Two quotes, $8,550 apart

What the homeowner sent

First: which method is each one actually selling?

Neither document uses the words below. Both have to be translated before any price comparison means anything, and this is where most of the $8,550 goes.

The findings

Ordered by how much money each one moves, not by where it appears in the paperwork.

1. Reasonable

   The $8,550 gap is two different jobs, not one inflated bill

   Quote A proposes managing water that is already getting in. Quote B proposes stopping it at the outside wall. Quote B at $13,400 sits inside the $7,000 to $15,000 range published for exterior excavation and membrane, in its upper half. Nothing here says either contractor is overcharging. It says the two documents are not answers to the same question, and that is the finding that changes what you do next, so it goes first.

2. Missing

   Quote A cannot be measured against anything, because it states no linear-foot count

   It reads "complete perimeter drainage system" with a single total of $4,850. The published figure for an interior drainage system is $40–$120/ft (Fixr, retrieved 2026-09-18), so without the number of linear feet being cut and drained there is nothing to hold $4,850 against: not the published figure, and not a second interior quote if you get one. A number with no denominator is not a cheaper bid, it is an unmeasurable one, and this is the single most common missing number in the quotes this site was built around.

3. Watch

   The sump pump in Quote A is priced, the backup and discharge are not

   The pump appears as a line item. A battery backup, the discharge line, and the electrical work to power the pump do not appear anywhere, and are not listed as exclusions either. On an interior system those are not optional extras, they are how the water leaves the building. Silence here is the standard route to a change order.

4. Watch

   Quote B excludes landscaping reinstatement

   It does say so, in the exclusions, which is more honest than most. But exterior excavation means a trench around the house to footing depth. Whatever is currently above that trench, beds, shrubs, a path, a patio edge, is being taken up and is not being put back at this price. Ask for that number before comparing the two totals.

5. Watch

   The "lifetime warranty" on Quote A is the company's own, and does not transfer

   The document promises a lifetime transferable warranty in the headline and then limits it, in the terms, to the original purchaser and to the installing company remaining in business. Those two sentences contradict each other. A warranty backed only by the firm that installed it is worth what the firm is worth in ten years, and this one stops at your front door if you sell.

6. Missing

   Nobody has said which problem they are solving

   Neither document says what is causing the water. Quote A proposes managing water that is already getting in. Quote B proposes stopping it at the outside wall. Those answer different problems, and the right one depends on a cause neither quote states. Published averages put interior work near $3,000 and exterior near $7,000, so this is the most expensive unanswered question in the file.

What to send them, in writing

Every review ends with the questions, written so they can be pasted into an email. A question asked in writing gets answered in writing, and that answer becomes part of what you are buying.

1. 1How many linear feet of drainage are in this price, and where does the run start and stop?
2. 2Is the battery backup, the discharge line, and the electrical work for the pump inside this total? If not, what do they cost?
3. 3What did you see that tells you the water is arriving the way you say it is?
4. 4What would the landscaping reinstatement cost, as a number, added to this quote?
5. 5Does the warranty survive the company closing, and does it transfer if I sell the house? Show me where the document says so.