By the time a specification lands on your desk, it can look thorough simply because it's long. Length isn't the same as completeness, and the documents that cause the most trouble later are often the ones with confident-sounding language covering vague or missing detail.
Reading it with a specific set of questions in mind, rather than just checking it against the price, catches the gaps before they become site arguments.
Look for the word 'standard'
Any line that describes a material or finish as 'standard' without naming it is worth querying directly. Standard sockets, standard tiles, standard ironmongery — these phrases mean whatever the contractor decides on the day, and that's rarely the version you had in mind when you agreed the price.
Ask for a named product, a specific range, or a stated allowance figure instead. If the answer is that it hasn't been decided yet, that's fine, but it should be recorded as a provisional sum with a figure attached, not left as an open-ended 'standard'.
Check that making good is actually included
Cutting a new opening, running a new service, or removing a wall always leaves disturbed finishes around it — plaster, decoration, flooring — and making that area good again is easy to leave off a specification by accident or by design. Check specifically whether redecoration and finishing around altered areas is included, and if not, get a figure for it separately rather than discovering the gap once the main works are finished.
This is one of the most common places a final account creeps upward, precisely because making good rarely gets its own line item unless someone insists on it.
Check every provisional sum has a stated basis
A provisional sum is a reasonable way to handle genuine unknowns, but it should always state what assumption it's based on — for example, a groundworks provisional sum should say what ground condition it assumes, so you know what triggers a revision. A provisional sum with no stated basis is really just an unpriced gap dressed up as a figure.
Ask how and when provisional sums will be confirmed or adjusted, and whether you'll be notified before extra cost is incurred rather than after.
Compare exclusions against your own assumptions
Read the exclusions list against your own mental picture of the finished project. If you're assuming the garden will be reinstated, the walls will be painted, or the old kitchen will be removed and disposed of, check each of those against what's actually excluded. It's common for a homeowner to only notice a gap like skip disposal or external making good once the invoice for it arrives.
If something you expect isn't mentioned anywhere — inclusion or exclusion — treat that as a question to ask before signing, not an assumption to make either way.
Confirm the specification, not just the price, is what you're agreeing to
Before signing anything, check that the specification document is explicitly referenced in the contract or quote you're accepting, rather than existing as a separate piece of paper that could later be argued as informal or superseded. Variations should then be measured against this agreed baseline, so both sides know what a 'change' actually is.
If a second or revised quote comes in against the same specification, checking line by line for what's different is far more useful than comparing bottom-line totals alone.
Common questions
What if the specification and the quote don't quite match?+
Raise it before you sign. Any mismatch between what the specification describes and what the quote prices for is a sign one document was updated and the other wasn't, and it needs resolving in writing rather than assumed to be a minor slip.
Can I add detail to a specification myself?+
Yes — if a specification you've been given feels thin in a particular area, you can request specific named materials, an itemised making-good clause, or a firmer basis for a provisional sum before agreeing to proceed.
Is it reasonable to ask for revisions before signing?+
Yes, and a competent contractor should expect it. Query gaps and vague wording before you commit — once work starts, changing the specification becomes a variation with cost and time attached, rather than a free clarification.
Ask us to review your specification before you commit
Send it over and we'll flag anything vague, missing or worth firming up before you sign.