The Expert Score

The Expert Score is a 0-100 score that indicates how good a garden building is according to industry experts.

How the Expert Score is calculated

The Expert Score is an impartial score that uses data collected on thousands of garden buildings. An algorithm that industry experts helped create then allows us to apply quality rules to over 280 standardised data points that relate to an individual product. The data points are then compared against the whole product database, weighted according to retailer and brand credibility/reputation and then ranked in accordance with the industry expert’s rules.

By following this process we are able to process and rank every garden building sold in the UK and show you what industry experts agree are the best and explain why they think they are the best.

1) Data In

We start by pulling in all the product information from most of the online retailers that sell garden buildings. Typically this means we start off with will over a million different products we need to understand and analyse.

With this data, we then parse the content and then filter down the products further to only garden building-related items.

Each row of the data is then inspected and (based on its retailer) passed over to the next step for data collection ready for standardisation.

2) Standardise Data

In order to impartially rank each product we first need to standardise all the key data for every product.

This is done by cleaning up the data and generalising some of the terms in order to make categorisation easier.

Terms like “Cladding Thickness” are often labelled many different ways, and certain pieces of data like size can be stored in vastly different ways between the data sources so these need to be converted to a more uniform format before continuing.

This standardising of the data allows us to impartially do objective like for like comparisons for every product in a given category.

3) Categories Products

Once we have all of the data cleaned up and terms labelled correctly, we begin to categorise the data.

The categorisation is done through a series of functions that allow us to categorise a product in much the same way a search engine categorises a page.

The simplest way we determine a category is through keyword search, but for some categories, this isn’t enough, so we also look at the data points we’re able to collect and relate these to categories too.

Things like the size of a product, whether it’s 2 storeys, what additions a building may have like a veranda or slide, and in some cases, we generate some custom data points based on the collected data in order to further determine some of the more subjective categories.

4) Matching Product IDs

At this point, we merge the products based on any product or manufacturer IDs we were able to find during the data collection.

This is done recursively, meaning when a product finds a match, we also then check any ids found on that matched product, and so on until we find no more matches.  This lets us ensure we find all of the possible data for a product within our data sources

Since a single product can be found from multiple data sources, we’ve given each source a “rank” based on how relevant/up to date their information is and we use this rank to determine during the merge which data points should be kept/overwritten/removed completely from the results.

Matching products this way also allows us to offer price comparisons.

5) Expert Analysis

With all the products now categorised and organised with standardised data, we can now apply an impartial ranking algorithm to the data. For each category, we have industry experts who have looked at all the standardised data points we collect for each product.

With each of the points, they have then ranked the data points in order of quality and also added comments as to what is good or bad about each. We also factor in brand and retailer reputation when calculating the expert score. This expert analysis is then applied to every product.

To find out more as to how our experts calculate the scores and what they look for please read the How our Experts rate things? section below.

6) Calculate Expert Score

Once the expert analysis is applied to a product we end up with every product in the market ranked by category according to what industry experts say are the most important quality factors. With this Expert Score, you can then find the best garden buildings sold in the UK, impartiality ranked from the largest selection of retailers available.

 

How do our Experts rate things?

We can’t give away all our secrets but we can try to shed some light (no pun intended) on how our experts help to rank things. Our main goal is to give you an impartial and accurate view of what the best products actually are at a given time in the garden buildings market.

To do this the first thing we need to do is take all the information on every product sold and put that information into a standardised format. An example of the types of data we collect and standardise are things like Cladding Thickness, Preserving Treatments Applied, Glazing Type and Glazing Thicknesses etc.

Once all the products have key data points that are homogenised then we have the foundations needed for comparing every product on an equal and impartial foundation. This is where the experts come in.

For each category, we have a number of different judging points that can objectively be used to help assess if a product is good or not. We have worked with industry experts on a category by category basis to work out what the key points are we should be assessing a product on. Once we then have all the judging points we then look at all the standardised data we have for every product we have analysed. This data is then categorised by our experts as to how good or bad the product feature is for the product.

As an example when looking at windows on a garden shed we have over 7 different types of glazing options used across 4,222 sheds analysed. Those glazing types come in 6 different thicknesses. What is the best glazing type? What is the best glazing thickness?

By working with several experts on garden sheds we are able to work out what is the best and what is the worst glazing type. They are also able to work out what the best glazing thickness is and what is the worst. Each data option is then given a ranking score that can be applied to the data point. If a product has the best glazing option and also the best thickness option then it will score highly as it is clearly the best option for a window for a garden shed. Equally, this method allows us to identify what the worst option is for a window.

We apply similar logic to things like Cladding Thickness, Cladding Type, Wood Type, Treatment Applied etc. For all the products we have over 35 different standardised data points that our experts have helped formulate for our judging criteria. This allows us to accurately calculate quality of materials, construction quality, ease of construction and value for money for any given product.

By standardising all the information and applying industry expert advice we are able to regularly analyse and rank practically every garden building available online in an informative and impartial way and then show you what our experts agree our the best products.

 

The final calculation

The 0-100 Expert Score is finally calculated by weighting the quality of material, construction quality, ease of construction and value for money scores with the Brands online review and reputation score.

• Quality of Material: 30%
• Construction Quality: 30%
• Ease of Construction: 5%
• Value for Money: 15%
• Brand reviews and reputation: 20%

The colour of the Expert Score depends on its rating:

• 80-100: Green
• 60-79: Yellow
• 00-59: Red

Expert Score distributions

80% of all garden buildings have an Expert Score between 74 and 90 with an average of 83. Garden Buildings with an Expert Score above 83 are better rated than the average. Below is illustrated the distribution of the Expert Score in percentages.

Quality of material distributions

73% of all garden buildings have a quality of material score between 78 and 90 with an average of 81. Garden Buildings with a quality of material score above 81 are better rated than the average. Below is illustrated the distribution of the quality of material score in percentages.

Construction quality distributions

84% of all garden buildings have a construction quality score between 74 and 88 with an average of 77. Garden Buildings with a construction quality score above 77 are better rated than the average. Below is illustrated the distribution of the construction quality score in percentages.

Ease of construction distributions

60% of all garden buildings have ease of construction scores between 62 and 92 with an average of 73. Garden Buildings with ease of construction score above 73 are better rated than the average. Below is illustrated the distribution of the ease of construction score in percentages.

Value for money distributions

55% of all garden buildings have a value for money score between 74 and 94 with an average of 79. Garden Buildings with a value for money score above 79 are better rated than the average. Below is illustrated the distribution of the value for money score in percentages.

Potential flaws in the Expert Score

The Expert Score is not an infallible truth as to how good a garden building is. Here are some potential flaws:

• The ease of construction score is sometimes hard to accurately calculate, this is especially the case when looking at smaller items where fewer data points could be compared to give an accurate category-wide comparison.

Keep in mind that choosing the right garden building is individual and that some products with a low Expert Score can still be perfectly suited for an individual’s needs. We suggest that you use the Expert Score with a grain of salt.