The four causes of a blowout
Most blowouts trace back to a small number of avoidable gaps.
- Vague scope: the quote priced assumptions, not defined work, so extras appear as variations.
- Open-ended variations: changes get pushed through without options or fixed costs.
- Provisional sums: placeholder figures that were always going to climb.
- No single point of accountability: trades blame each other and the owner absorbs the gap.
The controls that prevent it
A fixed-price renovation is not luck, it is a set of controls applied before work starts. A tight written scope removes the assumption gap. A fixed-price contract for that scope removes hourly creep. A clear variation process, where genuine hidden defects are documented and quoted as options rather than waved through, removes the open-ended risk.
Behind all of it sits accountability: one party owns the program, sequences the trades and answers for the result.
How Perch holds the price
Perch locks the scope and the price before the first trade arrives. If we uncover a genuine hidden defect such as a leaking pipe or damaged subfloor, we pause that work, document it with photos and present a separate variation quote with options, rather than pushing the change through. The 14-day on-site commitment is backed by a $2,000 cashback if delays within our control run over, which keeps the incentive aligned with finishing on time and on budget.