Journal · Breakdowns
Where the budget goes: a quote for 90 m²
We broke a real finishing quote down line by line. The tiles turned out not to be the most expensive item.
A 90 m² flat in the Eixample: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen-living room and a dressing room. Finishes and fittings only — no building work, and no furniture the client brought in themselves. Figures rounded to the hundred, shares calculated against the total.
Four lines that eat two thirds
People arrive with a budget for tiles and leave understanding that tiles are a quarter of it.
- 01 Surfaces Porcelain for the floors, the bathroom walls and the splashback — €21,400. Plus trimming and cutting: €2,900 on a line of its own, which is the one people forget.
- 02 Bathroom fittings Taps, sanitaryware, shower systems and concealed cisterns — €18,700. Half of it went on two taps and one shower column in the master bathroom.
- 03 Doors and partitions Eight flush leaves with frames and hardware — €16,200. More than all the bathroom furniture put together.
- 04 Lighting Thirty-four downlights, four pendants and a track system in the living room — €11,500. The pendants alone were a third of the line.
Where a quote usually lies
Three items almost always surface later. Delivery to a floor without a lift — from €300 to carry large-format slabs up by hand. Back boxes and boxes for flush doors: the electrician allows for them, the client buys them. And consumables — adhesive for large formats costs three times as much as the ordinary kind, and you need three times more of it.
A quote adds up right until the day the first 3200×1600 slab turns up on site.
The quote line by line
| Line | Amount | Share | What’s included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfaces | Amount€24,300 | Share27% | What’s includedslabs, cutting, adhesive |
| Bathroom fittings | Amount€18,700 | Share21% | What’s includedtaps, sanitaryware |
| Doors | Amount€16,200 | Share18% | What’s includedleaves, frames, handles |
| Lighting | Amount€11,500 | Share13% | What’s includeddownlights, pendants, track |
How to use this
Proportions are steadier than sums. If surfaces come to 40% of your budget and lighting to 4%, the odds are the slab was chosen above the class of the project and the lighting was never costed at all. That is not a mistake, but it is better known before the order than after.
We prepare a breakdown like this before anything is signed: from your floor plan, with real product codes and current factory prices.
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