish, waste, delivery, tax, how overages and credits work
Exclusions	Permits, design, engineering, inspections, protection, hazardous materials, debris, cleaning
Schedule	Start date, working duration, crew size, supervisor, lead times, permit dependencies
Payment and change orders	Deposit, milestones, final payment, labor rates, markups, credits for deleted work
Total exposure	One comparable total with the same scope, plus references, warranty and open questions

That page says to treat unanswered questions as unresolved, not as included. If a bid is silent on something, assume it is not in the price until the contractor says otherwise.

What to do next

1. Write one scope. Use a drawing or a plain-language list, with rooms, cabinets, counters, floors, plumbing and electrical.
2. Pick your materials, or at least agree on a single allowance for each one that every bidder will use.
3. Send the same package to each contractor and answer their questions in writing to all of them.
4. Put the bids side by side using the checklist above. Add back anything excluded.
5. Call the references, check licenses and read the contract’s change-order terms.
6. Decide on total exposure, not just the lowest number.

If a bid is still much lower than the others after you have leveled it, ask why. There may be a good answer, such as a smaller crew or an open schedule. If the answer is vague, that is information, too.

Sources

• Allowances: The Financial Black Hole. Ask the Builder
• Low-bidder risks. Design and Remodeling Team
• Contractor bid scope comparison checklist. Building Club
• Kitchen Remodel Cost, September 2026 update. Fixr