Quotes · Davie, FL
How to Compare Two Kitchen Remodel Quotes in Davie
How to compare two kitchen remodel quotes in Davie starts with accepting that they are usually not two prices for the same work. Most of the spread sits in what each one left undecided: the allowances, and who agreed to carry the surprises the house has not shown anybody yet. Line the two papers up on those, and on what Florida requires each of them to say, before you compare totals.
- Deposit that starts a clock
- Over 10%
- F.S. 489.126
- Notice the contract must carry
- Front page, bold
- F.S. 713.015
- Licensed & insured: CGC1524886
- 500+ kitchens completed
- 2-year workmanship warranty
- Answered 7 AM–10 PM, 7 days
What an Allowance Is Doing in the Number
Every kitchen quote contains items nobody has chosen yet. The allowance is the placeholder: a figure the estimator put in for tile, hardware, fixtures or the counter, resting on an assumption about grade and quantity. It is a real part of the price and it is also a guess about your taste.
Two quotes can carry the same labor, the same crew and the same schedule, and still separate by thousands entirely inside those placeholders. The lower one is not always the cheaper one. Often it is simply the one that assumed less: a thinner slab, a stock door, a builder-grade faucet. The day you make actual selections, that number moves and the other one does not, and the company whose number moved has not done anything wrong. It priced what it was told to price.
So the comparison is not total against total. Ask each estimate which of its lines are allowances, and what grade and quantity each of those lines assumed. Two papers that answer in writing become comparable in about ten minutes. Two that do not are not comparable at all, at any price.
The Page That Has to Be There
One part of this does not depend on judgment, because the state already wrote it down. Florida's construction lien law requires that any direct contract above $2,500 for a home of up to four units carry the lien notice in capitalized, boldfaced type on the front page, signed and dated by the owner. Not folded into an appendix, and not produced on request.
The notice is there because of something people tend to learn late: a supplier or a subcontractor who does not get paid can pursue a claim against your property even after you have paid your contractor in full. That exposure is yours, not the contractor's, which is why the warning is addressed to you.
Put both quotes next to each other and look for that page. If one carries it and the other does not, you have learned something about how each company handles its paperwork that no line item was ever going to tell you. A contract missing a provision the statute makes mandatory is not a formatting preference. It is the first thing in the pile you can check without knowing anything about kitchens.
What a Deposit Starts
The deposit is the other line where two quotes quietly stop being equivalent. Florida attaches a clock to it: a contractor who takes more than 10 percent of the contract price as an initial payment has to apply for the necessary permits within 30 days and begin the work within 90 days of those permits being issued. Under that threshold, no clock starts.
That changes what a large deposit means on a piece of paper. It is not only money placed at risk early. It is a commitment with dates attached to it, and it is worth knowing which side of the line each quote puts you on before anybody signs.
The license number printed at the foot of the page works the same way. The Construction Industry Licensing Board is the body that licenses and regulates contractors in Florida, so that number is a claim you can confirm in a few minutes rather than a credential you have to accept on trust. Two quotes, two numbers, two searches, and no expertise required.
