How to Quote a Commercial Tenant Build-Out | Reddit & LinkedIn

To quote a commercial tenant build-out, price it per square foot of leasable area, break the scope into demolition, framing, MEP, finishes, and permits, gather and mark up subcontractor bids, and add general conditions and contingency. 2026 build-outs commonly run $50 to $200 per square foot. The rest of this guide walks the estimate step by step so your number holds up when the client compares bids. Estimate the same way every time and your win rate and your margin both get more predictable.

Confirm the leasable square footage, the tenant-improvement allowance, and who pays for what. The lease terms shape the scope and the billing before you price a thing.

Split the work into demolition, framing and drywall, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, fire protection, finishes, and site or permit costs. Estimating in groups keeps a large number auditable.

Send the plans to your trade subs, collect bids, and mark them up consistently. For self-performed work, price labor and material directly. Note any bid that assumes an allowance.

Include supervision, dumpsters, temporary power, cleanup, permits, and a contingency of 5 to 10 percent. On a build-out the general conditions line is real money, not overhead you hide.

Deliver the estimate grouped by trade with allowances called out, a schedule, and a payment schedule tied to milestones. Send it as a document the client can review and accept.

A build-out number is only as good as the plan set and the lease behind it. Scope depth is the first driver: a paint-and-carpet refresh is a different animal from a white-box space that needs full MEP, a grease trap, or a demising wall. Building age is the second: an older shell hides surprises above the ceiling and behind the walls, which is why your contingency rises with the building's age. The third is the schedule and the lease clock, because a tenant paying rent on an empty space will pay for speed, and overtime or phasing belongs in the quote, not in your margin.

Even a good estimator loses margin to a few repeatable errors. Watch for these before you send the quote.

• Quoting per square foot without confirming scope depth and MEP load.
• Marking up sub bids inconsistently so the total does not reconcile.
• Hiding general conditions instead of showing supervision and site costs.
• Treating the tenant-improvement allowance as your discount rather than a client credit.
• Carrying too little contingency in an old building with unknowns above the ceiling.

A 2,500 square foot office build-out at $80 per square foot is $200,000. Built up, that is demolition, framing and drywall, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, finishes, permits, general conditions, and a 7 percent contingency, with a $40,000 tenant-improvement allowance shown as a credit so the tenant is billed $160,000 across milestones.

You can run this whole estimate by hand, but doing it on paper at night is how quotes go out late and lose. On ContractShield you record the measurements and choices on your phone at the site, the AI drafts the line items with your own rates, and you send a signable, itemized quote in about 25 minutes. When the client accepts, the quote becomes the project plan, and milestone billing plus automatic collections gets you paid for 2% per job (1% each side), capped at $250, no per-lead fees.