I thought you might be interested to know the back story to the establishment of Cost My Self Build. It makes interesting reading!

Over thirty years ago, I set up a building company that went on to turnover £4-5 million per annum. We built in excess of 300 extensions and around 80 new builds for customers. I also added various extensions to my own homes over the years (I have a large family!) – not forgetting my own self build – the dream family home!

So I know the building industry well – and more importantly, why accurate pricing and drawings really matter. You can’t cut corners. Which is why I wrote my own estimating software, first for my own business and then for building firms across the UK. That’s how HBXL Building Software was born. It took over 4 years of development before the first generation EstimatorXpress was launched. Twenty years on, we’re now on EstimatorXpress 2020! And HBXL is the UK market leader in construction software for small to medium sized businesses, with over 13,000 licences are being used around the UK.

Knowing that not all builders have either the time or inclination to use software, we next set up HBXL Professional Services. So we used the power of the software to offer building firms design, estimating, health & safety and contracts via our highly experienced construction specialists. Many of the team come from a building background having run their own building firms. Since launch we’ve estimated nearly half a billion pounds worth of building projects.

Then came Cost My Self Build. We wanted to give self builders the same access to experienced estimators and award-winning software as the building firms. Our customers use the service for a variety of reasons. For some it’s a sanity check, for others it’s a cost comparison for tenders coming in. The estimates and management documents are also invaluable when it comes to the financing of projects.

So you can see that we know more about construction, builders and the importance of accurate costing than just about any other company in the UK!  If you’d like to get in touch with me directly, please do at adrian@hbxl.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading.

Adrian Wild