User Guide & Technical Manual
Everything you need to know about designing floor plans, sizing Kenyan building materials, generating 3D AI concept renders, and exporting contractor-grade estimates.
Quick Start: 0 to First Estimate in 3 Minutes
HomeCostify connects spatial floor planning directly with Kenya's regional material price index. Follow these 5 steps to generate your first accurate estimate:
Choose House & County
Select your house type (e.g., 3-Bed Bungalow), county/town for local transport pricing, and finish level.
Sketch Your Rooms
Use one-click Kenyan preset rooms or starter layouts. The 2D canvas auto-calculates total plinth area.
Auto-Size Quantities
Material formulas size cement bags, sand, ballast, rebar, quarry stones, and roofing sheets to your sketch.
Generate 3D AI Concepts
Synthesize 3D isometric cutaways or exterior elevations conditioned directly on your 2D room schematic.
Export Branded PDF
Download a formal PDF complete with your 2D schematic, 3D concept render, and unbundled material totals.
Interactive 2D Room Sketcher (Konva Engine)
Rather than guessing building square meters or wrestling with CAD software, HomeCostify provides an in-browser 2D room sketcher powered by Konva.js.
Canvas Mechanics & Features
All walls and rooms lock to half-meter increments (e.g., 3.5m, 4.0m, 4.5m) ensuring structural realism consistent with standard Kenya building masonry lengths.
Click any room to select it. Drag to reposition, or grab the bottom-right corner anchor to resize width and depth with real-time dimension badges.
As rooms are added, enlarged, or removed, the total floor area badge updates instantly. This variable flows automatically into the material calculation engine.
On saving, the canvas generates a high-contrast black-and-white PNG schematic stored at storage/app/public/layouts/, embedding directly into PDF exports and AI render conditioning.
Standard Kenyan Room Presets & Starter Layouts
To accommodate Kenyan mobile touchscreen use, the sketcher features a one-tap Quick-Add tray calibrated to standard Kenyan architectural proportions:
| Room Type | Dimensions (W × H) | Area (m²) | Typical Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master Bedroom (Ensuite) | 4.0m × 3.8m | 15.2 m² | Fits king bed, wardrobes, & private shower/toilet |
| Bedroom 2 | 3.5m × 3.2m | 11.2 m² | Standard double bedroom with built-in wardrobe |
| Bedroom 3 / Guest | 3.2m × 3.0m | 9.6 m² | Twin/guest room or home study |
| Sitting Room (Lounge) | 5.0m × 4.2m | 21.0 m² | Main family living area with TV lounge & sofa suite |
| Dining Area | 3.5m × 3.0m | 10.5 m² | 6-seater dining table adjacent to kitchen |
| Kitchen & Pantry | 3.6m × 3.0m | 10.8 m² | L-shaped countertop, double sink, & cooker niche |
| Bathroom / WC | 2.2m × 1.5m | 3.3 m² | Combined washbasin, water closet, & instant shower |
| Front Verandah / Porch | 3.0m × 2.0m | 6.0 m² | Covered entrance portico with stone pillars |
Material Formulas & The BOQ Pricing Engine
When you finish sketching, the accumulated floor_area is handed directly to FormulaEvaluator. Standard template lines evaluate mathematical formulas into billable units:
Primary Material Consumption Formulas
*Quantities can be fine-tuned or customized inside the Manual BOQ Editor before finalizing.
Under Kenyan contracting practice, labor pricing fluctuates significantly between local fundis, skilled artisans, and NCA-registered general contractors. HomeCostify never blends labor into material costs; labor is calculated as an unbundled, transparent advisory range.
3D AI Architectural Concept Visualizer (Phase B)
Pure text-to-image prompts produce generic buildings with no spatial correlation to what you designed. HomeCostify uses a Schematic Conditioning (ControlNet) Pipeline:
3D Isometric Cutaway
A 3D architectural model viewed from a top-down angled perspective with the roof cut away. It reveals interior room divisions, furnished living spaces, stone partitions, and natural light matching your floor plan.
Exterior Perspective Elevation
An 8K architectural visualization showing the house in front-three-quarter elevation. Features pitched pre-painted box profile roofing, Juja/Ndarugu machine-cut stone masonry, large picture windows, and cabro driveway.
360° Panoramic Virtual Tour & Finishes Studio
Experience your home from the inside out in full 360-degree spherical perspective:
Generate 360° panoramas for the Living Lounge, Open Kitchen, Master Suite, Front Entry, and Backyard Garden.
Powered by Pannellum. Click & drag on desktop or swipe on mobile to look 360° around floors, walls, and gypsum ceilings.
Upgrading from ceramic to high-gloss porcelain tiles, or adding designer gypsum cove ceilings auto-adjusts your BOQ materials total.
360° Virtual Tour & Architectural Finishes Studio
Customize your house room-by-room, explore spaces in an interactive 360° spherical WebGL panorama, and watch material finishes auto-adjust your Bill of Quantities (BOQ):
🛋️ Interior Finishes Customization
- Flooring Options: Standard Ceramic (KES 900/m²), High-Gloss Polished Porcelain 60×60cm (KES 1,850/m²), Hardwood Parquet/Laminate (KES 2,800/m²), or Polished Cast Terrazzo (KES 1,400/m²).
- Ceiling Architecture: Flush Plaster & Cornice (KES 650/m²), Designer Suspended Gypsum with Hidden LED Cove Lights (KES 1,750/m²), or Tongue & Groove Cypress Rafters (KES 1,600/m²).
- Wall Plaster & Paints: Washable Vinyl Silk Matte (KES 450/m²) or Accent Quarry Stone Feature Walls (KES 1,250/m²).
- Cabinetry & Tops: Laminate MDF or Solid Black Galaxy Granite Countertops with soft-close acrylic cabinetry.
🏡 Exterior Facade & Compound
- Wall Masonry: Fair-Faced Ndarugu/Juja Machine-Cut Stone 200mm (KES 1,100/m²), Chiseled Stone with Mazeras Slate Trims (KES 1,650/m²), or Smooth Cement Render with Acrylic Weather-Guard.
- Roofing Profiles: Charcoal Gray Box Profile Sheets (KES 850/m²), Soundproof Stone-Coated Decra Metal Tiles (KES 1,750/m²), or Terracotta Roman Clay Tiles (KES 2,200/m²).
- Driveway & Compound: Heavy-Duty 60mm Interlocking Cabro Paving with Kikuyu Grass Turf (KES 1,200/m²) or Compacted Gravel with Stepping Stones.
🌐 How the Interactive 360° Spherical Viewer Works
Powered by WebGL (Pannellum)HomeCostify renders high-resolution 2:1 equirectangular spherical panoramas ($1600 \times 800$). When loaded in the embedded WebGL viewer, the projection wraps into a seamless virtual sphere:
Click and drag with your mouse, or swipe on your phone screen to spin 360° around the room.
Look straight up to inspect gypsum ceiling cove lighting, or look straight down to view floor tile layouts.
Scroll your mouse wheel or pinch-to-zoom to inspect fine masonry, timber grains, and textures.
Toggle smooth cinematic auto-rotation for presentations, client pitches, or contractor walk-throughs.
Multi-Currency & Imperial Units System
To serve Kenyans in the diaspora and international property investors, HomeCostify includes a built-in real-time currency conversion and unit toggle system:
Switch instantly between KES, USD ($), GBP (£), EUR (€), CAD (CA$), AED, UGX, and TZS. The entire application — estimates, BOQ tables, comparisons, and PDF downloads — recalculates automatically.
Toggle between Metric (m / m²) and Imperial (ft / sq ft). The 2D floorplanner canvas dynamically re-labels room border dimensions and calculates dual gross plinth areas.
Professional PDF Exports & Shareable Client Links
Estimates in HomeCostify are built to be shared directly with lending institutions, quantity surveyors, and site foremen:
Shareable Read-Only Link (/e/{token})
Every estimate generates a cryptographically secure, permanent share link.
Share this URL via WhatsApp or email. Recipients can inspect the 2D layout schematic, room dimensions, 3D concept renders, and priced material breakdown on any phone or desktop, without having edit access.
PDF Document Architecture
- Page 1 Header: House Type, County & Town location, and Total Materials Budget Range.
- Page 1 Floor Plan: Embedded 2D Architectural Schematic snapshot + Full Room Schedule schedule.
- Page 1 Concept Render: Embedded 3D AI Architectural Concept (when synthesized).
- Pages 2+: Fully priced, itemized Bill of Quantities grouped by category (Cement, Masonry, Roofing, Steel & Rebar, Timber, Aggregates).
Estimate Versioning & Comparative Diff Tool
Construction projects evolve. Clients change finishes from standard to high, or negotiate stone sizes:
From My Estimates (/estimates), click Duplicate Version. HomeCostify creates an identical child version linked to the parent (e.g. v1 → v2).
Once updated, select two versions and click Compare Revisions (/estimates/{left}/compare/{right}) to see an instant side-by-side diff highlighting changed material quantities, unit price shifts, and budget delta.
Subscription Plans & AI Render Quotas
To protect commercial unit economics while providing substantial value, AI Concept Renders and 360° Virtual Tours are included within paid tiers:
Free Tier
- ✓ Unlimited estimate calculations
- ✓ 2D Room Sketcher access
- ✓ Standard PDF exports
- ✗ 3D AI Concept Renders & 360° Tours
Pro Plan
- ✓ Everything in Free
- ✓ 15 AI 3D Renders & 360° Tours / mo
- ✓ Architectural Finishes & BOQ Sync
- ✓ Unlimited saved projects
- ✓ Clean unwatermarked PDF exports
- ✓ Version comparison & diff tool
Business Plan
- ✓ Everything in Pro
- ✓ 50 AI 3D Renders & 360° Tours / mo
- ✓ Up to 5 team member seats
- ✓ Custom contractor branding on PDFs
- ✓ Priority phone & WhatsApp support