How to price extra work (no quantity surveyor required)

You don't need a QS. You need a method

Quantity surveyors price variations on commercial jobs because the sums justify it. On a domestic job the stakes are personal: an unpriced extra becomes a discount, and an under-priced one means you paid to do more work. What separates tradies who make money on variations isn't estimating skill — it's having a method ready before the question comes, so the price is a decision instead of a reflex.

The three honest methods

1. Do-and-charge, rate agreed up front. Actual hours at an hourly rate plus materials, with the rate — not the total — agreed before you start. The right tool when nobody can see the extent yet: rot that runs behind a wall, wiring that might be one circuit or four. Put it in writing — the rate, what it covers, how materials are passed through (at cost, or cost plus a handling percentage) — and give a rough range so the total isn't a shock.

2. Fixed price, from a quick takeoff. Count the labour in half-days, list the materials you'd actually buy, add hire, then add an allowance for the risk you're absorbing — a fixed price means surprises are yours. Fits when you can see the full extent and have done the task often enough to trust your count. Customers like it because the number is the number; you should like it only when your takeoff is honest about the slow parts.

3. Cost-plus, with a stated margin. Actual labour, materials and hire at documented cost, plus a margin you name in advance. Suits genuinely open-ended work and customers who want transparency, and only works if you keep dockets as you go. The margin isn't cheek — it pays for overheads, risk and the business existing; state it plainly and don't apologise for it.

Build a personal rate card

Fast pricing is preparation, not talent. Keep a short list you can pull up in ten seconds: your charge-out rate (the one that covers ute, insurance, tools, super and quiet weeks — not just your wage), your half-day and day figures, current prices for the ten materials you buy most, and standing costs like skip and machine hire. Review it every few months — materials move, and February's rate card quietly under-prices August's work. With a rate card, a quick takeoff really is quick: you're assembling known numbers, not inventing them under someone's gaze.

Price the disruption, not just the task

The classic under-price isn't getting the task wrong — it's pricing it as if it arrived on its own. Extra work lands in the middle of a sequenced job. A second trip after the plasterer? A trade rebooked? Making good around surfaces that weren't finished when you quoted? That's remobilisation and sequencing cost, and it's real money. A two-hour task that forces a return visit is not a two-hour price.

“I'll price it tonight” is a valid answer

The under-pricing trap has a shape: you're on site, the customer is watching, and saying a number feels like competence while saying nothing feels like stalling. So you blurt a figure calibrated to end the conversation, not cover the work. The fix is a prepared sentence: “Good pickup — I'll measure it up and text you a price tonight, before we go any further.” Capture the scope now, price it at the kitchen table with your rate card, send it in writing. Nobody reasonable resents a considered same-day price; plenty of tradies resent a hallway number for years.

Always state the GST treatment

Whichever method you use, say whether the figure is plus GST or inclusive. GST in Australia is 10%, so an ambiguous “$1,200” is a $120 argument you built yourself. Put it in the written record — “$1,200 + GST” or “$1,320 inc. GST” — every time, hourly rates included. Unsure how GST applies to you? That's an accountant question; the basics are in GST on variations.

Worked example: the rot under the window

Common mistakes

• Pricing to end the conversation. A number invented under social pressure is nearly always low.
• Fixed-pricing the unknown. If you can't see the extent, a fixed price is a bet with your own money — use do-and-charge until it's visible.
• Charging your wage instead of your rate. An hourly figure that ignores overheads, downtime and risk under-prices every variation you do.
• Pricing it and never sending it. A price in your head isn't agreed to — put it in writing (see how to document extra work).

Where TradieCue fits

The pricing is yours — no app can do a takeoff for you, and TradieCue doesn't pretend to. Prices come from the user and stay editable. Timmy structures the work and wording; it does not invent amounts. What it removes is the gap between deciding a price and getting it in writing: say the extra out loud — “Harris job, rotted sill and two studs under the lounge window, $1,250 plus GST” — and Timmy drafts a variation on the right job with your number and your scope. Taking the price-it-tonight route? Capture the scope with the price left open; Timmy holds it and asks you for the amount rather than making one up. Nothing sends automatically — you review, edit and share every draft yourself. See variation capture for how it works.

Common questions