How to Compare Kitchen Quotations Like for Like

Every trade buyer ends up with two quotations on a desk and a decision to make. One is a few hundred pounds cheaper. The temptation is to treat that gap as a saving and move on.

It rarely is. The gap between two totals is usually made of things one document included and the other left out — a drawer front counted as a door, four end panels missing, a worktop priced on metreage rather than on the runs it has to cover, delivery folded into a footnote. None of that is dishonest; quotations are written to the information they were given, and suppliers include different things by default. This guide sets out how to normalise two documents line by line, and where the difference almost always lives.

Why two quotations for "the same kitchen" rarely are

Take a straightforward ten-unit galley. Send the same brief to three suppliers and you can easily get back three documents with different unit counts, different carcass depths, one with handles and two without, one that assumes flat-pack and one that assumes rigid. Every one of them is a legitimate answer to a loosely worded question.

The gap widens when the brief was a drawing rather than a schedule. A layout shows where things sit; it does not state whether a drawer run is three-drawer or four, whether the corner is a carousel base or a blanked return, or whether the tall housing takes one oven or two. Each supplier makes a reasonable assumption, and each assumption has a price.

If you are also pricing with Howdens, DIY Kitchens or Wren, expect the same effect between them. Specifications, inclusions, availability and prices vary between suppliers and change over time. Compare quotations on a like-for-like basis.

The practical fix is not to ask for a keener price. It is to force both documents onto the same specification and look again. The ranking often changes.

Normalise the cabinet schedule first

The cabinet list is the spine of the quotation and everything else hangs off it. Compare four things before anything else.

Count. Add up the units on each document — the actual line count, not the headline. Nine cabinets and an open shelf run is not the same job as ten cabinets.

Widths in millimetres. Two schedules can both total ten units and differ by hundreds of pounds because one uses 600mm bases where the other uses 500mm and 300mm fillers. Widths are the product identifier; anything expressed in feet, in "small/medium/large", or as a room dimension needs converting before you compare. Check them against the unit range — base, wall and larder units are all listed by type and width.

Carcass depth and height. A shallower wall unit or reduced-depth base changes both price and fit. If a quotation does not state depth, ask.

Rigid or flat-packed. This is a supply decision with a labour consequence, and it is frequently the single biggest hidden difference between two totals. Brooklands supplies cabinets as quick-assembly flat-pack, with a fully rigid pre-assembled option — the detail is on the rigid assembly page, and there is a fuller comparison in our guide to flat-pack versus rigid units for trade. If one quotation is rigid and the other is flat-pack, you are comparing a materials price against a materials-plus-assembly price. Price both ways on both documents, or price neither.

If you have no clean schedule to normalise against, build one first — our guide on preparing a kitchen unit schedule gives the format, and the trade units page lists what is available by type.

Doors and drawer fronts

This is where miscounts concentrate. The rule is simple and it is broken constantly: you need a front for every opening, not one door per unit.

A drawerline base with a three-drawer pack needs three fronts. A four-drawer pan unit needs four. A 1000mm double base needs two doors. A quotation showing "10 doors" against ten units has almost certainly under-counted, and the shortfall surfaces on fitting day rather than order day.

Check the style, colour and finish are genuinely the same range on both, and that any contrast block — an island in a second colour, a run of tall units in a different shade — appears on both. Then count the fronts against the schedule yourself. The door range is listed by size, so the count can be checked line by line.

The finishing items that get left off

End panels, plinth, cornice, pelmet and upstands do not appear obviously on a layout drawing, they are needed on fitting day, and they are the most commonly omitted lines in the trade. A quotation missing them is not cheaper; it is incomplete. Compare them as quantities and lengths, never as one line called "trims":

• End panels — one for every exposed cabinet end, plus tall-unit panels, which are a different size and price from base panels.
• Plinth — in lengths, covering the full base run including returns, not an estimate.
• Cornice and pelmet — in lengths, and only if the door range and wall-unit arrangement actually call for them.
• Upstands — matched to the worktop décor, measured against the same wall runs.

If one document itemises these and the other does not, add them to the second before comparing. That adjustment alone closes a surprising number of price gaps.

Worktops

Worktops are the line most often compared wrongly, because the instinct is to compare total metreage. Board count does not follow metreage; it follows the runs, wall by wall. Three separate 2.4m runs and one continuous 7.2m run are both 7.2 metres and need different quantities of board. Compare the run schedule, not the total.

Then check three attributes match: décor, edge profile and thickness. A thinner board or a different profile is a different product. Brooklands supplies Kronodesign and Duropal laminate as pre-finished lengths; cutting, jointing, mitres, sink and hob cut-outs, templating and installation are all done on site by your fitter, so those are labour lines on your side rather than supply lines on the quotation. See the worktop range, our worktop guide and the trade worktops page.

Order matching upstands and splashbacks on the same quotation so they come from the same batch — a splashback ordered three weeks later may not sit comfortably against the worktop. Delivery charges for standalone worktops are calculated by postcode at checkout.

Appliances, sinks and taps

Compare these by make and model number only. "Integrated oven" is not a specification; it is a category. The model sets the housing size, the aperture, the cut-out and, in the case of the sink, whether the base unit beneath it works at all.

Two quotations showing a built-in oven at different prices may be showing two different ovens; two showing the same oven may differ on whether the housing is in the cabinet count. Check the model numbers, then check each appliance against the cabinet it goes into. Do the same for the tap: a tall spout in front of a window that will not then open is a problem found more often on site than on paper. Models are listed against every item in the appliance range and the sinks and taps range.

Hardware and the small items

Hinges, drawer boxes, waste systems and handles are individually small and collectively significant, and they are counted per door and per drawer front, not per cabinet.

Establish on both documents whether hinges are included or extra, whether drawer boxes come with the fronts or are priced separately, and whether the waste system is in or out. Brooklands supplies soft-close hinges as standard and carcasses in White, Grey or Oak, so those are not variables here — but they may be on the other quotation. Handles are the easiest line to forget entirely: count them against the front count, not the unit count.

Delivery

Delivery should appear as its own line, priced for the postcode you actually gave. A quotation with delivery buried in the unit prices cannot be compared with one that shows it separately, and a quotation with no delivery line at all is not a total.

Brooklands delivery is fully tracked across mainland UK. Scottish Highlands and Islands, Northern Ireland, offshore and certain remote postcodes may be excluded or surcharged, always confirmed before an order is processed — see the delivery page. Ask the other supplier for the same in writing rather than assuming parity, particularly on multi-property work where the same kitchen goes to several addresses; there is more on the multi-unit projects page.

The exclusions at the bottom

Read the last page first. The exclusions, notes and small print are where the difference between two totals usually lives, and they are the part most often skipped. Look for wording that removes hinges, drawer boxes, panels, plinth, cornice, handles, worktop jointing, cut-outs, templating, installation, waste and disposal, or delivery to anything other than kerbside. Look too for anything "subject to survey" or "to be confirmed" — those are prices that have not been given yet, and a total containing them is provisional.

When one quotation excludes five items the other includes, the cheaper document is not a better price. It is a shorter list.

VAT, lead time and payment terms

Three final checks before the totals are comparable.

VAT. Confirm both figures are stated on the same basis. A trade quotation shown excluding VAT against a retail total including VAT is a twenty per cent illusion.

Lead time. A price that lands three weeks late has a cost — a void week on a rental, a delayed handover, a fitter standing down. Get it in writing on both.

Payment terms. Deposit, balance point and phased delivery all affect cash flow on a multi-kitchen job even when totals match.

The comparison sheet, line by line

Work down both documents in this order. Where a line is missing on one, add it before you compare anything.

Before you sign either one

• Both schedules normalised — same count, same widths in millimetres, same depths.
• Same supply basis — rigid or flat-packed, chosen and stated on both.
• Fronts counted against openings, not against units.
• Finishing items itemised — panels, plinth, cornice, pelmet and upstands, with quantities and lengths.
• Worktop compared on runs, with décor, profile and thickness matching.
• Appliances, sink and tap by model number, checked against their housings.
• Hardware confirmed in or out — hinges, drawer boxes, waste and handles.
• Delivery shown separately for your postcode on both documents.
• Exclusions read in full and any missing item added to the other quotation.
• VAT basis, lead time and payment terms confirmed in writing.

If a quotation cannot be checked line by line, it cannot be compared with another either. Ask for it to be itemised — our guide on what to include when requesting a trade kitchen quote sets out the format, and the procurement checklist for builders covers the stages either side of it.

Frequently asked questions