What tradies say
Ask this on any forum where tradies answer honestly and you get the same list:
The job changes every visit, and every change is an argument about what was included.
They arrive and the trade before them hasn’t finished. Waiting costs them their day rate.
“They expect you to tell them how to build for free” — design decisions left to whoever’s on site.
Uncertified work by someone else that they’re asked to build on, or certify.
Enough messy jobs, and all owner-builders get priced higher or turned down without a look.
That’s why the same job gets two prices. A tradie quoting an unknown owner-builder is pricing in the risk of delays, waiting around, scope arguments and chasing payment. It isn’t personal — it’s built into the number.
The exception
The same tradies also describe owner-builders they were glad to work for: people with no building experience who were simply organised — they asked questions when unsure and had everything ready when the trade arrived. Some experienced owner-builders introduce themselves as the project manager, because that’s how they run the job.
The difference isn’t skill. It’s paperwork and preparation.
What “organised” looks like
- A written scope for each trade — and the same scope to every trade quoting it. Quotes on the same document can be compared; quotes on a phone description can’t. The scope then becomes the contract scope.
- A building order. About 20 trades on a new home, each depending on the one before. When you can tell the plumber which week the frame finishes, you’re running the job.
- Decisions made before quotes. Tapware, tiles, heights — all decided. Every decision made mid-job is a variation, and that’s where owner-builders pay extra.
- Paperwork as routine — licence checked before hiring, contract signed before starting, compliance certificate collected before the work is covered up or paid for. Trades respect a client who asks for the certificate by name.
- Changes in writing, the same day. A price and a signature before the extra work, not a conversation remembered at the end.
Think before switching trades mid-job
Compliance certificates depend on each other. Change plumbers halfway and the second one can refuse to certify the first one’s work. Owner-builders who chased a cheaper price have lost the certificate the certifier then asked for. One job, one trade, quoted properly once.
Trade comments on this page are paraphrased from public forum discussions of this question and aren’t attributed to any individual.
How eSiteOffice helps an owner-builder
- Get comparable quotes. Every trade quotes on the same form, scope of works and conditions, through a web page — nothing for them to install. You can compare like with like before you choose.
- Turn the chosen quote into a contract. Signed electronically and filed.
- Every change priced and agreed before it’s built. Changes in writing, or they don’t happen.
- Every deadline tracked. Any trade you hire can send you a payment claim. Miss the reply date and you owe the full amount. eSiteOffice counts the days for you.
- A file the bank can check. Contracts, changes, payments, photos and sign-offs — dated and in order.
Opens in October. Register to be one of the first to use it and keep the launch price for as long as you stay.