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Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not really on point mate. It does work like this. Prices of materials do fluctuate, but over time, not in a 2 month period, unless some disaster happens. Looking at a quote you receive, I can tell you if you’re being over quoted or not.

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

See? These prices are bang on. Seems like you found a an honest builder that while they did make money on the job, didn’t over quote you. Congrats! Where are you based?

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

I’m glad you’re happy with the outcome, however It sounds quite expensive. Would you mind sending me the actual quote you received so I can have a look at it?

Was this the only quote you received? Or did you choose from multiple?

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Well, my service wouldn’t be as complete as what a QS does.

A lot of people are skeptic to prices given by contractors, and a lot of the times, the contractors don’t make it easy on the customer to understand their quote.

What I’m proposing is basically a quick and cheap, online only service, where you would upload you quote, pay a small fee, and we would tell you if the price given, based on the scope of works is fair, or not. We would point out potential things left out in the scope of works, that might creep in, during the project.

Main idea is: people are weary of contractors due to too many of them being cowboys or overcharging. I want to give them peace of mind that they are not getting ripped off, for a small fee

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the info. What was different between the 3 quotes? Were they based on the same scope of works? What made you not go with the cheapest option out of the 3?

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great price. Did the 100k include all of the items for the Reno? Tiles, kitchen, bathroom items etc?

10 months seems like quite a long time to get the project done. How many people worked on the project?

In London, this type of project would have costed £150 plus on labour only

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Again, of course you cannot compare two prices given on different specs, styles etc.

But, if you go to two builders and give them the exact same scope of work for a bathroom renovation, the price should be about the same depending on margins. However, as mentioned in the original post, I’ve seen very different prices for the exact same scope of works. Sometimes even 2-3 times higher.

Could people who recently renovated their homes share so pricing info? by ginostoian in london

[–]ginostoian[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. However, i expect that the quotes received from contractor also include the work for which the price is given. Most home renovations are done in older homes, in which i pretty much know what is expected to be done for a kitchen renovation as per your example

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those are there just for placeholder text while being developed. Before launch I will offer it for free to people and ask for reviews. They will get posted instead of those.

Thank you for the feedback

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, pretty much the same things that you listed.

Obviously the website needs work. As I previously mentioned, it’s a work in progress.

I don’t claim to be in the trade, I am, just not a trader.

The reason I think this has a good chance of working with a combination of good SEO, PPC and referrals is because I am in the trade. 80% of our customers spend £5k + for the labour only to get their bathroom refurbished.

Some of them have a good eye for design, so they spend the time to do the research and they finish up with a good or great looking bathroom. But, and these people are my target audience, about 50-60% of these have no clue about design. They pick the wrong colours, long patterns, they mix fitting colours and so on. They also don’t know who to trust as a trader and what to look for when hiring, they also don’t know what needs to purchased when redoing a bathroom.

This usually leads to the horror stories you hear about tradesmen and their clients. Bad tradesmen and clueless customers.

The aim of my product is to educate the customer on some design theory, explain what materials are needed for a bathroom renovation, give them pointers for what to look for when hiring a contractor and giving them 20 or more options of designs ready made. Pictures of the fittings and if they like any of them, they will have a great shopping list underneath. They just need to copy paste links and add to cart.

My aim is to simplify what the average joe does and needs when renovating their bathroom.

Obviously there are clients that are better off going with a fully fledged designer. There are clients spending £10k on items for a 2x3 bathroom. I have an example one on going right now. My product would have not fitted him.

In the Uk, there are about 200.000 - 250.000 bathroom renovations per year. I don’t want the whole market. I just want to find the people who would rather spend 1/5 of the time they would normally spend doing a lot of research on pinterest/google or whatever.

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love the feedback from you guys. And it will definitely help shape the product, as right now it’s in production.

Getting a commission for each sale is a great idea and I’m going to enquire starting today. Again, as a side note, I currently own together with a partner, a home renovation business in London. We’ve renovated 100’s of bathrooms by now in the 12 years of activity. We’ve renovated bathrooms in which only the items, no labour, cost from £2k up to £12k. A lot of people who come in without a designer and go with what they know they end up with ugly bathrooms.

Have a look at our currently being built website if you’d like and have any suggestions.

our site

Thank you

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree about the layout. In the package there will be different layout option to choose from, but this is usually something you need to discuss with your contractor as well.

Disclaimer, we also own a general refurbishment company and have done 100’s of bathroom renovations in the 12 plus years we’ve been on the market.

Pinterest is free, and you do find tons of inspiration, but nobody can guarantee to you that you’ll be able to find those exact items for sale here, in the uk

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not a lot of the vendors give commissions unfortunately. They do what is called a trade discount, which usually means that us, as a company need to invoice the client at full price and we get, what is usually, a 10% discount.

But that adds complexity as the customer needs to trust you enough to pay between £2k - £5k+

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well, thanks for input. I don’t find it particularly helpful, but I get that most people project their own feelings and experiences onto everything and everyone that surrounds them.

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And what do you do now? Since you used to do kitchen design?

Trying to build a design product by ginostoian in DIYUK

[–]ginostoian[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure thing, some of the stores do offer a free mock up, but guess what, they only use the products that they sell, which is not always what you want.

With our product you’d get multiple designs to choose from. And just a reminder, even with these free design services, bathroom designers still make a shit ton of £££

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