A couple in Hyderabad budgeted ₹75 lakhs for their farmhouse. They chose a contractor who quoted low. I warned them in the meeting — with the client in the room — that the number looked thin for what was in the drawings. The contractor was confident. He had seen the full tender set. He said he could do it.

During construction, he told the client the ceiling height should be 10 feet. Our drawing specified 11'6". The windows were too large, he said. The exact dimensions were in the documents he had received before he quoted.

I have seen this end three ways. The project stalls. It gets built halfway. The contractor walks. All three happen more than people think.

Why quotes go wrong

Your contractor gave you a number. It will not hold.

Not because he is dishonest. Because you did not give him enough to quote accurately.

A contractor quoting against rough sketches and a per-square-foot rate is guessing. He is guessing on material costs, on labour, on what is actually in the scope. The number he gives you is the number that wins the contract, not the number that builds the building. The difference shows up later.

When the ceiling specification is ambiguous, the contractor will default to whatever is easiest. When the window dimensions are not pinned in the documents, the contractor will push for something cheaper. When the specification sheet does not list items under the slab rate separately, the contractor will interpret gaps in his favour.

None of this requires bad faith. It is just how construction works when the documentation is incomplete.

What a proper BOQ actually protects

A Bill of Quantities that itemises every element of the project — not just the slab rate but every fixture, every finish, every structural detail — gives everyone in the project a shared baseline for what was agreed.

When an argument starts (and it will), the question is not "what did we say in that meeting?" It is "what does this document say?" That is a very different conversation.

In the Hyderabad project, we got back into the room. We went through the drawings with both parties. Where the contractor had genuinely underquoted on something that was ambiguous in the original documents, I told the client plainly — this is fair, pay it. Where the specification was unambiguous and he was trying to recover margin, I said that too. The client paid what was reasonable. The contractor completed the job. The building exists.

That outcome — a completed building, a reasonable settlement, a functional relationship — depended entirely on having documentation that could be referred to objectively.

The hidden costs that catch everyone off guard

Even with good documentation, construction overruns happen. There are categories of cost that most initial quotes do not account for, not because contractors are hiding them, but because they cannot be confirmed until work begins.

Steel and cement prices move during construction. A project that takes eight months can see material costs shift materially between quote and completion. Ground conditions discovered during foundation work can require a more expensive structural solution than the one assumed in the quote. Regulatory changes can trigger new requirements mid-project.

The honest advice: a smart budget includes a 15% contingency from day one. Not as a buffer you hope not to use — as a realistic allocation for the known unknowns of construction. Properties that are built without a contingency are the ones that stall when the first surprise hits.

What an architect does when arguments start

This is the part that often surprises clients who thought an architect was a luxury line item.

When the couple in Hyderabad first came to us, they did not know what an architect actually does. They thought of it as optional. By the time the building was complete, they said an architect is the most important person in the project.

I think they are right. But I am obviously biased.

What I can say objectively: a proper tender set, a specification sheet that leaves no room for interpretation, and an architect who is still present when the arguments start — these are the things that determine whether your farmhouse gets finished or becomes a half-built structure on the outskirts of the city.