You have a laboratory result, you have rung three companies, and you are holding three quotes that do not resemble each other. One is $4,200. One is $11,800. One says “from $3,500” and nothing else. None of them are lying.
Meth removal quotes are not comparable on price, because the price follows the scope and the scope follows the sampling. Two quotes for the same house can differ threefold and both be honest. What you are actually comparing is what each company has decided to treat, what they plan to throw away, and who carries the risk if the clearance test fails.
This page is about reading a quote and a scope of works. If you are earlier than that, still working out whether a company is credible at all, start with what certified meth decontamination actually means and come back here once you have shortlisted someone.
Why three quotes for one house look nothing alike
Four variables do most of the damage, and none of them are visible on a price line.
The sampling they worked from
A composite result over a whole house gives an average. Quote off that and you have to assume every room is affected, because nothing proves otherwise. Discrete room by room sampling lets a contractor exclude clean areas. Same property, very different scope.
What they call porous
Carpet and underlay are uncontroversial. Plasterboard, unsealed timber, cabinetry and cornices are judgement calls. One company treats and seals, another strips and replaces. That single decision can double a quote.
Whether clearance is in the number
Some quotes include the post-remediation sampling and laboratory fees. Some quote the clean and invoice the clearance separately. A cheaper quote is sometimes just a smaller quote.
Whether restoration is in the number
Removing carpet is remediation. Laying new carpet is restoration. If one quote reinstates the property and another leaves you with a shell, you are not comparing the same job.
The practical move: before you compare anything, ask all three to quote against the same sampling report and to state explicitly whether clearance and restoration are included. Most of the gap closes immediately.
What a real scope of works contains
A scope of works is the document the price hangs off. If you have not been given one, you have been given a guess. It should name all seven of these.
The report it is based on
Which sampling report, dated, from which laboratory, with the readings that drove the decisions. A scope that does not reference a specific result is not a scope.
Room by room treatment
For each room: what is removed, what is treated in place, what is sealed, what is left alone. Not “treat all affected areas”. Which areas, and what treatment.
Containment and air handling
Where the barriers go, whether negative air is used, and whether the air conditioning and ductwork are in scope. Ducting is the single most common omission and the most common reason a clearance fails.
Waste handling
Contaminated porous material is regulated waste. The scope should say it is transported to an approved facility and that you receive the dockets.
Contents
What happens to furniture, whitegoods, clothing and personal effects. Whether items are cleaned on site, taken off site, or disposed of, and who decides.
Clearance testing
Who performs it, which laboratory analyses it, whether it is priced in, and what the pass criterion is. It should be 0.5 µg/100cm² on indoor residential surfaces.
The failure clause
What happens if the first clearance comes back above the threshold. This is the clause that decides whether a bad result costs you nothing or costs you the job twice.
Ask for the scope before you ask for a discount. A contractor who will not put the scope in writing is telling you something about how the invoice will be written later.
Five things in a quote that should stop you
Walk away from
- A fixed price given before any testing. It is either padded to cover the unknown or it will be varied later. Both cost you.
- A quote with no named laboratory. If the analysing lab is not on the paperwork, the result is not defensible and neither is the scope built on it.
- “Clearance certificate included” with no detail. A document issued by the company that did the cleaning is a validation report. That is useful, but it is not a statutory clearance.
- A per square metre rate. Meth work is not priced by floor area. The variable is contamination distribution, not size.
- Pressure to sign today. Residue has been sitting there for months. Two more days of due diligence will not change the reading.
Good signs
- They ask to see your sampling report before quoting anything.
- They tell you the quote may change if discrete sampling reveals a different distribution, and say so upfront.
- They name the laboratory and the analytical method without being pushed.
- They raise the clearance failure scenario before you do.
- They are comfortable with clearance testing being arranged independently.
What the crew wears is easy to photograph. What is in the scope of works is what you are actually buying.
Who pays when the first clearance fails
This is the question most owners never think to ask, and it is worth more than any discount you will negotiate.
A failed clearance is not rare on heavily contaminated properties. It usually means the scope was drawn too narrow, not that the cleaning was done badly. Common causes are ductwork left out, a room excluded on the strength of a composite average, or porous material that was sealed when it should have been removed.
The three positions you will encounter
The contractor carries it. If the scope they wrote does not achieve a pass, they return and re-treat at their cost. This is the position you want, and reputable operators will hold it because they wrote the scope.
Shared, with conditions. Re-treatment of areas already in scope is covered, new areas are a variation. Reasonable, as long as the boundary is written down.
You carry all of it. Every additional round is billed. Avoid this, or price it in mentally, because on a bad property it is the difference between one invoice and three.
Get the answer in the contract rather than the conversation. And note that a contractor prepared to carry the failure risk will naturally scope more conservatively, which is part of why their first number is higher.
The insurance question, and who invoices whom
Where a claim is involved, the arrangement matters as much as the price.
| Arrangement | What it means for you | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor invoices the insurer direct | You pay the excess and little else. Least cash flow pain. | Scope is then negotiated between the contractor and the assessor, not with you. Ask to see it anyway. |
| You pay and claim back | Full control of scope and contractor choice. | Keep every docket and report. A claim without the sampling report behind it is difficult. |
| Insurer appoints the contractor | Simplest administratively. | You may have no say in who attends. You can still ask for the scope of works and the clearance arrangements. |
| No claim, owner funded | Complete control. | This is where the failure clause matters most, because there is nobody else absorbing a second round. |
Whichever applies, notify the insurer before work starts. Many policies exclude illicit drug contamination outright, and almost all require prompt notification with documented evidence. Finding out afterwards is an expensive way to learn the policy wording.
Four questions to ask before you request a quote at all
These take five minutes on the phone and remove most of the field.
- “Will you quote from my existing report, or do you need your own sampling?” Either answer is fine. What you want is a reason.
- “Is clearance testing in your price, and which laboratory runs it?” A specific laboratory name, or move on.
- “What happens if the first clearance fails?” Listen for whether they have a policy or are inventing one.
- “Does the quote include putting the property back together?” Remediation and restoration are different line items and are often confused deliberately.
What certification a provider actually holds, what NATA accreditation covers and does not cover, and the conflict of interest when the same company tests and cleans are covered separately in what certified meth decontamination really means. Work through that first, then use this page on the shortlist.
Frequently asked questions
Why is one meth removal quote three times another?
Usually because the two companies scoped different amounts of the property. A quote built on a composite laboratory result has to assume the whole house is affected. A quote built on discrete room by room sampling can exclude clean areas. Add differences in what each treats as porous, and whether clearance testing and restoration are priced in, and a threefold gap is entirely normal between two honest contractors.
Should I get a separate company to do the clearance test?
Many owners do, and it is a fair thing to arrange. Australian guidance describes the testing contractor and the cleaning contractor as separate roles, and a clearance signed by whoever did the cleaning carries less weight with an insurer or a purchaser’s solicitor. If one company does both, ask specifically how the result is kept independent.
What should a meth decontamination quote include?
The sampling report it is based on, room by room treatment detail, containment and ductwork, waste handling with dockets, what happens to contents, clearance testing with a named laboratory and a stated pass criterion, and a written position on who pays if the first clearance fails. Anything less is an estimate rather than a scope.
Can I negotiate on a meth removal quote?
On price, rarely, and it is the wrong lever. The productive negotiation is on scope and risk: asking for discrete sampling so clean rooms can be excluded, asking for the failure clause to sit with the contractor, and asking whether restoration can be handled separately by your own trades. Each of those moves the number more than haggling does.
How long should a quote take to arrive?
A day or two once the contractor has the sampling report. If they need to attend and sample first, allow the laboratory turnaround of three to five business days on top. Anyone quoting within an hour of a phone call has not looked at anything.
Do I need to be present for the work?
No, and generally the property is vacated for the duration. What you do need is access arrangements in writing, agreed dates, and a contact who can make decisions when something unexpected turns up behind a wall. Those decisions happen mid-job more often than not.
The short version
Do not compare meth removal quotes on price. Compare them on scope, and make all of them quote against the same sampling report so the scopes are comparable in the first place.
Then find the failure clause. Whoever wrote the scope should carry the cost of it not working, and a contractor who agrees to that has every reason to scope it properly the first time.
Want a scope you can actually read, with clearance testing and the laboratory named in the quote? AllAces has been doing decontamination work in Australia for more than 35 years across more than 65,000 jobs. Call 1800 00 10 10, or get in touch here.
General information about how quoting and scoping work in this industry, not legal or financial advice. Last updated September 2026.
This page is about reading a quote. The page above it is about judging the company: what certified meth decontamination actually means covers accreditation, clearance certificates and the independence problem.
For the numbers behind a scope, what meth decontamination costs works through a real quote line by line.
Want a quote built off a proper sampling plan? Ask a professional meth decontamination contractor. Call 1800 00 10 10.
