Fixtures and fittings: what the words mean on a building quote

Fixtures and fittings is one of those phrases everyone uses and few people define, and in a building contract the definition matters because it decides what is included in the price and what you will be asked to pay for later. This is the plain version, and how the terms appear on a Stark Builders quote.

Fixtures

A fixture is attached to the house and stays with it when it is sold. Taps, basins, toilets, baths, the kitchen benchtop, built-in cupboards, light fittings, the oven, the rangehood, the hot water system. In a renovation, the fixtures are most of the cost after the structure, and they are the part of the job you have the most say in.

Fittings

A fitting is loose. Furniture, curtains, rugs, freestanding appliances, mirrors that hang on a hook. Fittings are not usually in a building contract at all, though a fridge space, a curtain track or a mirror recess has to be planned for one, and that planning is where the two categories meet.

PC items and provisional sums

Two more terms appear on most quotes. A prime cost item, or PC item, is a fixture the builder has priced at an allowance because you have not chosen it yet: say an allowance for the kitchen tapware or the tiles. If the tap you choose costs more, you pay the difference. A provisional sum is the same idea applied to a piece of work rather than a product: an allowance for the electrical, or for the rock excavation nobody can see yet. Both are legitimate and both are where a price can move after it is signed.

Why we choose first and price second

Our fixed price is built from complete drawings and a selections schedule, which means the tiles, the tapware, the joinery, the appliances and the light fittings are chosen, with the make and model, before the number is fixed. That leaves very few PC items in the contract, and the ones that remain are things that genuinely cannot be known in advance. It is more work in the plan stage and it is the reason the price at the end matches the price at the start. We describe the whole sequence on the approach page.

Where the money goes

In a kitchen the joinery and the benchtop are about half. In a bathroom the tiles and the tiling, then the tapware and the screen. Across a whole house, the fixtures and finishes are often a third of the total, and they are the third people underestimate, because each item is small and there are two hundred of them. A stone benchtop instead of laminate, brass tapware instead of chrome, a freestanding bath, a second oven: each one is a few thousand dollars and none of them feels like a decision at the time.

What lasts

We are asked a lot about trends. Our view is that the things that get touched every day should be the best you can afford: tapware, door hardware, the kitchen drawers and their runners, the shower screen. The things that get looked at can be simpler. Solid brass tapware in a plain finish, hardwood or good quality laminate joinery, porcelain floor tiles and a white or off-white wall tile are the choices that still look right in fifteen years, and they are also the ones that suit a Queenslander. Vintage and salvaged pieces suit these houses well, provided they are chosen early enough to be built around.

How to read your quote

Look for the selections schedule and check that each item names a product, not just a category. Count the PC items and provisional sums and ask what each one is for. Ask what happens if a selection comes in under the allowance, since it should come back to you. A short list of allowances on a quote is a sign that the drawings and the selections were finished before the price was. A long one is a sign they were not.

If you have a quote in hand and want a second reading of it, bring it to a free meeting at the studio. We will tell you what is fixed and what is not.