A quote app for flooring installers — for whatever's under the old floor

How flooring work goes unpaid

• The subfloor you couldn't see. The quote assumed a sound, level substrate. Up comes the carpet: moisture reading through the roof in the laundry corner, a slab that dips 15 mm across the lounge, chipboard gone spongy around an old plumbing leak. None of that was in the price — and every installer knows what happens if you lay over it anyway. The levelling compound, the extra day, the sheet replacement: that's real money, and it evaporates if the agreement stays verbal.
• Quantities move after the real measure. The quote came off the customer's floor plan; the laser measure on day one says otherwise. Wastage on a herringbone layout, a stair nosing count that doubled, two more transition strips — small lines that quietly grow the material bill you're carrying.
• The product swap after the quote. The customer quoted on the mid-range laminate, then falls for hybrid at the showroom — different price per square metre, different underlay, maybe different prep. If the quote isn't rewritten, you're absorbing the difference or having the argument at handover.

Day one: the carpet comes up

The photos of the straightedge on the bare slab sit on the job note next to the variation — evidence the customer can see, attached to a price they can approve from work before you mix a bag. That's the difference between “the installer reckons it needed levelling” and a documented decision. Nothing is sent automatically. Every quote, variation and follow-up is a draft the user reviews, edits and shares themselves. How to shoot photos that actually protect you is covered in job site photos that protect you.

Quoting floors: price the known, flag the unknown

The strongest flooring quote does two things. It itemises the knowns — supply per square metre, installation, underlay, trims and nosings, furniture moves, old floor removal and disposal — so a product swap later is a clean line change instead of a renegotiation. And it names the unknown in writing: “price assumes a sound, level, dry substrate; levelling, moisture treatment or subfloor repair quoted as a variation once existing coverings are removed”. Say the job roughly and Timmy structures exactly that kind of quote, with your rates untouched — it never prices a square metre for you. The wider craft is in how to write a professional trade quote.

What Timmy asks when a flooring note is missing details

When an important detail is missing (a price, a customer, a scope item), Timmy asks rather than making it up. On flooring notes, that sounds like:

• Prep with no price. “Bedroom needs levelling too” becomes a scoped line with the amount open, and Timmy asks for your number rather than inventing a rate per bag.
• Missing quantities. “A bit more trim than I thought” gets a question about how many metres, because “a bit” is not a line item a customer will pay without a frown.
• Which job? Two installs running in the same week — Timmy confirms which customer before the variation lands on a job.

Who it fits — and who it doesn't

TradieCue is built for solo tradies and small owner-operated trade businesses (roughly 1–5 people) in australia. For a solo installer or a small crew laying laminate, hybrid, timber, carpet or vinyl for homeowners and the odd shop fitout, it fits the actual shape of the trade: quote fast after the measure, capture the subfloor surprise the moment the old floor is up, and chase the final payment without writing the awkward message yourself. What it isn't: estimating or takeoff software (it won't calculate your square metres or wastage), a scheduling tool, or accounting software. Drafts aren't legal advice, you approve everything before it's shared, and it's iPhone only for now.

Common questions