Charge for the Look Before You Quote the Fix

There is a familiar scene in stone repair work. A client rings about a crumbling church porch, a weathered sandstone bay, or a bit of wall that has started to look rough after a wet winter. You go out, climb about, take a few photos, poke a few joints, and promise a quote by Friday. Three visits later you are still not sure whether the plinth is sound, whether the lintel needs replacing, or whether the whole thing is a scaffold job. And you have not charged a penny for any of that thinking.

That is not a survey. That is a free quote with extra mileage.

The free look is never actually free

A free survey is not a gesture of goodwill. It is a cost you have chosen to absorb, usually without deciding to. You have paid for the fuel, the parking, the time out of the workshop, the follow-up call, and the bit where you sit at the kitchen table trying to turn a vague memory of a wall into a firm price. If the job goes ahead, you might claw some of it back. If it does not, you have bought the client a free consultation and paid for the privilege.

On small repair jobs this is annoying. On restoration work it is worse, because the unknowns are the whole story. You cannot see behind the render. You cannot tell how far the damp has travelled. You cannot know whether the previous repair was lime or cement until you get a chisel into it. Quoting firm numbers on that basis is not confidence. It is gambling with your own margin.

A paid survey is a proper piece of work

A condition survey should be a defined output, not an hour of nodding at a wall. For stone repair work, that means a written record of what you found, what you could not see, and what you would need to do to find out. It should be specific enough that another mason could pick it up and understand the job.

At a minimum, record the elevations and areas affected, with photos marked up so nobody has to guess which bit of wall you meant. Note the stone type as best you can, the mortar type, and whether previous repairs are compatible. Sound the stone where access allows and record where it is hollow, soft, or drummy. Note cracks, movement, staining, salts, vegetation, and drainage issues. Record access limitations honestly. If you could not get to the top of the wall without a scaffold, say so. That is not a weakness in the survey. It is useful information.

A paid survey also gives you a place to write down the client's actual brief. Do they want a like-for-like repair, a conservation-led approach, or the cheapest thing that stops the water coming in? Those are three different jobs with three different prices. Getting that in writing before you quote saves a lot of grief later.

Provisional sums are not a cop-out

UK clients often hear a provisional sum and assume you are being vague. In stone repair, a provisional sum is often the most honest number on the page. If you know the repointing will be needed but you cannot know how deep the failed mortar goes until the joint is raked out, price the known area and put a clearly labelled provisional sum against the unknown depth. Explain what would trigger the higher figure.

The same goes for hidden defects. If opening up one section of wall is the only way to know whether the backing is sound, include that as a defined item in the survey and quote. Do not bury it in a sentence like “additional works as necessary”. That phrase is where margins go to die.

Exclusions keep everybody honest

A firm quote on unseen stonework is a fiction. Clear exclusions are the antidote. If the price assumes the lintel is sound, say so. If it excludes replacement of concealed ironwork, say so. If it assumes access from ground level and the client later wants a scaffold, say so. None of this makes you look difficult. It makes you look like someone who has done this before.

Good exclusions also protect the client. They can see what is included and what is not, rather than discovering halfway through that the quote did not cover the bit they assumed it did. On listed buildings or conservation work, where the conservation officer may want a say, that clarity is worth even more.

Present the fee as part of getting it right

Do not call it a quote fee. Call it a condition survey, a repair assessment, or a site investigation. Price it as a fixed fee for a defined piece of work. Explain what the client gets: marked-up photographs, a written schedule of repairs, a clear list of assumptions, and a firmer price. If they want to proceed with the repair, some masons credit the survey fee against the job. That can work, but only if the fee is real in the first place. If you give it away on every enquiry, you are back where you started.

On the phone, keep it simple. “We charge for the survey because stone repairs cannot be priced properly from a photo. You get a written schedule and a firm quote, and you are not paying for guesswork later.” Most clients understand that. The ones who do not were probably going to be hard work anyway.

A small rule for 2026

If a stone repair job needs more than a quick look, it needs a paid survey. Not every enquiry has to be charged. A single cracked sill might be a five-minute conversation. But the moment you are planning a second visit, pricing hidden work, or trying to guess at what is behind a wall, you are doing survey work. Charge for it, record it properly, and let the quote stand on something better than hope.