Table of Contents
1. Why We Are Not the Cheapest Building Contractor and What Are the Essential Things a Premium Builder Includes in their Quotes
We are not the cheapest building contractor in the East Midlands. We have never tried to be, and we never will be. If you are looking for the lowest possible price on a building project, D&M Building Services is probably not the right contractor for you.
We say this not as a boast, but as an honest statement of what our pricing reflects. Every element of how we operate costs money. Our FMB membership. Our public liability and contract works insurance. Our written contracts. Our staged payment structure. The structural engineers we commission where required. The planning consultants we use for complex applications. The experienced, directly employed site team that Darren leads on every project. The commercial and project management oversight that Monika brings to every client relationship.
None of these things are optional extras. They are the foundation of how a professional building contractor operates. And they are the reason that 70% of our work comes from referrals and returning clients, not because we are the cheapest, but because we deliver what we promise.
This blog explains the seven specific things our pricing includes that cheaper quotes frequently do not. Understanding them is the starting point for comparing building contractor quotes on a genuinely like-for-like basis.
2. The 7 Things a Premium Building Contractor Includes
1. Independent Accreditation and Ongoing Assessment
D&M Building Services holds current FMB membership – the Federation of Master Builders, the UK’s leading trade body for building contractors. Membership requires independent assessment, on-site inspection, and ongoing compliance. It cannot be self-declared and it cannot be purchased. It is earned through a professional assessment process and maintained through continuing compliance.
This accreditation costs money – in membership fees, in the time invested in the assessment process, and in the operational standards required to maintain it. Contractors who are not FMB members do not bear these costs. Their lower prices reflect, in part, the absence of this investment in professional standards.
2. Full Insurance Coverage
We carry comprehensive public liability insurance, employer’s liability insurance, and contract works insurance on every project. These policies protect you as the homeowner if something goes wrong during the build, an accident, damage to a neighbouring property, loss or damage to materials on site.
Insurance premiums are a significant recurring cost for a professional building contractor. Contractors who operate without adequate insurance, or who carry minimum policies that do not genuinely cover the risks of your project, present a lower cost in their quotation. But they transfer the financial risk to you. If something goes wrong on an uninsured or underinsured site, the cost falls on the homeowner.
3. Written Contracts with Proper Legal Structure
Every D&M project begins with a formal written contract covering the full scope of works, programme, staged payment schedule, variation process, and dispute resolution procedure. This is not standard practice across the building industry. Many smaller or less professional contractors operate on verbal agreements, brief email exchanges, or quotations with no contractual terms attached.
Producing and managing proper written contracts takes time and professional input. It is part of what our pricing reflects. And it is part of what protects you throughout the project, because a written contract is the only reliable reference point if anything changes, is disputed, or goes wrong.
4. Structural Engineering Where Required
Any project involving load-bearing walls, spanning steelwork, new roof structures, or significant foundation work requires a structural engineer’s input. The engineer specifies the correct solution, the right beam size for the span, the correct foundation depth for the ground conditions, the appropriate roof structure for the proposed loading.
Professional building contractors commission structural engineers as a matter of course on relevant projects and include these costs transparently in their quotations. Contractors who produce lower quotes frequently omit structural engineering costs, either because they intend to add them as a variation later, or because they intend to proceed without engineering input and hope it works out. Both approaches create risk. Structural engineering costs are not optional on any project that involves structural work.
5. Project Management and Programme Control
A professional building contractor manages your project from start to finish: coordinating trades, procuring materials ahead of when they are needed, scheduling Building Control inspections at the correct stages, managing variations through a defined process, and maintaining a programme against which progress can be measured.
This management overhead is a real cost. A sole trader or small operation without dedicated project management capacity delivers work differently, sometimes well, but without the structural discipline that prevents the delays, cost overruns, and sequencing errors that characterise poorly managed projects. The cost of proper project management is included in a premium contractor’s pricing because it is part of what they are actually providing.
6. Building Regulations Compliance and Certification
We manage the Building Regulations process on every relevant project as a standard part of our service: preparing technical documentation, scheduling inspections, liaising with Building Control, and obtaining the completion certificate at the end of the works.
The completion certificate is a legal document confirming the work meets the required standard. Its absence is identified in any survey when you come to sell. Contractors who quote lower frequently leave the Building Regulations process for the homeowner to manage, or proceed without it entirely, creating a problem that only emerges years later when it costs significantly more to resolve.
7. A Defined and Honest Quotation
Our quotations are itemised line by line. Every element of the project is priced individually so you can see how the total has been arrived at. This takes time to prepare properly, it requires a thorough site visit, a careful reading of the brief, and an honest assessment of what the project actually requires including likely complications.
A lower quotation is frequently a less thorough one. Items are excluded that should be included. Risks are not priced. Ground conditions are assumed rather than assessed. The result is a quotation that looks competitive but conceals the real cost of the project in variations that emerge once work is underway. Transparent, itemised quotations are more expensive to produce and more expensive in their initial figure. They are also more honest.
3. What a Lower Quote Actually Reflects
When a quotation comes in significantly lower than others for the same project, it reflects one or more of the following: work that has been excluded from the scope but will reappear as variations; assumptions rather than assessments of ground conditions, structural requirements, or planning position; lower insurance cover or no insurance; the absence of project management overhead; or simply a different approach to quality, supervision, and compliance.
None of these things are necessarily visible in the quotation itself. A lower number on a page looks the same as a higher one. Understanding what the number actually reflects is the work of comparison, and our guide ‘How to Compare Builder Quotes Fairly’ walks through that process in full detail.
4. Our Track Record: Awards and Accreditations
Our credentials are independently verified:
- FMB Master Builder Awards 2019 , Highly Commended. The UK’s most respected independent construction award, judged by industry experts. Verifiable at fmb.org.uk.
- Construction Company of the Year 2025 , East Midlands (Central England Prestige Awards). Recognised for excellence in residential construction, client service, and project management.
- Building & Maintenance Company of the Year 2024 (Central England Prestige Awards). Celebrated for service excellence and a broad portfolio of successfully delivered projects.
- Home Construction Company of the Year 2023 (Central England Prestige Awards). Recognised for delivering outstanding residential building services.
- Loft Conversion Specialists of the Year 2022 (Central England Prestige Awards). Awarded for expertise, craftsmanship, and innovative design.
Over 70% of our work comes from referrals and returning clients. That is the most honest available measure of whether a premium price delivers premium results.
5. When Is a Higher Quote Worth It?
A higher quote from a premium building contractor is worth it when: the project involves significant structural risk; you are investing a sum where the cost of getting it wrong would be severe; you are making a long-term investment in a property you plan to stay in or sell; or you have seen what happens when the cheaper option goes wrong and do not want that experience.
It is not worth it when: the project is straightforward and low-risk; the contractor’s premium does not reflect genuine additional value; or you have done the comparison properly and found that a lower-quoting contractor genuinely includes the same scope, the same insurance, and the same compliance approach.
The honest answer is that most homeowners commissioning a significant building project in the East Midlands are better served by a professional premium contractor than a lower-priced alternative. Not because premium is always right, but because the things that go wrong, and they do go wrong, are much more manageable when the contractor is properly equipped to handle them.
6. Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my builder quote so much higher than others?
A higher quote typically reflects more thorough scoping, proper allowances for structural and compliance costs, insurance and accreditation overhead, and project management that is built into the price rather than absent. Ask the higher-quoting contractor to walk you through their quotation line by line and explain what each element covers. Then ask the lower-quoting contractors the same questions. The answers will tell you what the difference in price actually reflects.
Is a premium building contractor always better?
Not automatically, premium pricing should reflect genuine additional value. The indicators of genuine premium service are: FMB or equivalent accreditation, independently verifiable; full insurance certificates produced promptly; written contracts offered as standard; staged payment schedules tied to milestones; and references from recent, comparable projects. A contractor who charges more but cannot evidence these things is not a premium contractor — they are simply a more expensive one.
What is typically excluded from a cheaper building quote?
Common exclusions in lower quotations include: structural engineering fees; planning application costs; Building Regulations fees; scaffolding; skip hire and waste disposal; party wall surveyor fees; provisional sums for ground conditions; and the cost of resolving complications that were foreseeable but not priced. Our guide ‘How to Compare Builder Quotes Fairly’ covers each of these in detail.
How do I know if a higher quote is justified?
Ask the contractor to itemise their quotation and explain each line. Ask specifically what the project management, insurance, and compliance costs are within the total. Ask to see their insurance certificates and FMB membership. Ask for references from recent projects of comparable scale. If the higher-quoting contractor can evidence all of these and the lower-quoting one cannot, the difference is justified.
Does D&M Building Services offer free quotes?
Yes. We offer a free, no-obligation site visit for all projects we are considering. We visit your property, assess the full scope of the works, and provide a detailed, itemised written quotation. We cover Long Eaton, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and the wider East Midlands. Call us on 0115 877 3009.
D&M Building Services is an FMB-accredited, award-winning building company based in Long Eaton. Construction Company of the Year – East Midlands 2025. FMB Highly Commended 2019. Get in touch for a free site visit. 0115 877 3009.
D&M Building Services
Extensions | Loft Conversions | Renovations | Property Development
Based in Long Eaton | Covering Nottingham, Derby, Leicester & the East Midlands
Get in touch: 0115 877 3009
Further Reading
How to Compare Builder Quotes Fairly – D&M Building Services Blog
7 Proven Signs of a Reliable Building Contractor – D&M Building Services Blog
10 Red Flags When Choosing a Builder – D&M Building Services Blog
