FLORIDA CONNECT · HOMEOWNER GUIDES
By Florida Connect · Updated November 3, 2026
Quick answer: Compare the same scope, materials, allowances, exclusions, schedule, and payment milestones across each estimate. A total price is useful only when you understand what it buys.
Create a short project brief with photos, room dimensions if available, the property location, and your must-have outcome. Tell each business what you are keeping and what you are replacing. This makes the proposals easier to compare and reduces time spent answering the same questions.
Work: Which tasks and rooms are included?
Materials: Are product names, quantities, and finishes specified?
Allowances: Which costs are estimates rather than fixed selections?
Exclusions: Who handles cleanup, disposal, painting, or related repairs?
Schedule: What must happen before work can start?
Changes: How are extra work and substitutions approved?
Completion: What inspection, walkthrough, and documentation steps remain?
Suppose one kitchen estimate includes cabinet installation and another includes cabinets, installation, and removal of the old units. The totals are not directly comparable. Ask for a revised scope instead of assuming the lower number is the better deal.
Keep an “unanswered questions” column. Mark a missing item as unknown, not zero dollars. Ask each contractor to resolve those questions in writing before you choose.
Ask what each payment corresponds to and what evidence confirms that stage is complete. Keep estimates, contracts, change approvals, invoices, and receipts together. For disaster repairs, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recommends comparing written estimates from multiple contractors.
Possible reasons include materials, labor assumptions, access, exclusions, and allowances. Ask each business to explain its own proposal; do not infer that a higher or lower price proves quality.
Ask for written details first. Otherwise, there is no reliable way to tell whether both businesses priced the same job.
Find businesses by service or city and send each one the same project brief.
Source: CFPB: Finding and working with contractors after a disaster. The comparison-sheet approach is Florida Connect’s planning framework.