I have said many times that the hardest part of my job as a professional remodeling contractor is estimating accurately. Remodeling contractors are not magicians and we don’t have magic pricing wands. The profession of remodeling entails so many facets of construction from surgical demolition, preservation of wall finishes, general construction know how, knowledge of all of the trades including: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, high tech sound & video and even whole house vacuums. We must be able to evaluate the existing structure for soundness, decide how to tie in the renovation to the existing building, and determine what level of quality will please the client, all the while trying to meet the clients needs, wants and budget. We are also expected to do all of this before there is a working set of drawings, structural engineering or a thorough analysis of the project by the various trades people. Therein lies the “catch-22″. If we agree to give ball park numbers and truly include all of the sticks, bricks, construction gotchas, options and upgrades that people are considering along with a professional markup so we can stay in business, we invariably are priced out of the market. If on the flip side we shave the numbers to get to the prospects price, we are prone to lose money on every project and go out of business or have a stack of change orders ready to write one for every additional nail or 2×4 just to catch up on our margin.