Quote A
€26/m²
tiling the bathroom walls, area 18 m², total €468
Price list of work and materials
Construction price list: a price is never just one number
In Quotioo you search for construction work and materials and use their prices when you prepare your budget. Here, using floor tiling as an example, you can see what a price includes and what to check in a tradesperson’s quote.
A price list will not tell you what your build will cost. It tells you roughly where you start and what you need to check.
218,000items in the price list
2 priceslabour and material apart
4 stagesfrom estimate to invoice
€24.00/m²
Labour price. Without a unit of measure and a breakdown, it is still not the price of a build.
- Tiler’s labour
- €24.00/m²
- Tiles, adhesive, grout, primer
- €22.22/m²
Complete item €46.22/m²
Example labour price range: €19 to €32/m² depending on region and difficulty.
Labour price and material price
One item, two different prices
Short answer
In an itemised price list, every item has a labour price and a material price shown separately, because they are two independent amounts. You can buy the material elsewhere or in a different quality and the labour price stays the same. When an item has only one combined figure, you cannot tell what changed when the price goes up, and two quotes from two builders cannot be compared fairly.
Floor tiling at €24/m² is labour only
Adhesive, grout and primer are paid for separately, and you choose the tiles yourself. This is the same item broken down in full, per square metre.
Laying ceramic floor tiles · 1 m²
€46.22/m² complete
- Tiler’s labour
- €24.00
- Ceramic floor tiles
- €18.00
- Flexible tile adhesive (4.5 kg)
- €2.70
- Grout (0.3 kg)
- €0.72
- Substrate primer (0.2 l)
- €0.80
Labour
€24.00
Material total
€22.22
Labour share of the price
52%
Ancillary materials are usually missing from price lists
Adhesive, grout and primer add just over four euros per square metre of tiling. On one bathroom that is a few dozen euros; across a whole house it is several hundred.
A price list that leaves these items out is not cheaper. It is just less complete, and you pay the difference later.
The labour share tells you where it pays to shop around
For floor tiling, labour is roughly half the price. For a concrete foundation slab it is just under a quarter, and for a fitted window only a sixth.
Where material dominates, you save by choosing the goods. Where labour dominates, compare the labour price and the scope it covers too. A comparison of quotes for the same brief helps.
Try the calculation
Unit price times quantity is the price of the item
Find an item, look at its breakdown and change the quantity. The price of this part of the build updates straight away, exactly as a budget is calculated.
No item matches your search.
Laying ceramic floor tiles
m²Labour without the tiles is around €24/m². The tiles themselves start at about €15/m².
Labour €24.00 Material €22.22
Item price
€1,849
Price of this part of the build
- Laying ceramic floor tiles 40 m² × €46.22 €1,849
- Painting walls, two coats 120 m² × €4.90 €588
You have not selected any items yet.
Total for selected items €2,437
The prices are for demonstration and explain how a price list item is read. Real prices vary by region, supplier, season and the material you choose, so always build your budget on prices you can verify. The examples are based on the Slovak market.
The unit of measure matters
Without a unit of measure prices cannot be compared
The same work can be priced per square metre, per linear metre or per hour. Until you convert two quotes to the same unit and the same quantity, you are comparing two different briefs.
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m²
Areas
floors, plaster, painting, insulation
-
lm
Lengths
skirting, gutters, flashings, corner beads
-
m³
Volumes
concrete, excavation, backfill, masonry
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pc
Pieces
windows, doors, chimneys, sanitaryware
-
hr
Time
tradespeople’s hourly rates
Quote B
€28/hr
the same bathroom, estimated at 2 to 4 days of 8 hours
Which quote is cheaper? Quote A costs €468. Quote B, at eight hours of work a day, costs €448 to €896 depending on how many days the job really takes. Until you convert both prices to the same quantity in the same unit, you are comparing a price for a set quantity with an estimate. That is why quantities come from the bill of quantities, not from how each supplier imagined the scope.
A guide price is a range, not a promise
Is the price in the price list the price of my build?
No, and it is not meant to be. A list price of €24/m² tells you roughly where you will be. Exactly where is decided by five factors the price list knows nothing about for your build.
Laying ceramic floor tiles · labour price per m²
The price list gives a labour price of 24 euros per m². In this example it ranges from 19 to 32 euros per m².
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Region
Labour prices vary between regions. When you compare, use prices and quotes from the area around your build.
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Scope of work
For 10 m² of tiling you pay more per square metre than for 100 m². Preparation costs the same either way.
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Method
Machine plaster is cheaper than hand plaster. Large-format tiles, on the other hand, cost more to lay.
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Choice of material
Tiles at €15/m² and at €60/m² look the same in a budget: one item with one quantity.
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Condition of the substrate
Uneven walls, old plaster and awkward cuts around door frames and corners raise the labour price.
Use the price list as a starting point. Only a quote for your build, for your scope and your measurements, confirms the exact price. The price list helps you see whether a quote is within a sensible range, and lets you ask why it is not.
The life cycle of a price
One item goes through four price stages
Floor tiling starts in the price list at €24/m² and ends on an invoice. In between, your budget and the supplier’s quote both adjust it. Switch between the stages.
Laying ceramic floor tiles · 40 m²
From the final invoice, slightly below the quoted price after agreeing on the volume.
Actual price
€27.50/m²
For 40 m²
€1,100
Compared with the list price
+€140 (+14.6%)
The difference does not appear all at once
On this item, the gap between the list price and the actual price is 14.6%. On one item you can live with that; across a whole budget it becomes a sum that decisions depend on.
A budget is rarely blown by one big mistake. It is blown by dozens of small changes that nobody added up in time.
That is why an item keeps all four prices
When an item keeps the original estimate, the quote and the invoice, you can always say what you planned for and what it turned out to be.
Without that, the budget holds only the last figure, and the question of why it is higher can no longer be answered.
What Quotioo does with this
From “what should this cost” to “what will it cost me”
Quotioo keeps the price list, the bill of quantities, quotes and invoices together. Each item carries its price from the first estimate to the last invoice.
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Find the item in the price list
The guide price and unit of measure are a starting point, not a final figure. You search by the work, for example “laying floor tiles”, and each item shows the fitting price and the material price separately.
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Add the quantity from the bill of quantities
Unit price times your quantity. Only at this point does a price list figure become the price of your build, and two quotes can be compared on the same brief.
How a bill of quantities is worked out -
Attach quotes and invoices
The supplier’s quote and the receipt from site are linked to the same item. You see the difference from the plan as you go, not after the last invoice.
See expense tracking
Frequently asked questions
Questions almost everyone asks about price lists
Answers to what people ask when they open a construction price list for the first time and are not sure what to make of the numbers.
Cannot find your answer?
Write to us →A unit price is the price for one unit of measure of work or material, for example one square metre of floor tiling or one window including fitting. You get the price of an item by multiplying the unit price by the quantity from the bill of quantities. Without a unit, a number in a price list is just a figure that cannot be turned into the price of your build.
A price list is a guide built from averages. A quote is a specific supplier’s answer to a specific brief, so it reflects the region, the scope of work, the method, the choice of material and the condition of the substrate. That is why a quote can be higher or lower than the list price, and why a price list is used for planning, not for making agreements.
Ancillary materials are the things the work cannot be done without but which you do not see in the finished job: adhesive, grout, primer, anchors, fixings. For floor tiling they come to just over four euros per square metre. If a price list does not show them separately, the item looks cheaper than it really is.
Take the quantities from the bill of quantities, the list of items with measurements calculated from the drawings. Without it, prices are guesswork and suppliers’ quotes cannot be compared, because each of them reads the scope in their own way. The bill of quantities is also what you send to suppliers so they can fill in their prices.
Not necessarily. Material and labour prices change, sometimes within a single building season. That is why it makes sense to follow an item’s price through all four stages: the guide price from the price list, the budgeted price in your budget, the price quoted by the supplier and the actual price from the invoice. The difference between the first and the last figure decides whether your budget holds.
No. The labour price is what the tradesperson is paid for fitting, the material price is the cost of the goods that get built in. Keep them separate in your budget. For floor tiling, labour is roughly half the price, for a fitted window only a sixth, and that changes where it pays to save.
Read next
The price list is one part of the equation Here are the others
A unit price from the price list only means something with a quantity from the bill of quantities and a supplier’s quote. The budget holds it all together.
Bill of quantities
The quantities a unit price is multiplied by. Without them a price list is just a list of numbers.
Construction budget
How a budget is put together, what belongs in it and where items are most often forgotten.
Supplier quotes
The price list tells you roughly where you will be. Only a quote for your build confirms the exact price.
Changes during construction
The gap between the list price and the actual price comes from dozens of small changes.
Material manufacturers
Manufacturers’ catalogues with list prices excluding VAT and item codes that fit straight into a budget.
Expert sources outside Quotioo
Prices in the examples are for demonstration. Statistical offices track how construction labour and material prices change over time.
- Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic slovak.statistics.sk Price indices for construction work and materials in Slovakia, under the Construction topic. Useful when you want to know how much prices have risen since your last budget. The site is partly in English.
- Eurostat: construction producer price indices ec.europa.eu Annual construction price indices for EU countries including Slovakia, useful for comparing trends between countries.
From price list to budget
Turn the price list into a budget for your own build
Choose the items, add quantities from the bill of quantities and attach suppliers’ quotes. You will see what your build will cost, not an average build from a price list.
Create a budget in Quotioo
Free plan, no card required.
Not sure where to start with your budget? Read the construction budget guide.
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