You are building in Senegal from France, Italy, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada. The quote is signed, the work starts. Then one day your builder calls: "We need to add this, it wasn't planned." And the amount is added to the rest.
Extras are part of life on any build. The problem is not that they exist. The problem is when they arrive with no written price, without your agreement, and you only see them when the payment is due.
What is an extra?
An extra is work that is not in the signed quote and that the builder carries out on top of it. You will also hear "variation" or "additional work". It is added to the agreed price.
The key word is "signed". Your signed quote sets what the builder must build for the agreed price. What is in it is included in that price. What is not in it can, in principle, be charged on top. That is why you need to know exactly what your quote contains before you sign it. Our guide on how to read a building quote shows you how.
Why extras appear
1. Items missing from the quote
The quote leaves out work your house cannot do without: the excavation, the render on the outside walls, the roof terrace waterproofing, the inspection chambers, the septic tank, the water or power connection. The quote looks cheaper. Those items come back later, one by one, as extras.
2. Changes you ask for
You want an extra room, different tiles, a wider window, a slab designed for a future upper floor. That is your right. But every change has a price, and that price must be set before the workers start.
3. Surprises in the ground
The soil is weaker than expected, there is water close to the surface, or a rock right in the middle of the foundations. They sometimes justify an extra, provided they are seen, photographed and priced before the work is done.
4. Lump sum lines that say too little
A line such as "Plumbing: lump sum" or "Electrical: lump sum" does not say what is included. How many water points? Which fittings? When nothing is written down, anything you add later can become an extra, even what you thought was included.
Real extra or forgotten item: tell them apart
A real extra is new work: you changed your mind, or the ground forced something nobody could see beforehand. A forgotten item is work without which the house on your drawings cannot exist. The builder knew it, or should have known it, when writing the quote.
Ask yourself three questions before you accept an extra:
- Is this work shown on the drawings the builder had when writing the quote?
- Could a professional have foreseen it by reading those drawings and visiting the plot?
- Does the quote already have a line, even a vague one, that covers this work?
If the answer to any of these is yes, the extra deserves a conversation. But the builder's oversight should not automatically become your expense. And if a line of the quote already covered this work, it is already in the price.
The golden rule: no extra without a written price agreed beforehand
It is the simplest and most useful rule. No extra work starts until you have received a written price and accepted it in writing. A clear WhatsApp message can be enough, as long as it holds the right information.
Every written extra should state:
- what is being added, described simply, with the exact place in the house;
- the reason for the extra: your request, a surprise in the ground, a change to the drawings;
- the quantity and the unit price, ideally the signed quote's price for the same kind of work;
- the total amount and its effect on how long the build takes;
- your written, dated agreement, before the work starts.
An extra done without prior agreement is hard to discuss: the wall is already up, and there is no going back.
Deductions: work taken out must come off the bill
A build changes in both directions. If you drop a partition wall, choose cheaper tiles or give up a boundary wall that was in the quote, that work will not be done. Its price must therefore come off the total. This is called a deduction, or omitted work.
Deductions are easily forgotten, because nobody calls you to announce them. Ask for them to be written down the same way as extras, at the quote's price, and to appear in the account of the build.
Keep a register of extras
A register is just a list, kept from the start of the build to the end. A spreadsheet is enough. For each extra or deduction, write down the date, the description, the amount added or taken off, the date of your agreement and where it stands: agreed, done, settled.
This register has two benefits. During the build, it shows you at any moment what your house really costs: the quote, plus the extras, minus the deductions. At the end, it avoids arguments from memory, because every line has its written proof.
How extras reach the final account
During the build, your builder asks for payments in stages: these are the builder's payment requests. An agreed extra can appear in them once it is done, on a separate line. An extra you have not agreed has no place there.
At the end, everything comes together in the final account: the quote price, plus the agreed extras, minus the deductions, minus what you have already paid. If your register is up to date, this account is quick to draw up.
Example, with round figures for illustration: a family signs a quote of 30,000,000 FCFA for a villa. During the build, three extras come in.
- Render on the outside walls, 1,800,000 FCFA. It was not in the quote, although the drawings show rendered walls. It is a forgotten item: it is open to discussion.
- A larger living room window, asked for by the family, 250,000 FCFA. It is a real extra, priced and agreed in writing before it was fitted.
- Deeper foundations at one corner because of soft ground, 600,000 FCFA. The builder photographed and priced the problem before pouring the concrete. A real extra, agreed.
The family also dropped a partition wall that was in the quote: a deduction of 150,000 FCFA. Their register gives 30,000,000 plus 250,000 plus 600,000 minus 150,000, which is 30,700,000 FCFA, and the render is still to be discussed with the builder, quote and drawings in hand. Without a register, they could have received a final bill of 32,650,000 FCFA with no idea what to question.
The best time to find an extra: before you sign
An item left out of the quote comes back later as an extra. But it can also be found before you sign, when talking about it still costs nobody anything. That is what a quote check is for.
Before you sign, SEETLU reads your builder's quote against your drawings: the quantities, the unit prices, the vague lump sum lines and the missing items. You receive a clear report to discuss with your builder. They can complete the quote straight away, and you sign knowing what is included and what is not. The price is fixed by the amount of the quote: 75,000 FCFA up to 20 million FCFA, 125,000 FCFA from 20 to 50 million FCFA, on quotation above that. The quote check in detail.
During the build, we also check each extra before it is done: was it already in the quote, is the quantity right, does the price follow the quote's prices? With a SEETLU project manager, from 350,000 FCFA a month, minimum 3 months, one person on your side keeps this register with you up to the final account. See also the client-side quantity surveyor.
You pay your builder directly: your money never goes through SEETLU. We do not build and we do not hire the workers. Your builder runs the works; SEETLU represents you.
Frequently asked questions
Can my builder start an extra before pricing it?
They may need a few days to price it, especially for a surprise in the ground. But nothing requires them to start before your written agreement. If the work can wait, it waits.
Is an agreement on WhatsApp enough?
For day to day decisions on site, a clear written message is far better than an agreement over the phone: it is dated and it stays. It must contain the description, the quantity, the price and your explicit agreement.
What if an extra has already been done without my agreement?
Do not reject it all outright, and do not accept it all without looking. Ask the builder for the written detail: what, why, what quantity, what price. Then see whether it is a real extra or an item that should have been in the quote. The discussion is based on facts, photos and quote in hand.
Are deductions really taken off?
They should be: work that was in the quote and is not carried out does not have to be paid for. But nobody will remember them for you. Write each deduction in your register, at the quote's price, and check that it appears in the final account.
How much does the SEETLU quote check cost?
75,000 FCFA for a quote up to 20 million FCFA, 125,000 FCFA from 20 to 50 million FCFA, on quotation above 50 million.
Measurer, quantity surveyor, project manager: who does what?
The measurer counts the quantities. The quantity surveyor checks the money: quote, payments, extras and final account. The project manager represents you from the start of the build to the end. We explain the difference in this guide.
Find the extras before they find you
Today's forgotten items are tomorrow's extras. Before you sign, send us your builder's quote, with your drawings if you have them. We tell you what is missing, while there is still time to talk about it.
Read also: how to read a building quote · the builder's payment request · the final account · paying in stages · site monitoring · a sample report · all guides
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