If you’re wondering how to get multiple deck quotes without getting burned, start here. “What’s your square metre rate?” If that’s your first question on a first call to a deck builder, this is the post explaining why it’s the wrong question — and what to ask instead. After 500+ projects across Sydney since 2013, I can tell you with some confidence: the homeowners who get the best decks are not the ones chasing the cheapest m² rate. They’re the ones who understand what they’re actually comparing when they collect quotes.

Multiple quotes are a good idea. Done properly, they protect you from being scammed, give you a real sense of the market, and surface the differences in workmanship and inclusions that determine whether you get a deck you’re proud of for twenty years or one you’re patching in three. Done badly, they put you at the mercy of whichever builder was willing to quote the lowest price by leaving the most things out.

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Why “What’s Your m² Rate?” Is the Wrong Question

Every deck is different. The site, the height, the substrate, the materials, the access, the framing requirements, the council overlay — none of it is standard. So when someone asks for an m² rate before any of that is established, what they’re really asking is: give me a number I can shop around.

Here’s the catch. If a tradesman is comfortable throwing an m² number at you over the phone without a site visit, that rate has been calculated to cover the top end of what the job might cost him. Otherwise he’d lose money every time he quoted on instinct. Which means there’s a lot of fat in a base m² rate. It’s the maximum, dressed up as a minimum.

The number that actually matters is the price of your deck, on your site, with the materials you’re using, built by someone who has seen the job. Anything else is a guess — and the cheapest guess wins the work, then everything else gets cut to make the maths work.

The Apples-to-Apples Problem

This is the single biggest reason quotes from different builders are not directly comparable: they’re not quoting the same job, even when they think they are.

Let me give you a worked example from my own pipeline. Two jobs, both 25 square metres. Both “a deck.” On the surface, identical brief.

Job A: A 25m² deck sitting over an existing waterproof concrete slab on a terrace. Requires self-adjusting pedestals under every joist so the surface can be set dead level without compromising the waterproofing below. LowDeck system because the finished height has to clear a door threshold. A quality composite board on top because the client wants zero maintenance.

Job B: A 25m² garden deck about 400mm above natural soil at the back of the house. Standard footings. Treated pine framing is adequate. Hardwood boards. Straightforward, no constraints.

Same square meterage. Same “deck.” The honest, properly costed quotes for those two jobs will be two completely different numbers — and not by 10%. Often by 50% or more. Because they’re not the same job.

Now imagine a homeowner with Job A in their head, asking three builders for an m² rate over the phone. Builder one quotes off a garden-deck baseline. Builder two quotes a middle-of-the-road number. Builder three has done a pedestal-over-slab job recently and quotes accurately. The first two look “cheaper” — but only because they haven’t priced what the job actually needs.

The White Composite Story

I’ll give you a real one. A guy calls me wanting white composite decking. I’ve used a white composite once in my career — only product I could find that fit his brief — and even then I’d advised the previous client against it. I told this new guy every issue he was going to have. Surface temperature in sun. Marking. UV stability over years. The lot. He insists. Asks me for several derivatives of the quote with different configurations, multiple site visits, the works.

Then he ghosts me.

Six months later he calls back. Another company took all of the scope I’d worked out for him and did the job in the white composite I’d warned him about. He’s calling because “a few things are wrong” and asks if I’d come and fix them.

What things, I ask.

Every single issue I’d warned him about. Down the list. Surface temperature, marking, the lot.

Now he’s asking me to help him and fix it. Wow, just realised I’m a sucker for punishment because I did it.

The point of the story isn’t the client. It’s that scope and spec are inseparable. He thought he was getting “the same deck” from another builder at a better price. He was getting a different deck — one where the warnings hadn’t been priced in, the workmanship corners had been cut to hit the number, and the material decision was wrong from the start. The cheap quote wasn’t cheap. It was incomplete.

What’s Actually IN a Proper Deck Quote

This is the bit homeowners never see until they put two quotes side-by-side. Mine, for context, includes:

 

• • Full scope — every line, every material, every dimension named

• • Intro to The Decksmith — who I am, what I do, what I don’t do

• • Portfolio photographs — relevant builds, similar in style or material to the quoted job

• • Specifications and brochures — for any composite or specialist product, the manufacturer’s brochure attached so you can see what you’re getting

• • Acceptance page — what you’re agreeing to, in plain English

• • Terms and conditions — the legal framework

• • About Greg back cover — licence number, history, reach

• • Fixed-price commitment — turnkey, done and delivered. You only pay for extras if you request them.

Compare that to most quotes I see from competitors when clients bring them to me: a single A4 page, three line items (“supply and install decking, approx 25m², $X”), no scope, no spec, no product brochure, no fixed-price commitment.

Both are called “a quote.” Only one tells you what you’re buying.

The “Bells and Whistles” Trap (When a Quote Is Padded to Look Thorough)

Other end of the spectrum: quotes that look long and detailed but are actually padded with nonsense to justify a high price. I’ve seen quotes including:

 

• • “Parking cones to reserve street parking” as a line item

• • “Traffic, planning and road assessment for skip delivery”

• • “Site survey and feasibility study” for a backyard deck

• • “Project management fee” charged as a separate item from the build cost

• • “Administrative coordination” line

Some of that is legitimate on a complex job. On a backyard deck in a quiet suburban street, it’s filler. A proper quote is detailed where detail matters — materials, framing spec, fixings, schedule, payment milestones — and silent on the rest.

A long quote isn’t a thorough quote. A scoped quote is a thorough quote.

How Fast Should a Quote Come Back?

This is one of the clearest separators between a builder who runs a tight ship and one who doesn’t.

My turnaround: Site visits run Monday to Saturday. Every quote from the week is prepared Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Unless there’s a unique material requiring supplier confirmation on price or availability, every client who saw me that week has their quote in their inbox by Sunday evening.

Industry context, from what I hear from clients: competitor turnaround ranges from a couple of weeks to never. “I’ll get that to you next week” then nothing. “Send me a reminder if you don’t hear back.” Forgotten emails. Quotes promised after a site visit that never arrive.

If a builder can’t get a quote out within a week, ask yourself how they’re going to manage the build. Communication on a construction project starts the moment you make the first call. If it’s already breaking down at the quote stage, that’s the answer.

Never Accept a Verbal m² Quote

I won’t do them. Won’t quote a job verbally from a phone call, won’t quote off photos alone, won’t quote from a sketch on the back of an envelope. Every job is different — material choices, methodology, site access, framing requirements — and a verbal rate hides all of those variables behind a single number.

If a tradesman walks onto a site, paces it out, multiplies by an m² rate and hands you a number, understand what he’s done. He’s worked out a rate that covers the top end of his exposure — the worst-case version of that job — and he’s quoted you that. Why? Because if he quoted his best-case rate, he’d be doing jobs at a loss every time the site turned out harder than it looked. So there’s fat built into the rate. Often a lot.

A properly costed quote works from the job, not from a rate. It adds up materials line by line, factors actual labour hours for actual complexity, includes site-specific costs that an m² rate can’t see, and lands on a number that’s calculated to the last nail. That’s the number worth comparing.

Estimate vs Quote — When Each Is Right

There’s a distinction worth understanding.

	Estimate	Full Quote
Purpose	Give the client a realistic sense of the range before deeper work	Fixed-price commitment to do the work as scoped
Detail level	Scope outline, indicative pricing	Full scope, materials, fixings, schedule, T&Cs, fixed price
Time to prepare	Hours	Days
Tolerance	±10% (industry standard)	Fixed — you pay quoted unless you request changes
When I use it	Client unsure if the budget aligns; testing the waters	Client serious about proceeding, has done due diligence

If I’m not certain a client is genuinely proceeding, I’ll offer an estimate first. If the estimate aligns and they want to move forward, I’ll do the full quote. Both are honest. Both are useful. They just serve different purposes.

Quote validity: mine stays valid for 30 days. After that, the price usually won’t increase unless my supplier has had a materials price rise — but I won’t formally guarantee it past the 30-day window.

How Many Quotes Should You Actually Get?

The honest answer: probably fewer than you think.

Two is usually enough if you’ve done your due diligence first — checked licences, looked at portfolios, spoken to past clients (or read reviews that span years, not months). Two quotes from properly vetted builders, in close range, with materials accounting for the difference — you’re in the market.

Three is fine if you want a third data point. After three, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. You’re not getting better information, you’re getting more numbers to confuse you.

Five or more is analysis paralysis. You’ll find one outlier on the high side, one outlier on the low side, and then the middle three will all look reasonable but slightly different — and you still won’t know which is right. Worse: every quote takes a builder’s time, and good builders quickly figure out who’s collecting quotes to compare and who’s collecting quotes to negotiate. The latter doesn’t get callbacks.

The Quote That’s Half Mine — Run for the Hills

I’ve never personally been shown a quote at half my price for the same job — but I’ve been told about them. My response is usually: “Yeah, whatever.” Because materials alone on most of my quotes are well over 50% of the total. So for someone to do the same job at half my price, they’d need to do it below the cost of the materials I’d buy. Which means one of three things:

 

1. 1. They’re not actually quoting the same job — scope or spec is silently different

1. 1. They’re buying cheaper, lower-grade materials than I’d specify

1. 1. They’re going to under-deliver, run out of money mid-job, or both

If something is too good to be true, it usually is. A quote at half the market rate isn’t a bargain. It’s a scam waiting to happen.

More Expensive Isn’t Always Better Either

The flip side is worth telling. A guy I know, in an allied trade, was offering a service for around $2,800 to a client. The client got a competing quote from another company for $8,500 — same job, same scope. Crucially, my guy knew it was the same job, because the technician who’d be doing the $8,500 work was someone he’d personally trained, who’d been headhunted by the competitor.

When the client picked the $8,500 quote, my guy asked her why.

Her answer: “They must be doing something differently and better, because you’re so much cheaper than them.”

Three times the price. Same hands. Same work. Won the job because being expensive signalled quality, regardless of whether quality was actually higher. That’s the psychology that the dodgy end of the market exploits constantly. Charge more to look better. Hope the client doesn’t ask hard questions.

Cheap is suspicious. Expensive is reassuring. Neither, on its own, tells you whether the job will be done properly.

How to Actually Compare Two Quotes (Apples to Apples)

If you’ve got two quotes in front of you and you’re not sure which is right, here’s the approach I’d take. Forget the bottom-line price for a moment and work through the components:

 

1. 1. Materials — same species and grade of timber? Same composite brand? Same framing grade (H3 vs H4 treated pine matters)?

1. 1. Framing spec — joist centres specified? Bearer sizes? Footing depths and method?

1. 1. Fixings — top-screwed, hidden-fix, Camo Edge clips? Stainless or galvanised? On a composite, which clip system?

1. 1. Inclusions — joist tape, ledger flashing, board-end sealing? All standard in some quotes, “optional extras” in others

1. 1. Site work — demolition, excavation, waste removal, reinstating any disturbed surfaces?

1. 1. Timeline — start date, build duration, payment milestones tied to stages?

1. 1. Warranty — what’s covered, for how long, by whom?

1. 1. What’s excluded — both quotes should be explicit about exclusions. If one says “excludes any undiscoverable site conditions” and the other is silent on it, that’s a difference

If you can’t tell from reading the quotes alone — and most homeowners can’t, because the trade language varies — there’s a generous move available to you. Ask the builder you’re leaning toward to walk you through the competing quote. Block out the other builder’s name and contact details if you want. Show them the scope. Most good builders will go through it with you and point out what’s the same and what’s different. It’s your money. At least know what you’re getting.

For the full list of things to look for in a deck builder — beyond just the quote document itself — I’ve written a separate guide. And for the warning signs that should knock a builder off your shortlist before you even ask for a quote, the red flags article covers the dealbreakers.

Red Flags in HOW a Builder Quotes

Not what’s in the quote — how they prepare it. These are the behavioural signals:

 

• • Promised a quote in a time frame, then missed it. Even by a few days. If they’re already missing commitments to win the work, what’s the picture once they’ve won it?

• • Refused a site visit. No legitimate quote on a backyard deck comes from photos alone. The site has variables no photo captures.

• • Same-day verbal quote without measuring properly. Already covered. The m² rate trap.

• • “I can match any quote you’ve got.” That’s a builder telling you their original number was negotiable — which means it was inflated to start with. A builder confident in their price doesn’t bid against shadows.

• • Won’t put exclusions in writing. Every quote has exclusions. A builder who won’t name them is leaving themselves room to charge for things later.

• • Cash-only or “off the books” pricing. Already covered in the cost guide — no warranty, no insurance cover, no recourse if it goes wrong.

The Question I Wish Every Client Would Ask

When a client receives my quote, the response I quietly hope for — but rarely get — is:

“Can we run through this so I’m sure what’s included and what’s excluded?”

That’s the question of someone serious about getting the job right. Someone who wants to understand what they’re agreeing to. Someone who’s going to be a good client to work with because they’ll ask the same questions during the build that they’re asking now.

If you’ve got two or three quotes in front of you and you’re not sure what to do next — that’s the line. Ring the builder you’re leaning toward. Ask to walk through the inclusions and exclusions. Their response tells you almost everything you need to know about how the next six weeks will go.

(Side note from me to anyone collecting quotes: I’d love it more if a client said “we’d like you to start and we’ll pay you double” — but in 12 years I’m still waiting on that one.)

Where The Decksmith Sits

I’m the lead carpenter on every Decksmith build. I quote, frame, board, finish — I’m on site for every stage. Started in the Eastern Suburbs in 2013, over 500 projects since, every photo on the Instagram and website built by me (with extra hands on the larger jobs). NSW Builder’s Licence 272840C.

My quote turnaround is the differentiator most clients comment on. Site visits run Monday to Saturday, quotes are written Saturday afternoon and Sunday, and unless I need to confirm a unique material with a supplier, your quote lands in your inbox by Sunday evening of the week I saw you. That’s not a service-level commitment dressed up for marketing — it’s just how I run the business.

If you want to ballpark where your project sits on cost before we even speak, the pricing calculator at the-decksmith-pricing-guide.netlify.app will give you a realistic range based on your specs. No email gate, no sales call, real numbers. And the reviews at thedecksmithreviews.com.au tell the experience side better than I can.

Collect your quotes. Compare them properly. Insist on the detail. The right builder will welcome every question — because the right builder has nothing to hide and everything to gain by you fully understanding what you’re buying.