Getting the most out of Project Express
The platform works better when your description does. Here is how to write one that gets accurate quotes.
The quality of the quotes you get depends almost entirely on the quality of what you send. Here is how to make that work in your favour.
Describe the symptom, not your diagnosis
The instinct is to name the fix: I need a new water heater. That may be right, and if it is not, you have just told everyone to price the wrong thing.
Better: there is no hot water in the mornings, it comes back by afternoon, and there is a damp patch near the base of the tank. That description gets you a contractor who arrives knowing what to look at.
Say what you have already noticed
You live there. You have information nobody else has. When it started, whether it is worse in the rain, whether anyone has worked on it before, what the previous owner mentioned.
Any of that can change the scope substantially. A leak that started after the neighbour's work is a different investigation from one that has been slowly worsening for two years.
The write-up you get back is a starting scope, not a diagnosis. Its purpose is to make sure every contractor quotes the same thing. Read it as a draft you are meant to correct.
Correct the write-up before you send it
This is the step people skip. Nothing is sent until you approve it, so the moment to fix a misunderstanding is here, when it costs nothing.
If the AI has assumed you are replacing rather than repairing, or missed that access is through a crawlspace, change it. Every correction here removes an argument later.
Add photos and measurements
A photograph does more than a paragraph. Wide shot for context, close shot for the problem, and something for scale.
Rough measurements help too. Approximate is fine and better than nothing — a contractor pricing a floor needs to know whether it is a hundred square feet or four hundred.
Say what matters most to you
If you need it done before a specific date, say so. If budget is the binding constraint, say so. If you would rather wait and get it exactly right, say that.
Contractors quote differently depending on which of those is true, and if you do not say, they will guess.
Read the exclusions first
When quotes arrive, resist looking at the totals first. Read the exclusions.
Every quote states price, exclusions, message and timeline. The exclusions are what makes the totals comparable. If one is cheaper and excludes disposal, permits and making good, it may not be cheaper at all.
Use the message field as a work sample
The message tells you how someone thinks. Did they engage with your specific situation or paste a paragraph? Did they flag something you had not considered? Did they ask a question that shows they read it?
The contractor who mentions the thing you were quietly worried about has usually done this before.
You are not committed by receiving quotes
Nothing obliges you to accept any of them. Your street address and full contact details are shared only when you choose to engage a specific pro. Until then contractors see the project and the general area.
Leave a review afterwards
Only homeowners who hired through the platform can review, which is what makes the ratings worth reading. Yours is what the next person relies on.
The most useful reviews are specific: what the job was, whether the price held, how surprises were handled, whether you would use them again.
One sentence is enough to start
It is free, and nothing is sent until you approve it.
Describe your project