What “supply and install” actually includes

Clients ask for supply and install because they want one company to be responsible. That is a good reason. It is not, by itself, a specification. Two quotations that both say “supply and install” can omit entirely different things, and the difference only appears when the programme is already tight.

Supply-only is a delivery, not a smaller version of the same job

Supply-only means the product is specified, sourced, delivered and, where we have agreed it, offloaded and stored. Your own fitters install it. The warranty on the product remains the manufacturer’s; workmanship is yours. That split is honest, and it is why supply-only is cheaper: we are not taking on the wall.

What people still trip over on supply-only:

• Access and cranage — a kerbside drop is not the same as materials on the right floor at the right hour.
• Storage — panels, sanitaryware and adhesives have to sit somewhere dry. A finished room is not a store.
• Quantities — we can take off a drawing, but a drawing that does not match the building will produce a short delivery, not a free top-up.
• Batching — wall panels and tiles should be ordered as one batch. A later top-up may not match.

Supply and install puts product and workmanship on one contract

That is the point of it. One invoice, one programme, one place to call if the junction fails. It is also why the quotation has to say, in writing, where our work starts and stops. The usual edges:

• Substrate — we install onto a wall, floor or roof that is ready. Making a wall ready is a different trade unless the quotation says we are doing it.
• First-fix services — electrical back boxes, plumbing outlets and waterproofing membranes have to be in the right place before finishes go on. If they are not, that is not a panel defect.
• Making-good — cutting in, sealing, and cleaning our own work is ours. Repainting an adjacent wall that was never in the room schedule is not, unless it is written in.
• Waste — offcuts, packaging and the skip they go in should be named. Silent assumptions about whose skip are how site arguments start.
• Protection — a finished floor that other trades then walk on with grit is no longer a flooring complaint. Protection after handover of an area needs saying.

The things clients are usually surprised by

None of these are tricks. They are the parts of a building that do not appear on a product page.

• The building is not the drawing. Existing walls are out of plumb, slabs are not flat, and openings are not the size the schedule says. Measuring before fabrication is cheaper than arguing afterwards — which is why facade work starts with a survey.
• Installation is not commissioning. A lock that is on the door is installed. A lock that is coded, logged and handed over with the right credentials is commissioned. Smart systems and lifts make this distinction obvious; finishes hide it.
• Samples are not a production run. A 150 mm panel sample can be perfect and a later batch can drift. Order the whole quantity, including cutting allowance, in one go.
• Access decides the method. A fourth-floor apartment with no lift and a working household in it is a different installation from an empty shell with a hoist.
• Other trades will not wait. If waterproofing, electricals or the screed are late, our installation date moves. A single-point contract does not repeal the sequence the building actually needs.

How to read a quotation

Ask for the exclusions to be as plain as the inclusions. A short exclusions list is not a generous quotation; it is an incomplete one. In particular:

• What substrate condition is assumed, and who corrects it if it is not met.
• Whether making-good, waste, protection and after-hours working are in or out.
• Whether commissioning, training and documentation are in — they should be, for anything with a control system.
• What “complete” means for the area: broom-clean, protected, or handed over to the next trade.