Protection board enquiries are usually thin on detail and that is why quotes change. The product is simple but the variables – area, grade, size, face, thickness, delivery pattern – all move the number, and guessing any of them produces a price that will not survive contact with the actual requirement.
The six things to state
Total area in square metres. Grade required, or say what the floor and the risk are and let the supplier propose one. Panel size, or a statement that stock sizes are acceptable. Thickness, if known. Quantity per delivery and the delivery schedule. And the delivery postcode, because freight on a bulky low-value product is a real proportion of the cost.
What to say if you do not know the grade
Describe the floor and what will happen on it. “Polished concrete, foot traffic and pallet trucks, six weeks” is enough for a competent supplier to specify. That is usually better than guessing a grade, because the guess tends to be either over-specified and expensive or under-specified and inadequate.
Samples
Ask for a sample before the order rather than after. A sample shows the face, the stiffness and the edge, and it is the only way to judge whether the board will do the job on a specific floor. It costs a few days and it prevents the most common complaint, which is that the board was not what the buyer pictured.
Documentation to request with the quote
Fire performance, slip test data, anti-static value and recycled content, as applicable. Asking with the quote rather than after the order is the difference between a week and a month, and on rail, airport and healthcare work it is the difference between starting on time and not.
What a good quote looks like
A unit price, a total, a stated lead time, a stated validity period, and the freight terms. If any of those is missing, ask. A price without a lead time or a validity is not a quote, it is an indication.
What to do with a quote that is too cheap
A price well below the others usually means a lighter grade, a thinner skin or an unsealed edge rather than a better deal. Compare on weight per square metre and on whether the edges are sealed, not on the headline number. Where two quotes differ by more than about twenty per cent for the same description, they are almost certainly not describing the same board.
The five lines that get you an accurate price
A protection enquiry that says “panels for a floor” gets a guess. One that gives area in square metres, programme duration, panel size required, colour, and delivery postcode gets a number you can tender on. Duration matters more than buyers expect, because a four-week job and a twelve-month job can justify different grades.
Two more details change the answer materially. Whether the panels need cutting to size, and whether edges need sealing – both add cost and lead time. And whether access is restricted, because a delivery that needs a small vehicle or a timed slot costs more than a standard drop. If you send a room schedule rather than a total area, we can also tell you how much waste to expect, which is often the difference between ordering enough and ordering twice. The specification wording is in what to put in a protection panel specification.
What we can do
We quote PP honeycomb protection board against a short specification and will propose a grade if you describe the floor and the risk. Send us the area, the floor type, the programme and the delivery pattern, and we will come back with a price, a lead time and samples.