Much difference at these shows??

jolester

We are hopefully completing on our sale/purchase in a few weeks and we would like to do a lot of alterations both to the structure and internally.

We have tickets to the Homebuilding and Renovation show in B'Ham this weekend and to Grand Designs and the Ideal Home show in London over the coming weeks, does anyone have an experience of attending all three of these? Are there all much of a muchness or should we expect very different trades/ideas etc at each of them?

Thanks for any insight

Doozergirl

I've never been to Ideal Home. HB&R and Grand Designs are pretty similar. Grand Designs has some prettier little things than HB&R as well as build/renovate things and is split up into different zones. I suspect ideal home is much more pretty things/consumer driven than trade - if you put self builders into the 'trade' category temporarily.

My other half and I are on the Ask The Experts stand at HB&R on Saturday being builders.

jolester

Doozergirl wrote: »

I've never been to Ideal Home. HB&R and Grand Designs are pretty similar. Grand Designs has some prettier little things than HB&R as well as build/renovate things and is split up into different zones. I suspect ideal home is much more pretty things/consumer driven than trade - if you put self builders into the 'trade' category temporarily.

My other half and I are on the Ask The Experts stand at HB&R on Saturday being builders.

We're there Sunday We're hoping to get some basic ideas this weekend with a view to have more in depth conversations with specific trades at the others.

We do need/want to do everything, extend, renovate, decorate, internally, externally, "smart" so probably a lot to try and fit in in one show !

dunroving

Aww, crap, I just booked a train to Brum for next week and realised from your post that I'll miss the HBR show by one day! (am buying a house in Brum, and will be doing medium-level renovations).

Whine ...

Furts

There is also NSBRC at Swindon. Open 6 days a week and regular shows. There are regular events, speakers, classes and such like. Some of the regular speakers are very good. Some others are pure sales puff, but one sees through this very quickly! An experience in itself here because the more professional speakers often manage to pull rank over the sales chancers.

H&R Show is ... good, have to say that because Doozergirl is there! But in reality is somewhat slick and not quite in the style of NSBRC.

dunroving

Furts wrote: »

There is also NSBRC at Swindon. Open 6 days a week and regular shows. There are regular events, speakers, classes and such like. Some of the regular speakers are very good. Some others are pure sales puff, but one sees through this very quickly! An experience in itself here because the more professional speakers often manage to pull rank over the sales chancers.

H&R Show is ... good, have to say that because Doozergirl is there! But in reality is somewhat slick and not quite in the style of NSBRC.

Great suggestion, thank you. That's only a 90-min drive from where I'll be living.

jolester

dunroving wrote: »

Aww, crap, I just booked a train to Brum for next week and realised from your post that I'll miss the HBR show by one day! (am buying a house in Brum, and will be doing medium-level renovations).

Whine ...

Oh no ! I only know about it because this morning I saw an email in a folder I never usually go in offering last chance free tickets - a bit narked that I've paid a fortune for train tickets to London for the other 2 shows and Brum is on my doorstep !

I used to live in Brum (and am a Villa fan!)

J_B

jolester wrote: »

We have tickets to the Homebuilding and Renovation show in B'Ham this weekend and to Grand Designs and the Ideal Home show in London over the coming weeks, does anyone have an experience of attending all three of these?

We did Ideal Home and then HBR over the same weekend last year.

Would the fact that one is in Landan and the other in Brum be a sufficient summing up?

Ideal Home is sort of Laurence Llewelyn Bowen whereas HBR is more Kevin McCloud and George whatsisname.

Give the fancy London-centric stuff a miss and concentrate on the 'real life' stuff IMHO.

VfM4meplse

Ideal Home is the same old carp year after year, but thankfully seems to shrink in size every year too. If it's renovation you're after rather than nice-to-haves / finishing touches, I'd prioritise the other shows and visit Ideal Home when you've got the basics done.

No offence intended to MSE Martin.

jolester

Thanks for all your responses... I've already bought the train tickets for the London shows so wouldn't be very money saving for me not to go, couldn't believe I paid a couple of quid for the actual tickets and a couple of hundred quid for the travel there !

Oh well, we're only renovating once and as they're so close in date to each other it seemed sensible to book them

VfM4meplse

jolester wrote: »

couldn't believe I paid a couple of quid for the actual tickets and a couple of hundred quid for the travel there !

There is a reason for this: it's basically one big selling opportunity - hence loads of free tickets are released. Back in the 80s and 90s it was freebies galore, but those days have been and gone. If you've never been before, you might get some good ideas. The show houses are usually worth visiting, but pick times when the queues are low.