Which trade. Not which price.

No, and that's a deliberate choice rather than a limitation it hides. Labour rates, call-out charges, parts prices and tax vary enormously by country, region and even by postcode, and there's no access to current local pricing — so any average would be invented. A made-up figure is worse than none: it could lead you to reject a fair quote or accept a bad one. What you get instead is what determines the price, what the job involves, and where to find real local rate data.

The triage, which is where most money is saved. Whether it's urgent or can wait for a proper quote. Which of the three bands it falls in — genuine DIY, general handyperson, or a licensed trade — because calling the wrong one costs a call-out fee before anybody looks at anything. What the job likely involves, so a four-hour quote for a forty-minute job becomes a question. And whether it's worth repairing at all.

Partly, and with a clear limit. A photo can show a fitting type or an obvious break. It cannot show what's behind a wall, whether a circuit is sound, or whether a crack is structural — and safety-critical faults involving gas, electrics or structure are never diagnosed from an image or a description here. Those go straight to the right qualified person, which is the honest answer rather than a guess dressed up as one.

By cost per remaining year, using your own numbers. The repair quote divided by the years the current one likely has left, against the replacement cost divided by the life of a new one. There's also a common heuristic — past half its life and above about half the replacement price, replacing usually wins — presented as a starting point rather than a law, since running costs, warranty and how long you're staying all shift it.

Agreeing beforehand that if the fault turns out to be something other than expected, they stop and requote rather than carrying on. That single sentence is the difference between a known price and an open one, and it's where repair bills actually escalate — not in the original quote. The audit also covers the call-out charge, whether the price is fixed or an estimate, and whether the guarantee covers labour as well as the part, which are frequently different periods.