Check identity and the document version
Match business details to the company and the documents it supplies. Record the quotation date, validity and the brief used. Keep earlier and revised versions distinguishable. Ask whether surveys or design work are included in the quotation or ordered separately. Use the official French guidance for the legal requirements applying to the service and contracting circumstances.
Read each work item as an actual operation
Look for preparation, removal, protection, supply, installation and finish. Compare quantities and units: a square metre, a linear metre and a lump sum describe different things. For important items, ask what a general description includes and excludes. If a measurement is provisional, identify when it will be checked and how the price will change.
Compare products and the complete installed system
Request references or defined performance expectations. Include associated materials, fixings, junctions and accessories. Agree how substitutions will be proposed and accepted if an item is unavailable. A named product alone does not describe its preparation or installation. For an interface between trades, identify who completes the connection and who checks it.
Separate price, confirmed extras and unknown items
Compare amounts including taxes on the same basis and examine the payment schedule. Add only extras outside the quoted total to avoid counting delivery or installation twice. Keep unpriced exclusions visibly unresolved. Our comparison tool adds your figures; it cannot determine whether the underlying technical descriptions are equivalent or whether a tax treatment is applicable.
Agree dates, changes and closing documents
Discuss start and completion assumptions, access, waste and cleaning. Specify what happens when a decision, investigation or delivery changes the programme. Keep modifications to scope, price and time documented before execution. Establish handover checks and the documents expected at the end so that the comparison includes the service delivered after installation.
Your preparation checklist
- Identity and quotation version recorded.
- Quantities and units comparable.
- Products and installed systems described.
- Extras not counted twice.
- Unknown exclusions retained.
- Payment, timing and handover discussed.
Questions before you commit
Can the comparison tool select a contractor?
It compares known amounts. It does not assess technical equivalence, insurance, contract terms or the quality of the proposed work.
What should I do with an unpriced exclusion?
Keep it marked as unknown and obtain a price or define who will carry out the work before treating the total as complete.
Sources and the scope of this guide
This English guide covers the same project need as its French counterpart, with an editorial explanation in English. It is not a professional survey or a translation of foreign rules to France. Check current official requirements and the documents applying to your building and contract.