Renno at the London Homebuilding & Renovating Show 2026: what 30+ homeowners taught us about trust

What is the London Homebuilding & Renovating Show?

The London Homebuilding & Renovating Show is one of the UK's largest consumer events for people planning a home project, and the 2026 edition ran from 18 to 20 September at ExCeL London. Over three days it brought together hundreds of exhibitors, live theatres, seminars and masterclasses, and thousands of homeowners at every stage, from a first daydream about a loft conversion to a full renovation already underway. For a company building payment protection for renovations, it was the right room to be in, because almost everyone who stopped at our booth was weighing a decision that involved a lot of money and a lot of trust.

Why Renno was at the London Homebuilding & Renovating Show

So much of what we build happens on a screen. The show gave us three days to stand in front of the people we build for, hear their plans in their own words, and understand the worries they carry long before a builder is hired. A lot of those conversations became the very thing the Renno Concierge is designed for, where one local expert works on your side to match you with a vetted contractor, compare your quotes, and keep your money protected until you are happy with the work. Person after person arrived right at the start of a project, unsure where to begin, and simply glad to talk it through with someone who could help.

Our masterclass: protecting your renovation budget from cowboy builders

On the Friday afternoon we took to the Masterclass Theatre for a session called “How to protect your renovation budget from cowboy builders and never lose a deposit.” It was led by Amy Fletcher, a homeowner and renovation creator who has lived through the process herself, and Nicola de Sousa, director of FMB Central at the Federation of Master Builders, who sees first hand what happens when it goes wrong. In twenty focused minutes they walked a packed theatre through how to check a builder properly, how to structure payments, and how to keep a deposit safe, and the questions afterwards showed how much appetite there is for clear, trustworthy guidance.

When a renovation goes wrong: the rogue builder stories we heard

The conversations were rarely casual curiosity. Many of the people we met had already lived through a project that went wrong, and the details were hard to hear. One couple were handed twelve thousand pounds of extra charges they could see no evidence for, including an external wall that had been taken down and then billed to them. Another homeowner watched a builder take the money for a stage and disappear, so the work and the funds were gone together. Someone else described chasing a company whose registered address turned out to belong to an estate agent, with no real trader behind it. Most of these were careful people who had trusted the wrong signal, and the cost landed squarely on them.

A homeowner we spoke to at the show.

The one question we heard more than any other

One question came up far more than any other. Again and again, homeowners asked us the same anxious thing: how do I know the work is actually good enough to approve? People grasped quickly that protected, staged payments put them in control of when money is released. The harder part, especially on hidden or technical work like roofing, foundations, electrics and plumbing, is feeling qualified to judge whether a stage is truly finished. This is exactly why we built the Renno Concierge, so you have one local expert on your side to compare your quotes, keep an eye on the work, and help you know when a stage is genuinely done before you release a penny.

How common are these problems across the UK?

The stories at our booth reflect pressures that show up on renovations across the country: budgets that creep, timelines that slip, and the risk of trusting the wrong person with a large sum of money.

The pattern is consistent, and it is fixable. The damage concentrates in a few places: at the hiring stage, in the deposit, at the point of approving each stage, and in the weeks after a project closes. Those are the moments worth protecting.

The riskiest moments in a home renovation

Most of the danger in a renovation is concentrated in a few key moments. The first is the deposit and any money paid before work begins, which is exactly what vanishes when a builder takes it and walks. Both Citizens Advice and the Federation of Master Builders advise keeping a deposit modest and tied to visible progress rather than handing over a large lump sum, and we have written up how much deposit is normal and the safest way to pay a builder in more detail.

The second is approving each stage. Homeowners want clear evidence that a milestone is genuinely complete, and on high-risk work some want a professional eye before they release payment. Checking that a builder carries the right insurance is part of the same instinct, and it is easy to do before work starts.

The third is the period after completion, when defects surface and the builder can be hard to reach. Keeping a clear record of what was agreed and delivered is what makes a comeback enforceable, and it matters most when a builder will not return to finish or fix the work.

Meet the Renno Concierge

The clearest signal of the whole weekend was how much people wanted a human to help them make sense of it all, especially right at the start. That is what the Renno Concierge is for. One local expert works on your side to match you with a vetted contractor, compare your quotes, and keep your money protected until you are happy with the work. For a first-time renovator holding a stack of quotes with no way to compare them, that kind of guidance is worth more than any single feature, and it is often the difference between starting with confidence and not starting at all.

What this means for how we build Renno

Everything we heard points in the same direction. Homeowners want their money protected, they want help choosing someone they can trust, and they want confidence that the work is good before they pay for it. Protected, staged payments are the foundation, and around that we are building the human guidance and the quality confidence that turn a stressful project into a safe one. If you are at the start of a project, the seven checks to do before you even meet a builder are a good place to begin.

Every renovation should begin with confidence and end with work you are proud of.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, shared a story, or signed up on the spot, and to the team behind the London Homebuilding & Renovating Show for having us. We heard every word, and it is already shaping what we build next. We will be back.

Frequently asked questions

The 31 stories we captured at the show are anonymised and reflect what people chose to share at our booth, so they are directional rather than representative.