Materials price rises — protecting a fixed-price quote

A quote without a validity period is an open-ended promise at today's prices. "This quote holds for 14 days" converts it into what it should be: an offer with a life. Inside the window you honour the number; after it, you re-price openly — no argument, because the client was told. Short windows are normal where materials are volatile or imported; longer ones suit stable, labour-heavy work.

The validity line only helps if the client's acceptance is dated too — which a sent-and-accepted quote gives you automatically. The quotes guide covers the complete anatomy; the date discipline lives there as much as here.

For project work, the honest tools are a materials allowance or a provisional sum for the volatile items — the client carries the actual cost of named materials, evidenced by invoices, while your labour and the stable items stay fixed — or, on bigger contracts, an escalation clause tied to a published index. All three beat the silent alternative, where the rise lands in your margin and the job quietly loses money while looking busy.

Where the client supplies materials, say so in the quote, with who carries breakage and delay if their delivery slips. Half of "price rise" disputes are really responsibility disputes wearing a price tag — the variations guide covers the neighbouring ground.

Quote materials at the supplier's current list, not last season's memory; phone the merchant on big-ticket items before the quote goes out. Take the deposit that buys the volatile materials early (the deposits guide shows the wording) — materials bought at quote prices cannot rise afterwards. And where a client delays acceptance for months, re-issue rather than resurrect: a fresh quote at fresh prices is a normal commercial act, not an apology.