About Cost Calculator

Most cost guides stop at the headline price. That is the least useful number in the whole transaction, because almost nobody pays it. The VAT rate on the job might be 20%, 5% or nothing at all. There may be a grant that comes off the quote before you see it. And what is left is often the only figure that matters.

So every job on this site is priced the whole way through: the typical installed cost, the VAT treatment that applies, the grant available where you live, and what you would actually pay once both are accounted for.

Where the numbers come from

Guide prices are compiled from published UK trade sources and cited on each page. They are indicative ranges, not quotations, and they are rounded so that nobody mistakes them for a quote.

VAT rates and grant amounts are different: those are matters of fact, and each one is checked against its primary source with the date recorded on the page. Our pricing methodology sets out how all of it is put together.

Who writes it

John Bodman, a project manager and home improvement consultant in London. Every guide carries a byline and a last-reviewed date.

How we make money

When you request quotes through this site we may receive a referral fee from LeadsDoWork, who operate the quote service. You pay nothing and you are under no obligation to accept any quote. That arrangement has no bearing on the prices we publish or the advice we give — see our commercial disclosure.

If we get something wrong

Tell us. The report a price form goes straight to us, and a report from someone who has just had the work done is the single most useful thing we receive.