Three quotes, $4,000 apart. How to tell which is honest.

The seven lines a real quote contains

Excavation depth in millimetres. Not 'excavate as required'. A number.

Geotextile — included or not. It is a small cost and a large difference.

Granular base thickness and how many lifts it goes in.

Compaction — passes per lift, or at minimum a statement that it is mechanically compacted rather than tamped.

Asphalt thickness, split into base course and surface course. Two numbers, not one.

Disposal — whether removing the old surface and excavated soil is included or extra.

Finished grade — the direction water will run when the job is done.

A quote that states all seven can be compared with another quote that states all seven. A quote that states none cannot be compared with anything.

What a missing line usually means

It is rarely dishonesty. It is that the number was built from a per-square-foot rate the contractor uses for everything, without a site-specific plan.

That works fine when conditions are typical. It goes wrong when the base is worse than assumed, and at that point either the scope quietly shrinks to protect the margin, or you get a change order.

The single most useful thing you can do with three quotes is email all three the same question: what excavation depth, what base thickness, how many lifts. The replies sort themselves.

The change-order question

Ask directly: is this a fixed price, and under what circumstances would it change?

A good answer names specific discoveries — unexpected fill, a buried slab, a service line — and says you will be shown and consulted before anything is done.

A vague answer, or 'we'll see when we get in there', is where budgets get away from people.