What this site costs

What does RenovationStart cost?

Almost everything is free: the cost calculator, the cost guides, the room planners, the drawing board for a whole house, the budget tools and every checklist. You need no account and you leave no email address. I only charge for the three things that cost me money at a supplier each time someone uses them: an AI image, an AI quote check and the film of a walk-through of the house you drew. Of the first two you get a number free every calendar month: 4 AI images and 1 AI quote check. If you need more, there are two ways. The Renovation Pack at £19.95 holds 25 AI images and 5 AI quote checks for your whole project. Or you top up one thing: 10 AI images or 1 AI quote check, £4.95 each. The film sits outside all of that. It costs €14.95 a film, charged in euros, it is in no pack and it is never made by itself. Every payment is a one-off: no subscription and no expiry date.

Free, with no account and no email address

• The cost calculator and every cost guide, with the source next to each range.
• The room planners for the bathroom, the kitchen and the bedroom.
• Design your own house: drawing, the 3D view and what building it costs.
• The budget planner, the log for extras and the checklists for during the build.
• Every article and every explanation of rules and permissions.

What does cost money, and how much you get free

• AI image. A photo of your room, or the house you drew, is turned into an image by an AI model at an image supplier. 4 AI images a month are free, the pack holds 25, and a top-up is 10 AI images for £4.95. A design made from one sentence and an object made from a photo take one image turn as well, because each is its own job at the supplier.
• AI quote check. An AI model reads the quote you were given and lays it next to the price range for that work. 1 AI quote check a month is free, the pack holds 5, and a top-up is 1 AI quote check for £4.95.
• Film of your walk-through. The camera walks through the house you drew. A film costs €14.95, charged in euros. There is no free number a month and it is not part of the pack, because one film is a whole series of images at the supplier. You see the price before you start it, and a film is never made by itself.

Why it is set up this way

Knowledge costs me nothing extra per visitor. A cost range, a planner and a drawing board run in your own browser, so a paywall in front of them would be a toll on nothing. An AI image and an AI quote check are different: each one is a bill from a supplier. Until September 2026 the images here were free with a daily limit. That could not last, and a limit you cannot see is worse than a price you can.

The measure I keep to: free is enough to try everything once properly, paid is enough to do your whole project. I sell no leads, I take no commission from builders and there are no adverts on this site. That is also why the paid extras exist: it is the one way to earn something here that does not get in the way of honest figures.