Estimate it both ways

For most commercial clients, a binding not-to-exceed. It sets a ceiling you cannot go above and still lets the invoice fall if the shipment weighs less than estimated. A straight binding estimate is better when finance needs one immovable number; a non-binding estimate only makes sense when the inventory is genuinely unknown at quote stage.

On a non-binding interstate estimate, the carrier may collect no more than 110 percent of the estimated charges at delivery. The balance is billed later, typically after 30 days. It protects your cash flow on the day, not your budget over the project.

Local work inside the Houston area is charged on crew hours plus truck, portal to portal. Interstate shipments are priced from a published tariff on net weight against a mileage band, then discounted. The dividing line is who carries the risk of a slow day: on hourly work that is you, on a tariff shipment it is the carrier.

The billable clock starts when the truck leaves our Milwee Street yard and stops when it returns. Inside Beltway 8 that is typically 45 to 75 minutes across the job; The Woodlands and Clear Lake can reach two hours. We state the figure in the scope before you book.

Not if the survey was done properly. Stair carry above the first flight, long carry beyond 75 feet and shuttle service are all identified at survey and written into the scope. If we miss something, that is our error to absorb, not your invoice to grow.

For projects above roughly $10,000 we take a scheduling deposit that holds the crew, the trucks and the elevator windows. It is credited against the final invoice. Smaller hourly jobs are invoiced after completion on approved commercial terms.