There’s a direct-to-consumer startup for everything these days. The latest? Home renovation.
New tech-based platform Block Renovation is promising to disrupt the interior remodeling industry by offering “premium bathroom renovations more affordably with less stress.”
While a typical bathroom renovation in the New York City area costs on average $20,000, Block Renovation’s offerings start at around $15,000, or 25 percent less.
However, as with most renovation projects, it all depends on material and labor.
The New York-based startup, which launched today, comes courtesy of those who brought us everyone’s favorite NYC subway-advertised mattress. Block Renovation is c0-founded by Casper co-founder Luke Sherwin and former Huffington Post chief operating officer Koda Wang.
The idea is to allow the consumer to easily choose contractor packages based on their renovation, as opposed to shopping around for material and hiring workers themselves. Rather than contract out the labor like many service-based startups (Uber, Handy, etc.), Block Renovation partners with local licensed and insured contractors and negotiates rates on the customer’s behalf.
“The experience today, for a lot of people, is hiring two guys in a van and figure everything out themselves,” Wang told The Real Deal. “What we’re offering is all-inclusive packages that give consumers transparent pricing, known timelines and higher-quality outcomes.”
“While most contractors only cite labor costs, we bake in the cost of your raw and finish materials as well as drawings and construction support — typically this is 25-35 percent additional cost on top of a GC’s labor quote,” the company’s site states.
They’ve also partnered with SoFi to provide potential users with financing that includes fixed interest, low monthly rates, and no annual fees.
To kickstart the platform, Block Renovation closed a $4.5 million seed round in venture capital funding.