Flexible Bucket Liners - Market Research!

[cr0ft]

Hi all,

Please forgive me using you all for a bit of market research. I currently have a patent pending on what is essentially a flexible bucket liner designed to fit into a flexible bucket. If the product went to market it would be available in a standard range of sizes to fit different bucket volumes.

I would be looking at aiming it at plasterers/tilers and builders, i.e. users of cement and gypsum based products where buckets need to be fairly clean before they can be re-used.

My experience has shown that cleaning buckets out is quite labour intensive and ties up my apprentice, especially when we do plastering.

The idea behind the liner is it is made of thin plastic and is simply thrown in the skip after the tradesman is finished with the mix, leaving the bucket ready to be reused instantly without any time spent cleaning it out. From an environmental perspective it means buckets are not being washed down drains in roads etc. The plan would be to make the liners from recycled plastic too.

My question is would you buy this product and if so what sort of price would you think is reasonable?

Thanks to everyone in advance for your replies.

 

[White Room]

I would probably give them a go but would need a pack of, say ten for about £3....or less.

 

[cr0ft]

Thanks Whitebeam. I agree, they would have to be a mass manufactured item to work. Very interested to hear what people think they would be worth in particular. I also think they would make the more expensive buckets last a lot longer too as the mixer paddles tend to knock them to bits over time. I know I could get away with one bucket really with these liners. At the moment I have separate ones for adhesives, grouts and plastering!

 

[White Room]

Even buckets have a certain life span and for a decent builders one they can cost £3 plus....

 

[cr0ft]

Yes the buckets tend to be around £4-£5 for the large ones we use for tiling adhesives. I figure that the liner will help to protect this investment as well to be honest. It's hard to quantify but I think a pack of 10 liners would double the life of a bucket realistically. It's the labour saving for tradespeople I am most focussing on though. If we use 4 buckets a day that's an hour of apprentice's labour to get them all spotlessly clean before we use them again.

 

[CJ]

Needs to be cheap.......or I'll stick with a hose pipe on full wack.

 

[cr0ft]

Thanks CJ. I agree (lol@the hose pipe on full pelt). What price would be the most you would be willing to pay for a pack of 10 say, taking into account the labour cost of you/your labourer/apprentice cleaning buckets out if that makes sense.

 

[White Room]

How about a teflon bucket, non stick and all that....

 

[Dave]

Get my buckets for FREE anyway ...

 

[cr0ft]

Isn't teflon expensive?? Never really thought about that

 

[cr0ft]

Get my buckets for FREE anyway ...

I wish I did!

 

[CJ]

Thanks CJ. I agree (lol@the hose pipe on full pelt). What price would be the most you would be willing to pay for a pack of 10 say, taking into account the labour cost of you/your labourer/apprentice cleaning buckets out if that makes sense.

But I'm a tight git.........so I would end up blasting the bucket liners out as well. Like to get my monies worth.

Pack of 10..........no more than £15. Depends on quality.

 

[Dave]

I wish I did!

Local kebab shop ... Mayonnaise buckets....

 

[cr0ft]

Can you send some my way pleased? I spend an absolute fortune on the flexible buckets which is kind of how I came about with the idea in the first place tbh. The apprentices in our firm like it but then they would love anything that involves less cleaning I guess.

 

[Chalker]

If it takes 10 min to clean your buckets ( twice a day ). To make it easy, your charging £24 an hour, that equates to £4 to clean out your bucket. I think if these liners were strong enough to stand a few mixes with a paddle. I would pay 50p a liner.
I've never worked it out until now, but it's cheaper to chuck the buckets away every day! Just seems wrong though.