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.

 

[cr0ft]

Not suggesting anything but it seems that you tilers get the benefit I am trying to sell. Over on the plasterer's forum it's gone down incredibly negative

 

[gamma38]

I think they may come in too expensive. Only thinking of how strong they would have to be to withstand a paddle on full noise churning against them. Good idea though.

 

[White Room]

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.

Your contact is Stavros, big moustache and dirty apron...refuse any kebab when offered

 

[dave l and l]

£3 for ten would be fair. I am forever cleaning buckets as I usually put it in van with adhesive left in it to set. I think it's a good idea

 

[Chalker]

I like the idea of just screwing the liner up as sometimes it's hard to get a decent spot to clean your buckets.

 

[Ajax123]

Surely that would not fly on a breeam or code rated project where creation of and management of waste is quite a big aspect...

 

[cr0ft]

I like the idea of just screwing the liner up as sometimes it's hard to get a decent spot to clean your buckets.

Didn't even think of that aspect. I've had a few jobs where there is no drain nearby that's handy. Also, pouring the waste down the drains usually makes a mess that has to be cleaned up as well.

The problem is that I'm not sure the market from tilers only is large enough to make it work. Cement based products seem to be the hardest to clean out so I guess it could be marketable to bricklayers and other trades as well though.

 

[cr0ft]

Surely that would not fly on a breeam or code rated project where creation of and management of waste is quite a big aspect...

A very valid point to be honest.

I do see where you are coming from but the buckets themselves have a fairly finite life and get thrown out. Generally we leave the adhesive to dry in buckets over night and knock them out on the side of a skip the next day. We usually get around 5 or 6 mixes out of a bucket this way before we end up holing the flexible bucket (maybe we should buy the more expensive ones rather than the £5 ones). In addition, we need to have separate buckets for mixing adhesives and grouts and plastering really to avoid contamination. We end up with an awful lot of buckets really. In addition, cleaning out buckets uses quite a lot of water which is very environmentally unfriendly too!

With liners you can get away with one bucket per tiler to be honest, covering grouting, plastering, tiling, whatever you want. A 2mm liner on each mix will massively extend the life of the buckets.

I think that the liners (which would be made from recycled plastic) would both extend the life of the more expensive buckets and be less wasteful than throwing these buckets when they get holes in them.

 

[Alan M]

I think it is a good idea. its not something you would use every day but would be great for jobs in multi story's or flats etc. where there is nowhere to wash out the buckets.
I think you need a big one for adhesive and a smaller size for grout

 

[cr0ft]

I would envisage there being 4 sizes to suit the 4 different flexi bucket sizes on the market. Obviously I'd like it to be something that people would use every day for the convenience but will be interested to see where it goes. I think if there is a market for it it's for users of cement based products as these are a lot harder to clean out of buckets. Builders/tilers etc.