We need startups in home renovation

I renovated a home last year for the first time in my life. Everyone warned me it would be stressful. It was.

I was lucky though. My main builder was nice and reliable, and completed the work within budget. For things my main builder didn't cover, like flooring, I often had people that had helped me before. I had setbacks and delays here and there, but it wasn't too bad. The planning phase was really frustrating though.

Uncertain costs

First, it was hard to figure out what the renovation would cost, and therefore hard to determine what to do. What did I want? A house extension? As much insulation as possible in the floor, walls and roof? New electrical wiring and plumbing? Yes, maybe all of those things, but that depended on what they would cost. But figuring that out was hard. Some builders only wanted to give me fully detailed quotations, which would take weeks. Others gave indications, which were sometimes reliable, but often not. For instance, one builder quoted me €10,000 for a ventilation system, while another estimated €25,000 (the former turned out to be more accurate). One builder quoted me €50,000 for a small house extension, while another put it at €100,000. Because the costs were so hard to get right, I had to change my plans twice.

Objective choices

Second, it was hard to make objective decisions. I wanted to make my home more sustainable. The house was built in 1953 and hadn't changed much since, so the opportunities were endless. But my budget was not, so I had to make choices. Should I replace the old steel window frames, or was I better off putting layers of insulation material in front of my walls? People guessed, but nobody really knew. Hadn’t someone already built a model with surface areas and heat coefficients to make this quantifiable? Probably, but I couldn't find that person and I was too busy to build it myself. I ended up doing a lot of guessing and back-of-the-envelope calculations.

Finding the right people

Third, it was time-consuming to find the right people for the job. Especially the specialists. For instance, I had a rare type of floor system made of steel and hollow stones. These floors were built in the 1950s and 1960s and had since gained a bad reputation. Apparently, the steel could rust, which would make the floor unreliable. I wanted someone to check whether mine was okay. But nobody knew how to. Some people suggested I would be better off replacing the whole floor, just to be sure. After endless Google searches, many phone calls, and an expert who missed two appointments, I finally found a company that had done this a few times before, and I hired it to inspect the floor. It turned out to be fine.

This should be a startup

I now know the answers to most questions I started out with, but I will likely never do another renovation (at least I hope so!). Why is this so difficult? Why are there not companies that can combine reliable cost estimates, objective options based on data, and suitable specialists into one practical plan? I would have gladly paid 10% on top of the total cost of my renovation for that. And should AI not be able to help with cost estimates and making objective choices on sustainability trade-offs? That should be a startup idea.