What Is A Quote?
A quote consists of an educated guess (guesstimate) at how long a job or a number of different jobs will take. Very few jobs are straight forward.
For example: you need four new internal doors hanging and new door furniture fitting. This should take me about one longish day, and should cost you £96. However, when it comes to fitting the doors it is extremely unlikely that the doors will fit. They may need shortening and the width adjusting. So I would have to quote to take this extra work into account. I would therefore quote a price of £120 to take this extra work into account, as would anyone else.
However, if you pay me at an hourly rate of £12 and the job takes eight hours you would pay me £96. If only one door needs adjusting and the job takes me nine hours, you would pay me £108.
If the job consists several different jobs, door hanging, painting, a couple of shelves to put up and an exterior door to rub down and paint, I would need to guestimate all of these jobs, add a bit extra just in case and then supply a (guesstimate) quote.
But if you pay me by the hour, I get paid for the job I do and you pay me ONLY for the work I do.
By paying me by the hour, you can also budget better. If you have a budget of £300, I can do any jobs you want and when the £300 has been used up, you let me go. When you have a few more pounds in the pot, you can get me back (only if I did a good enough job of course) to finish off.
I can be as flexible as you need me to be.
Of course, if you really would prefer a quote, I will give you a quote as accurately as I can.