House of Costs
Overview
Usually when one wants to renovate a house with a new design, a contractor is asked to measure the room, obtain a few measurements of the room and the contractor creates a cost estimate for the renovation. However, there are many flaws in the method by which the estimate is obtained. Firstly, there appears to be little (or no) transparency in the estimate. Many estimates are just guesswork and there are little grounds to the calculations (not even estimating an accuracy interval). On top of that, a client cannot get any insight into what a renovation would entail.
The solution to this problem is a web app called House of Costs. Together with civil engineer Kevin Mitchell, we created an internet application that gives an estimate, with a more accurate mathematical basis. The solution can be used by both contractors and clients with relative ease.
Click here to use it.
Instructions
A user goes to the website and browses these different projects of ours and their images. The user selects a project and presses “View Cost”. The app must receive 3 basic things if it can create an estimate, namely: Location of the user’s house, Questionnaire about the room to be renovated and Dimensions and Layout of the room. The application provides the estimate based on various calculations and a specific estimate is given. There you can see what kind of material the renovation will involve, the cost of the materials and the cost of labor.
