A new price comparison site, CompareTheBuild.com, may be set to spark a price war with its listings of DIY and building supplies, including kitchen and bathroom products.
The new site, launched this week at the Homebuilding and Renovating Show at the NEC, lists thousands of products from B&Q, Travis Perkins, Jewson, Wickes, Plumbworld and Electrical Discount UK, among others.
The site lists more than 300,000 searchable products – not only DIY and building supplies, but also kitchen and bathroom products and appliances. These include such KBB staples as baths, basins, sinks and taps, kitchen cabinets, doors, worktops, cookers, fridges, hobs, ovens and washing machines.
The site says its aim is to help builders, tradespeople and DIY enthusiasts buy their supplies and products quickly and efficiently at the lowest price.
The company was started by professional plasterer Joseph Watson who decided to launch the site after realising that the everyday products he was using varied hugely in price depending on where he was buying them.
Wilson said of his new site: “After painstaking research, I realised there was nowhere for builders, construction companies, surveyors, property developers and home DIY enthusiasts to compare products and prices. I saw an opportunity to use technology to make the price comparison and purchase process easier, cheaper and more convenient.
“We’re building a platform that will increase transparency and bring prices down, we hope! Especially in today’s cost-of-living crisis, CompareTheBuild.com is likely to prove a blessing to many cash-strapped traders and households looking to economise.”
Experts estimate that £27 billion will be spent on DIY products in 2023, with £7bn of that coming from online sales.