Discussions

Morning all,  
 
I've received a good amount of feedback and requests over the years for a "Building materials" type of classified category. Based on that I get the impression there are quite a few folks with materials that they may have come in possession of perhaps after a renovation/job they've done and that those materials don't necessarily fit very well in the Home & Garden category where they're mashed into right now. Along the same lines of how well the Auto Parts category has taken off I think there's an opportunity to open things up with a new separate category for building and Reno related materials with proper sub-categories and really see how much of that need is out there on both the buying and selling side.  
 
When it comes to building I'm familiar with some areas and pretty out of my depth in others and would appreciate a little feedback on sub-categories/tags there should be. When choosing it's always a challenge to come up with a list that isn't too long or excessively specific (I'd say 15-20 tags at most) but still does a good job of allowing to list based on common areas that people might search by.  
 
Based on looking around a number of related websites I've come up with a starting point that I've listed below and was hoping for thoughts such as:  
- is there anything glaringly missing that you could see being bought or sold in the classifieds in large enough numbers to justify its own tag  
- is there anything that looks like it doesn't belong, or could be combined with another tag without making things too overly general  
- is there a better naming for any of the tags I've listed so far?  
 
Tags so far:  
- Lumber  
- Gravel, sand, dirt  
- Brick, stone, concrete (is concrete better on its own?)  
- Roofing & siding  
- Deck & fence  
- Window & door  
- Plumbing, tubs, toilets, faucets  
- Electrical & light fixtures  
- Duct, vent  
- Paint  
- Drywall  
- Flooring & Tile  
- Cabinet & Countertop  
- Hardware  
 
All of this keeping in mind that tags are optional... And that when searching or placing an ad you can also choose more than one. So if there's a really specialized item that we might only see one or two of in a month it's probably best left untagged than having its own tag.  
 
Thanks for any thoughts you can provide, with any luck I'm hoping the category will be setup within the next few day. I can't necessarily go with every suggestion but am open to and would really appreciate help in making this the useful category that I think it can be.

Edited by admin, 2016-06-09 16:34:46. Reason: title update

Thanks for the thoughts so far.  
I did look at a number of sites such as those for home improvement stores and other classified sites in and outside of Canada to try to get my bearings. One thing I've run into for sites that are built with a whole country or continent in mind is that each city/market/climate has its own intricacies that they can sometimes miss and I don't want to overlook those when setting this up specifically for Westman.  As far as I can tell our tag system on here is pretty unique compared to a traditional sub-categorizing approach in the sense that you can search across multiple tags at once, so what is the right fit for one site isn't necessarily perfect for another... but the more ideas the better to evolve this into what works for eBrandon! 

 
Re heating/cooling, would one consider the "duct, vent" to be under the same umbrella as a furnace/AC or heating/cooling kind of category?  
 
It doesnt quite work to have an "other" tag since tags are more setup to be at least somewhat specific... but ads that arent tagged would still be listed in the category and would be considered the equivalent of "other." The other thing I could do is add separate tags for indoor and outdoor (keeping in mind that you could tag for example a countertop as both "indoor" and "cabinets, countertops." This would allow at least some categorization for some of the more oddball items that arent frequent enough to justify a more specific tag. I just want to make sure that everything's throught through in enough depth to have it detailed enough to be valuable, but at the same time not overly complicated.  
 
Also curious if anyone has thoughts on the "hardware" category. Basically have it in mind as being for nails, screws, nuts, bolts, hinges, brackets and the like. I don't want it to be confused with tools, which we already have a well-used category for. I've seen something similar referred to elsewhere as "fastening, fixing".... is there a better name?

Thanks again for the thoughts and feedback.  
I've put in the work today of creating the category and moving ads over from Home & Garden that are a better fit in the new category, which is named "Building & Reno Materials." It's now live for browsing and posting of new ads as a category under Merchandise on the main eBrandon website, the mobile website and the iPhone app.... All told we're starting with three pages of 100+ ads.  If you have these kinds of items lying around and you think they could help someone out, the more the merrier as we get the ball rolling!

When I set it up two more tags were added... one for Interior and one for Exterior/Outdoor. The idea is that one would generally tag an ad at least twice. For example a case of laminate flooring would be tagged both "Interior" and "Flooring & Tiles." I also emoved "Duct & Vent" and replaced with "Heating & Cooling".  
 
As part of this update, I made a few changes to Home & Garden to avoid too much overlap between the two categories. The following changes were made to Home & Garden:  
- removed the "Renovation/Materials tag"  
- “Window/door” has been changed to “window coverings”  
- “Flooring/carpet/rugs” has been changed to “Rugs/floors”  
- “Lighting” changed to “Lamps, Candles, Decorative Lights”  
 
I welcome your feedback on tweaks to either category to make sure that the intent of each is clear and to make sure that the kinds of items that would fit into each category are well covered.  
 
One thing I've wondered about is if based on the number of ads, "Insulation" should have its own tag under Building & Reno Materials.... or if people would expect to see it grouped under Heating & AC. Thoughts?  

Also as an aside, if you have an ad that was moved over to the new category and you disagree with the tagging that I applied to it please send a message through the Contact & Support link at the bottom of the page and we'll get it right. Or if you have an ad that you feel belongs in Building & Reno Materials that is currently in another category please also drop me a note. 

..... Now off to the backyard to work on the two reno projects I've bitten off