Earlier this month Bits Bobs and Odd Jobs’ very own Chris Gilbey joined Larissa from Quickassist on stage at the Grand Designs Live show at ExCeL London for a presentation on sustainability and the “art of fixing things”. Below we’ve split the live discussion into 4 bite-sized video shorts, so you can see what QuickAssist is all about and what Chris’ answers to people’s home improvement questions.

Thank you for coming to our talk! We are going to have a bit of a relaxed chat today to understand a little bit more about QuickAssist and who we are, and then we’ll go through the process of renovating your home, which seems to be quite common at the moment – where do you start, how do you do it, how are you do you do it most cost effectively.

If you guys have any questions throughout the whole session feel free to put your hand up, and if you ask any questions you also get to spin the wheel – so we’ve got Miles over there who will spin the wheel on your behalf – and you get to win some cool prizes. You could win some wooden spoons, some phone stands, some screwdrivers…

So, I’m Larissa. I’m one of the co-founders of QuickAssist. My co-founder is Miles up there and today I’ve got Chris from the Bits Bobs and Odd Jobs, who’s one of our trade partners and who will be giving you all of the knowledge, and we’ve got another expert here who will be prompting all of the questions.

Possible, and learning and listening and telling you some of my biggest DIY mistakes I imagine.

Yeah we can all learn from that I hope! Fantastic, so a little bit about QuickAssist – QuickAssist is a new startup that provides access to trades people via video.

Has anyone here ever had any bad experiences with trades people? Yeah a few a few people, yeah I can hear you I can see you back there. Are there any small issues around the home that you think you could fix yourself but you’re not quite confident on doing it yourself? You spend hours on YouTube and it’s never quite exactly what you’re looking for.. Has anyone experienced that? Yeah, I can see some it’s nodding around there.

So, with QuickAssist we provide access to those trades people and that help via video course to provide you with a little bit more confidence on getting those bits and pieces done. It’s 30 pounds for 30 minutes, so it won’t break the bank, and it’s very easy to use. As you go onto our website – you can find us at QuickAssist.uk – you select where your issue is.

Let’s imagine that you want to change some door handles, you’ve got a sink that doesn’t really drain properly, and if you want to put up some shelves or in some mirrors. You try to get a handyman out, but they don’t really want to do it – you can’t really find someone reliable and you want to use QuickAssist.

Let’s say you want some general DIY support. The cool thing about QuickAssist is that in order to maximize the 30 minutes we have with this expert, when you’ve selected the the issue that you’ve got. So let’s say it’s multiple things – it’s not just tiling or carpet laying or shelving – you’ve got others. You also get to upload up to four photos of your issue so when the tradesperson gets the the messages of here’s a job they can see exactly what you’re trying to do and a message to the tradesperson saying hey I’ve got all of these things that I want to achieve – can you help me? I don’t know what to do? I don’t know where to start? Or you can say: “Hey, I’ve tried to put it put them up but they’re not quite stable – can you help me?” So when you do that, the tradesperson gets it all and when you go on to set the appointment… other really cool thing about this platform, and I’m being biased here, is that you can get a tradesperson the same day to support you. So, you don’t have to wait days or weeks for someone to come out you can get it sorted that day!

Let’s say you need someone on Tuesday. You’re going to be available and you select a two-hour time frame that you’re going to be around for them to help you. A when the request goes out to the tradesperson, they select the half an hour that best works for them and then you get a email with a video link – and then you get to jump on a call on the platform with the tradesperson and get going. And like I said, it’s only £30 for 30 minutes

If you ask a question the wheel spins and you can win some discounts – so you can win 30% off or 50% off or just a one pound.

All the trades people that we’ve got on the platform are qualified and they’re vetted to make sure that they can communicate clearly and guide you through your problems -and one of those people is the lovely Chris from Bits Bobs and Odd Jobs, who are one of our partners.

Does anyone have any questions right now about QuickAssist before we get on to the second part of the chat about how we start renovating your home? No?

So it’s online – somebody guides you through the problem you’ve got – so you need some basic DIY skills, is that’s right?

Yeah, ideally. You do need to kind of know what a screwdriver is and ideally have that available so when you get your email from us which says hey here’s a recommended tools list. So you kind of want to ensure that you’ve got those at home so you don’t start there, like, cool I want to put up a shelf but I don’t have anything. I’ve got sellotape… I’ve got tape and that’s about it or Blue Tack – better yet bluetack – you can’t really put up a shelf by the way, you can’t you can’t put it up that way, just to clarify that!

If after the call you’re unable to completely solve the problem, can they come out and help you physically?

Yes, so if you’re based in London our trades people are able to come out and do the job themselves. As long as you’re comfortable with them, you’ve got that communication, and when they come out they can do multiple things around the home. Because they’ll know exactly what what needs to be done they’ll get that job done really quickly, so if you’ve got multiple things – just tell them before they come out and then they can get them done as well. So you can maximize your time.

I like that. Not spending money is a good thing!

We’ve got a question over there…

I’m possibly a candidate for calling someone out. The £30 charge for the initial video call – that’s completely separate – how would I then arrange the callout charge and how would I know how long I will need them for?

Yep, so when you’re on the video call the tradesperson will tell you: “Actually, I can come out and do this and it’s going to be…”

You you can provide a general quote right, on based on what it is?

Absolutely.

Yeah, so they can provide a general idea, like it’s going to take me this amount of time… this is kind of how much it should cost you. Then we we ask our lovely tradespeople to take £15 off the callout charge as well – which is half of the video call cost.

Do I then pay via the app, or do I pay the tradesperson directly?

Directly. We are the video call function and we connect you to the tradesperson. At the moment, because we are still quite new and we’re trying to get all the customers, the tradespeople do the callouts themselves – it is not done it is the place we can get to do the callouts themselves so they’re not done through QuickAssist.

Is there a limitation on the tradespeople rules, like for instance for a gas engineer?

Yeah, so what happens on here, because you put on here what you need and this goes out to the tradespeople – it goes to multiple tradespeople and if they can’t do it they skip it, they skip the job and it goes to the next one and it goes to the next one until there’s someone that’s qualified can do it. If it’s something that generally just can’t be done, like if you’re saying: “Hey I want to rewire my whole house”, they’re going to come back to us: “Hey Larissa please come and tell them that no we don’t want them to, you know, set fire to their house”. So that’s not possible. We’ve got a great relationship with all of our tradespeople and they’re not going to jump on that call and say okay cool you want to rewire a whole House, awesome, you can’t do it you need to get me out because that’s not okay. We’re there to help you.

Miles gets to spin the wheel. Alrighty, what’s it going to be, what’s it going to be. You get to win a prize because you’ve asked some questions. That was a very powerful spin Miles!

Come on Miles, we’ve not got all day…

Oh oh oh oh it’s slowing down… what do we have? A phone stand! There we go, congratulations – it’s a nice phone stand!

We also had a question behind you there as well?

I was wondering… if it was more that you were in a bit of a muddle, say with some painting – we wanted some tips on how to get through a tricky corner of what a professional would do in that situation. Could you make a call for that sort of thing as well?

100%! It’s literally anything you want to ask a tradesperson and you don’t want to spend two three hours on YouTube, Googling it and not getting the answer!

If you had a couple of quotes from some builders and your not entirely sure which one to go with, we can give you advice and talk you through that process. We can tell you what the price should be essentially, and you can take it from there.

If someone comes to your house, will they also try and fix other problems or would they just go?

Yeah, so if you’ve got let’s you call them and they say you’ve got so many problems around the home and they can do them in 20 minutes, let’s say, and they still have some of that time left over – because you paid for the call out they will help if you’ve got other issues they will definitely help you out – isn’t that right?

For sure. absolutely! Maximize the time.

Yeah, maximize the time there you go.

Alrighty, what’s it gonna be, what’s it gonna be on the spin – is it gonna be another phone stand again. Oh there you go, you got £15 off on your quick assist call!

Do we have any other questions?

All righty! Okay, well if you’ve got no other questions I guess we’re on to the next part of the the conversation. So, Chris…

Hi Melissa!

Hello! Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, so my name’s Chris and I founded Bits Bobs and Odd Jobs. We’re a handyman multi-trade outfit based in Battersea. We have a team of guys all have been employed directly by us.

I started Bits Bobs and Odd Jobs about 15 years ago. I was training as a plumber and during my spare time I used to work with friends and quite often I was asked to not just fix the tap, but I was asked could you fit this shelf or could you paint this wall and that’s how it was born. And then I had lunch with a friend of mine, said I’ve got this “Bits and Bobs thing” and she bolted on “Odd Jobs” and that’s that’s how how it came about.

I’ve always fixed things around the house. I don’t know, I get huge satisfaction out of it so from being a young boy my first project was I did up my parents larder at home, all be it in pink and blue, but anyway um I’ve always done things like that. And then lockdown I got so bored I ended up making a bird table out of an Ikea box, but you know I can’t help myself so that’s how we started.

Fantastic and now you are one of the experts on the platform with QuickAssist!

Oh, fab. It’s a it’s a joy to be part of QuickAssist. It’s such a good good idea because obviously call out charges are pretty expensive nowadays. You know, running a business, the vehicles, etc, the business behind it – but sometimes there are some really easy straightforward fixes you don’t need a professional for.

Or if you’re a fairly good DIYer and you want to have a stab at that shelf and you’re just not sure what you’re drilling into, or what drill bit to use, or what size raw plug – simple things like that. Just been able to talk it through rather than going through the sort of endless YouTube things – there’s a good sturdy pair of hands behind you just talking things through.

What is the most common DIY problem you’re faced with?

It’s quite a lot of leaking taps… So ,we do, you know, we try to talk people through that because it’s expensive ordeal to call out a plumber or a multi-trader just to do that. So this is where QuickAssist is brilliant. A quick call – have a look at the tap. Is it just a washer or is it a quarter turn tap? Then we can recommend where to go and how to do it. Is there an isolation valve which is an isolated the tap? All these sorts of things which you otherwise wouldn’t really know or have the confidence to do

Because in reality a lot of these problems are quite simple aren’t they? It’s a screwdriver or an adjustable spanner. For me it’s the confidence and when somebody’s told you yes that thing will come off there if you give it a bit of force. But you don’t want to overdo it in case it turns the other way or in case that bit isn’t supposed to come off.

Absolutely.

So once an expert like yourself says yes that is the correct thing. Give that a good hard turn with a spanner, with a screwdriver, then once you’ve got that confidence that you know you’re doing the correct thing – we can all do that ourselves at home in reality.

Absolutely. Also just check where your stopcock is first as well, just beforehand.

My mate actually, had a leak in his house the other day and he couldn’t find a stopcock. So he ran into the house with a hammer and just hit the copper pipe really hard – it kind of stopped it but I don’t suppose that’s recommended? No, okay!

I don’t think we should go swinging hammers around! I don’t think that’s the right way to do things!

So I did something similar like this at Christmas. You know it got really cold because of that massive cold snap and my Mum phoned up she said “My heating and hot water’s all stopped – I’m in an emergency”. I said “It’s Christmas time, you’re never going to get a plumber out – I’ll come round” and I Google it.

I probably spent two or three hours on YouTube on Christmas Eve trying to fix my mum’s – I think it was the heating – and it turns out all I needed to do was defrost the condenser pipe. Is that right, the condensation pipe?

Absolutely, yeah the condense pipe had blocked up.

I boiled a kettle. It took me about 30 seconds to run a hot water over a pipe. I still don’t know what it does really, but then she phoned all of her old mates – she’s in the Royal British Legion and she found all of the old ladies in the street and in the area and I spent about four hours going around old ladies houses boiling kettles and pouring it on pipes. They all thought I was a genius and some expert plumber but I just found this thing on YouTube – but it did take about three hours. 30 minutes on the phone to you and you’d have laughed at me and yeah told me how easy it was.

A common problem but as you say one easily resolved.

Exactly, and in that situation – those two three hours, however long it was, those people didn’t have hot water, didn’t have heating in the cold. If you imagine if you did the 30 minute call then within the hour you would be on the phone with someone who could tell you how to do it.

Joke’s aside that does worry – an old lady living on her own without heating hot water, that’s a serious situation – so this could potentially, you know, change lives and help people seriously.

Exactly! Well I’m glad that we’re all here to learn a little bit more. So Chris – let’s say a scenario here – I just purchased a home. Congratulations to me! And I’ve got the keys. I want to do some renovations, I want to get stuck into it, and I’m really excited. What do I do? We’ve established that we don’t take a hammer to things, so where do I start? Do I just, I don’t know, start knocking things down? Do I have to check the plumbing and electrics first to be safe? Do I just ignore it? Where do we begin?e

So, yes you’ve bought your new property. You would have had a surveyor’s report done presumably to get your mortgage, etc. Yeah, so judging that that’s all all right, it’s all structurally sound. There are visual checks you can do to make sure, you know, the electrics look all right. Look at the fuse box – does it look relatively modern? RCB switches? If so, then look at all the socket plates, the lights, etc – what’s the condition that they’re in?

And then plumbing-wise, again, you can have a visual look at just all the sort of taps, the waste, and things like that – what condition they’re look in. Do they look to be leaking? Then run all the taps as well – check they’re running correctly. How long does it taking for the hot water to pull through? All these sorts of things. Then you can do again – do a visual check on on the boiler or the megaflow system, the hot water tank or whatever. Again, just by looking at it you can see.

I guess that’s a really good top tip – if you’re buying a house, potentially before you even buy it. When you’re going around viewing a house, could you run all the taps and could you see how long it takes the hot water to heat up? That’d be a great idea wouldn’t it? Who’s bought a house and not really checked over properly, like doing checks on that? You wouldn’t think to do it, of course not!

Absolutely! The other thing is just the drain away. So you know, fill the bath up, the sinks, etc. Toilets flushing – all of that simple stuff. Yeah, just go through it. So, yeah that’s the two two big ones where I’d start.

Okay, yea okay. Noted! You probably should have checked all of those before you buy the house, but if you don’t there you go – that’s the first place to start. And then let’s say everything’s fine, everything runs well. Let’s say that the boiler’s new, like everything’s okay – what do I do? I want to repaint my living room. Do I start there or should I start in the bathroom? Should I start with where I’m living or where is the best place?

Well you should start by asking yourself some questions…