Ive built DIY cost calculators - looking for feedback

[steve332]

Hi
everyone,

I've recently built a free website called MyProjectCosts to help people estimate the costs of DIY and home improvement projects.

It includes calculators for painting, flooring, tiling, fencing, concrete and other household projects.

I've also added a DIY Reality Checker, which lets you compare the estimated cost of doing a project yourself against hiring a professional, including the option of doing some jobs yourself and leaving others to tradespeople.

It's completely free to use, with no registration required.

I'm still developing the website and would really appreciate some honest feedback from people who regularly tackle DIY projects.

Are there any calculators you'd find particularly useful, or anything you think could be improved?

Free UK DIY Cost Calculators & DIY vs Pro Planner | MyProjectCosts​

Free UK DIY cost calculators and project planning tools. Compare DIY, hybrid and professional renovation costs, estimate materials and plan your budget.
myprojectcosts.co.uk

Thanks in advance!

 

[Murdochcat]

Most DIYers have little knowledge of all the materials you need, how costly some of them are and how long, realistically, a professional will take to do a job properly.

 

[steve332]

Completely agree. I think that's one of the biggest reasons DIY projects end up costing more than people expect. It's not necessarily the main materials that catch people out, but all the smaller things like adhesives, fixings, preparation materials, waste disposal and unexpected problems.


It's also easy to underestimate how much time a job takes, especially when you're comparing doing it yourself against hiring someone experienced.


It's actually one of the reasons I've been developing MyProjectCosts.co.uk. The idea is to help people understand the materials, costs and potential savings before deciding whether a job is worth tackling themselves or getting a professional in.


Sometimes DIY makes financial sense, but other times paying someone who knows what they're doing is the better option.

 

[noseall]

Hi
everyone,

I've recently built a free website called MyProjectCosts to help people estimate the costs of DIY and home improvement projects.

It includes calculators for painting, flooring, tiling, fencing, concrete and other household projects.

I've also added a DIY Reality Checker, which lets you compare the estimated cost of doing a project yourself against hiring a professional, including the option of doing some jobs yourself and leaving others to tradespeople.

It's completely free to use, with no registration required.

I'm still developing the website and would really appreciate some honest feedback from people who regularly tackle DIY projects.

Are there any calculators you'd find particularly useful, or anything you think could be improved?

Free UK DIY Cost Calculators & DIY vs Pro Planner | MyProjectCosts​

Free UK DIY cost calculators and project planning tools. Compare DIY, hybrid and professional renovation costs, estimate materials and plan your budget.
myprojectcosts.co.uk

Thanks in advance!

You seem to have missed a big cost factor in today's building projects materials lists - insulation. In some cases, renovating can invoke Building Regulations (insulation, ventilation, electrics etc) with thermal regulations Part L, coming into play. Irrespective of regulations, it makes sense to insulate.

If you renovate, strip back, or add a new thermal layer (such as dry-lining an internal wall or re-plastering/re-boarding down to the substrate) to more than 50% of a single external wall, the entire wall must be upgraded to meet current target U-values (e.g., 0.30 W/m²K for walls with internal or external insulation). [1, 2]

 

[Highway Man]

You seem to have missed a big cost factor in today's building projects materials lists - insulation. In some cases, renovating can invoke Building Regulations (insulation, ventilation, electrics etc) with thermal regulations Part L, coming into play. Irrespective of regulations, it makes sense to insulate.

If you renovate, strip back, or add a new thermal layer (such as dry-lining an internal wall or re-plastering/re-boarding down to the substrate) to more than 50% of a single external wall, the entire wall must be upgraded to meet current target U-values (e.g., 0.30 W/m²K for walls with internal or external insulation). [1, 2]

If the rest of the house doesn't meet any of the new regs, I see little benefit in one wall in a room being renovated making any real difference to the rest of the U- values of the home.

 

[motorbiking]

The building regulations account for that. Something I'd have thought a decent builder would know, but perhaps not his AI summary.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a9a8da39a177a1decf97e0d/Approved_Document_L__Volume_1_Dwellings.pdf

sec 3.14 explains the requirement and may be worth someone in the trade reading, to avoid embarrassment.

So on a standard 9" wall with a window, with 25mm celotex and plasterboard on foam, you are compliant if you wanted to say for example take an external wall back to brick. Personally I'd go with 40-50mm and if space was an issue bonded plaster/insualuation foam and mechanically fixed.

There is a benefit to upgrading even one external wall. You would definitely notice the improvement 50mm of celotex makes on say a north facing 9" plaster wall with a window.

 

[Dec27]

You seem to have missed a big cost factor in today's building projects materials lists - insulation. In some cases, renovating can invoke Building Regulations (insulation, ventilation, electrics etc) with thermal regulations Part L, coming into play. Irrespective of regulations, it makes sense to insulate.

If you renovate, strip back, or add a new thermal layer (such as dry-lining an internal wall or re-plastering/re-boarding down to the substrate) to more than 50% of a single external wall, the entire wall must be upgraded to meet current target U-values (e.g., 0.30 W/m²K for walls with internal or external insulation). [1, 2]

Building isn’t that hard, but the above isn’t really “DIY” though.

 

[motorbiking]

I must admit when I lived in a 1920s house, it was easy enough to pull the dusty, sandy plaster off and use plasterboard foam and frame fixers to redo the wall. makes running new electrics and networking much easier too.

 

[Dec27]

I must admit when I lived in a 1920s house, it was easy enough to pull the dusty, sandy plaster off and use plasterboard foam and frame fixers to redo the wall. makes running new electrics and networking much easier too.

Yeah I’ve dabbed an entire 3 storey house out. I hated it though.

Nosey’s post isn’t really on the DIY level imho.

 

[steve332]

Thanks everyone, some really useful points here.

The comments about hidden costs, realistic labour times and insulation are exactly the sort of feedback I was hoping for.

I'm looking at improving the calculators to account for things people often overlook, such as preparation materials, fixings, waste disposal and additional work that might be required during a renovation.

The point about insulation and Building Regulations is particularly interesting. I'll look at how to incorporate that into the larger renovation planners, while making sure the guidance reflects the different requirements across the UK.

Really appreciate everyone taking the time to contribute. If anyone does try one of the calculators, I'd be particularly interested to hear whether the estimates and breakdowns feel realistic.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I had a quick glance at the website. It looks genuinely useful. It looks like a LOT of effort has gone into it, e.g. working out how much grout I need based on the dimensions of the tiles, line thickness etc etc.

My only reservation is... what's the business model? I'm guessing affiliate links, e.g. it was offering to take me to the items I need on B&Q and other suppliers' websites. In which case absolutely 100% fine, I presume the website is getting a small commission, no problem at all with that.

But... I hope that the non-DIY costs aren't being artificially inflated to make DIY look more attractive or vice versa.

I just compared concrete costs to what I paid last week for 5.5 cubic metres of mixed and delivered concrete. It was fairly close, but you were giving a DIY figure that was a lot less. I'd already worked it out myself and had concluded that DIY would have been around the same cost or possibly more, even if buying the ballast in bulk, delivered by a tipper truck rather than bulk bags. Concrete in bulk really doesn't make sense for DIY but your figures suggest it does. So I'm wondering whether your figures are based on research or just quoting about 60% of the price.

That's it really, honestly it's great, best of luck to you. But I'm suspicious of why anyone would go to what looks like huge trouble to make something that doesn't want me to pay, and there are no adverts. So I'm wondering how it makes money and therefore any business sense.

 

[steve332]

Thanks very much for taking the time to look through the site and give such detailed feedback. I really appreciate it.

The business model is fairly simple. The website is completely free to use, and the intention is eventually to support it through advertising and potentially affiliate links. It's still very early days, which is why you're not seeing adverts at the moment.

On the pricing, you've raised a really important point. The intention certainly isn't to make DIY look artificially cheaper or inflate professional costs. The estimates are intended as planning guides, not quotes, but they need to reflect realistic costs.

Your concrete example is particularly useful. At 5.5 cubic metres, I agree that ready-mixed concrete can be more economical than mixing it yourself, especially once you account for bulk materials, delivery and equipment.

I'm going to review that calculator specifically and make sure the comparison reflects actual material quantities and costs rather than assuming DIY is always cheaper.

One of my main aims is to make the calculations transparent, so users can understand where the figures come from and adjust them to reflect their own quotes.

Thanks again. This is exactly the sort of feedback I was hoping to get, and it'll genuinely help improve the site.

 

[steve332]

I had a quick glance at the website. It looks genuinely useful. It looks like a LOT of effort has gone into it, e.g. working out how much grout I need based on the dimensions of the tiles, line thickness etc etc.

My only reservation is... what's the business model? I'm guessing affiliate links, e.g. it was offering to take me to the items I need on B&Q and other suppliers' websites. In which case absolutely 100% fine, I presume the website is getting a small commission, no problem at all with that.

But... I hope that the non-DIY costs aren't being artificially inflated to make DIY look more attractive or vice versa.

I just compared concrete costs to what I paid last week for 5.5 cubic metres of mixed and delivered concrete. It was fairly close, but you were giving a DIY figure that was a lot less. I'd already worked it out myself and had concluded that DIY would have been around the same cost or possibly more, even if buying the ballast in bulk, delivered by a tipper truck rather than bulk bags. Concrete in bulk really doesn't make sense for DIY but your figures suggest it does. So I'm wondering whether your figures are based on research or just quoting about 60% of the price.

That's it really, honestly it's great, best of luck to you. But I'm suspicious of why anyone would go to what looks like huge trouble to make something that doesn't want me to pay, and there are no adverts. So I'm wondering how it makes money and therefore any business sense.

Thanks again for your feedback. I've actually taken your comments on board and made some changes to the concrete calculator.

It now calculates DIY costs independently using cement, sand, aggregate, delivery and equipment hire, rather than assuming DIY will automatically be cheaper.

Interestingly, when I tested it using your example of 5.5 cubic metres, the updated calculator showed delivered ready-mix working out around £500 cheaper than mixing it yourself!

I'm keen to make the estimates as accurate as possible using real-world prices rather than just published averages.

Would you mind sharing roughly what you paid for your 5.5 cubic metres, including VAT and delivery? No need to name the supplier if you'd rather not.

It would be really useful to compare your actual cost against the calculator and see whether any further adjustments are needed.

Really appreciate you taking the time to help improve it!

 

[danfre]

Regarding part L building regs, I seem to remember that if the cost of insulation exceeded savings over a certain time you could be exempt.
Don't know if this is still current

 

[noseall]

Thanks everyone, some really useful points here.

The comments about hidden costs, realistic labour times and insulation are exactly the sort of feedback I was hoping for.

I'm looking at improving the calculators to account for things people often overlook, such as preparation materials, fixings, waste disposal and additional work that might be required during a renovation.

The point about insulation and Building Regulations is particularly interesting. I'll look at how to incorporate that into the larger renovation planners, while making sure the guidance reflects the different requirements across the UK.

Really appreciate everyone taking the time to contribute. If anyone does try one of the calculators, I'd be particularly interested to hear whether the estimates and breakdowns feel realistic.

Ventilation, heat & smoke detection are not often considered either. However, if Building control are involved in a project (for whatever reason) they may insist on the above.

Drainage (bathrooms, utility rooms downstairs loos) can also make a quote for work interesting.