Last updated 15 October 2026
£39 a lead, for a dry cellar or a £120,000 dig-out.
Leads Do Work sells basement conversion leads at £39 each plus VAT, shared with up to 5 firms. AceLeads takes a cut of the work you win instead, and the planning lists start at £50 a month. Buy the click from Google yourself and a basement search costs £2.65 to £32.85.
The price is the small part. A won job at £39 a lead costs £117, which is 0.4% of a 20m² cellar conversion. What decides whether a basement lead pays is what the customer actually wants done down there.
Straight off a seller's feed
"Make the cellar dry (not damp) so it can be used for storage"
A customer in Surbiton posted that in August, and it sits on Leads Do Work's public list of basement leads next to a London job that reads, in full, "Like full basement works". Both cost £39. One is a tanking job; the other could be six figures.
Where we stand
We don't sell basement conversion leads. We help you get your own.
This guide is the honest version of what buying basement conversion leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build basement and waterproofing firms a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.
What you are buying
Four of the ten didn't want a room to live in at all.
The 10 leads on the feed, dated 23 December to 24 September, show what one price buys. 6 wanted living space: a storeroom in Saxmundham turned into a bathroom, a kitchen and shower in Darlington, a basement flat in a listed house in Saltash, a Dunstable cellar where the customer wants "digging down and underpinning the walls", a new basement under a grade two listed courtyard in Edinburgh, and the London "full basement works". The other 4 wanted a cellar made dry for storage, a workshop in Tavistock, a utility room in Bromsgrove, and a Sheffield cellar "to be modernised and cut out draft".
Here is what that single price does to each kind of job, at Leads Do Work's £39 and at the lead cost of your own "basement conversion" ad, if you win one quote in 3.
| Job | Typical UK price | Leads Do Work, £39 a lead | Your own ad, about £59 a lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit a sump pump | £500 to £1,500 | £117 a win, 12% of the job | £176 a win, 18% of the job |
| Add a lightwell or outside access | £5,000 to £7,500 | £117 a win, 2% of the job | £176 a win, 3% of the job |
| Waterproof a 4m x 5m basement, floor, walls and ceiling | £2,960 to £18,500 | £117 a win, 1% of the job | £176 a win, 2% of the job |
| Convert a 10m² cellar | £9,000 to £18,000 | £117 a win, 0.9% of the job | £176 a win, 1% of the job |
| Convert a 20m² cellar | £18,000 to £36,000 | £117 a win, 0.4% of the job | £176 a win, 0.7% of the job |
| Lower a basement floor | £15,000 to £75,000 | £117 a win, 0.3% of the job | £176 a win, 0.4% of the job |
| Convert a 40m² cellar | £36,000 to £72,000 | £117 a win, 0.2% of the job | £176 a win, 0.3% of the job |
| Dig a new 40m² basement | £120,000 | £117 a win, 0.1% of the job | £176 a win, 0.1% of the job |
Conversion, lightwell, floor lowering and sump pump prices from MyBuilder's cellar, basement and floor lowering guides (August 2026). The waterproofing row is Checkatrade's waterproofing table, last updated May 2024, and the new basement is MyJobQuote's 40m² figure (September 2026). Ranges are worked at their middle. One win in 3 is MyJobQuote's figure for its trades; nobody publishes an independent UK figure. The last column uses the "basement conversion" click price explained further down. Lead prices are before VAT.
A won customer should cost about 10 to 15 percent of the job. Only the sump pump, at 12%, gets into that band; every other row sits well under it. On a 20m² conversion the lead is 0.4% of the job and on a new basement 0.1%. In this trade the lead price barely matters. The site visit, the survey and the drawings you do before you lose a quote are the real cost of a wrong lead.
Storage and living space are different jobs
A cellar kept dry for boxes and a bedroom are designed to different grades of waterproofing, which is covered below. Ask which one the customer wants before you price either. The Surbiton storage job and the Saltash flat arrived at the same £39.
The same cellar can arrive as a damp lead
Leads Do Work's damp proofing row is £25, and its damp feed carried "Standing water in cellar, needs water removing and needs a water pump installing". Which price you pay depends on the form the customer filled in. Damp in the rooms above ground is covered in our damp proofing leads guide, which also counts the plain tanking and basement waterproofing searches.
Your numbers
How much can a basement lead cost before the job stops paying you?
It opens on a 20m² cellar conversion at one win in 3. Put in Leads Do Work's £39 or your own cost per lead, then switch to the sump pump to see where a lead price starts to bite.
WHAT CAN YOU PAY FOR A BASEMENT LEAD?
Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth
Starts on one in three, the figure MyJobQuote tells its own trades to expect. Put in yours.
You can pay up to about
£1,350
a lead, winning one in 3
- Healthy range, per won job
- £2,700 to £4,050
- Which per lead is
- £900 to £1,350
Put a seller's price in the last box and this will tell you what each won job would cost you.
That 10 to 15 percent band is a rule of thumb we use across every trade. Nobody has measured it.
Who sells them
One firm prints a basement lead price. Most of the big sellers have no basement page at all.
Here is everyone we found selling or routing basement work, from their own websites. "Not stated" means the firm doesn't say.
| Seller | Price | Who else gets the lead | In their words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads Do Work | £39 a lead + VAT, £11 a week | 1 to 3 others, 5 at most | "no more than 5 competing" |
| AceLeads | A share of work won, quoted per buyer | Nobody on its Founding Partner route | "never charged per enquiry" |
| MyJobQuote | Not stated | Up to 3 trades | "Up to 3 local trades will then be in touch" |
| Checkatrade | £30 a month, lead plans from £59 | Not stated | "Basement / Cellar Conversions" |
| TrustATrader | Not stated | Not stated | "Memberships are limited per area" |
| BuildAlert | £2 a letter, from £50 a month | Not stated | "homeowners planning basements" |
| Planning Pipe | £44.95 a month, two regions | Not stated | "loft or basement conversions" |
Leads Do Work: one row for a tanking job and a dig-out
Its Connect price list has one line, "Conversion | Basement", at £39 from a homeowner and "Not available" for businesses, plus VAT and an £11 weekly fee. Its basement page says "Typical enquiries include structural surveys, waterproofing and tanking, underpinning work, lowering floors", all at that one price. There's no separate row for tanking, waterproofing or a cellar. So a dig-out you survey can be surveyed by 1 to 3 other firms too, 5 at most, and a lead that turns out to be a damp cupboard goes back only if its "manually reviewed" returns agree.
Its Smart Local packs put basements in a "Large Works" bundle with lofts, extensions and new builds, £67.20 for 5 jobs, which is £13.44 each. The pack is priced on the dearest trade in it, individual returns aren't available, and the leads "may also be supplied to other suitable local businesses".
AceLeads takes a cut of the job you win
"You are never charged per enquiry, only a share of the work you win", it says, and it quotes that share "per buyer rather than publishing a price list", with a joining or setup fee depending on the route. Its basement page promises that every lead says if it is "a tank and convert inside an existing cellar, a floor lowering, or a full dig-out with underpinning", which is the exact question the Leads Do Work feed leaves open. When we read its live inventory on 1 October 2026 it showed no basement leads. On a £120,000 job, a share of the work is worth pricing out properly against a flat £39.
The directories have a basement category, not a price
Checkatrade lists 143 "Basement / Cellar Conversions" firms in London alone, plus a "Structural Water Proofing" category, with lead plans from £59 a month. TrustATrader has a basement conversion category and says "Memberships are limited per area", with no price. MyJobQuote passes a basement job to up to 3 trades. Bark, MyBuilder, Zapo, Leads Everyday, Lead Pronto and TextBadger had no basement page when we looked. Split one basement between 3 firms and most of them survey it for nothing; the shared-lead trap puts a number on that.
Planning lists find the dig before the builder does
A new basement usually needs planning permission, so it shows up on the council register first. BuildAlert posts letters to those homeowners at £2 each, and its Kensington and Chelsea page offers to "Reach homeowners planning basements". Planning Pipe sells regional lists from £44.95 a month, "loft or basement conversions" included. Read the application itself: one free "Basement Conversion" lead on The Construction Index described windows, smoke vents and railings. The same approach for lofts is in our loft conversion leads guide.
The membrane makers pass homeowners on for no fee
Newton asks homeowners to "request a contractor using our online form", and one customer writes that "I was supplied a list of contractors": its Newton Specialist Basement Contractors. Safeguard's find-a-specialist form asks the homeowner to agree that "the recommended specialist" gets their details. Getting on those lists costs training and approval, not a lead price: Delta says its registered installers "are required to attend training as well as demonstrating quality of workmanship before accreditation". None of the three publishes a fee. The Property Care Association's find-a-specialist search is open to members who have traded for two years and employ qualified surveyors.
Everything here about Leads Do Work's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 1 October 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Rather have basement conversion leads that are yours alone?
That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.
See pricingWant to know how many people near you search Google for what you do each month? Message us your town and we'll send you the real numbers.
Check my areaBuying the click yourself
The dearest basement click is the homeowner looking for a waterproofing firm.
"basement waterproofing companies" costs £32.85 a click on 40 searches a month. The biggest search, "basement conversion", gets 1,000 a month at £4.30, and "cellar conversion" returns exactly the same figures. "sump pump installation" is £11.69. The per-lead column divides each click by 7.33%, WordStream's conversion rate for home improvement search ads, which is US data, so treat it as a rough guide.
| Search | Searches a month | Per click | Per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| basement waterproofing companies | 40 | £32.85 | £448 |
| basement builders | 50 | £15.34 | £209 |
| basement underpinning | 90 | £12.70 | £173 |
| sump pump installation | 260 | £11.69 | £159 |
| basement contractors | 90 | £11.52 | £157 |
| cellar tanking near me | 70 | £8.94 | £122 |
| basement waterproofing contractors | 90 | £8.04 | £110 |
| basement construction | 140 | £6.80 | £93 |
| basement conversion companies | 30 | £5.36 | £73 |
| basement conversion near me | 50 | £4.72 | £64 |
| basement conversion london | 170 | £4.70 | £64 |
| cellar waterproofing | 140 | £4.55 | £62 |
| basement conversion | 1,000 | £4.30 | £59 |
| basement lightwell | 210 | £4.27 | £58 |
| basement waterproofing specialists | 30 | £4.09 | £56 |
| basement extension | 110 | £2.65 | £36 |
Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 1 October 2026. Click prices are bid-based estimates, so what you actually pay will land near them rather than on them. The plain "basement waterproofing" and "cellar tanking" searches are in the damp proofing guide's table, not this one.
So a lead off "basement conversion" costs about £59, more than Leads Do Work's £39, and one off "basement waterproofing companies" about £448. Set against a £27,000 conversion, both are small. A lead off "basement lightwell" costs about £58 for a £5,000 to £7,500 job. What your own ads give you is a say in which of those you pay for:
- Bid on conversions and dig-outs, not every damp cellar
- Your firm's name on the ad the customer taps
- Grades and past jobs on the website before anyone rings
- Clicks paid to Google, with nothing added
- The customer, the pump and the service visit stay yours
- An ad account that leaves with you
Nobody bids on the seller side at all. "basement waterproofing leads" averages 30 searches a month, but all of it is one month: 390 in December 2025, a handful the month after, and nothing in the other 10. "basement conversion leads" returned no data at all. Building a campaign that bids on dig-outs and blocks the damp searches is covered in the Google Ads guide for tradesmen, and how much to put behind a £32.85 click in how much to spend on Google Ads.
Google Local Services Ads
Google's UK category list has no basement, waterproofing or damp category. The nearest it names are "Foundations services", "General contractor services" and "Water damage services", and the list doesn't say what each one covers, so check eligibility before you count on it. If one of them does fit your work, our Local Services Ads guide covers signing up.
Before the first shovel
Dig near next door and the law gives them a month's notice and a say.
Section 6 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 covers digging within 3 metres of a neighbour's building to below the bottom of its foundations, or within 6 metres where the dig cuts a 45-degree line drawn down from them. Notice goes "at least one month before beginning to excavate", says whether you'll underpin or safeguard their foundations, and comes with plans and sections. Silence for 14 days counts as a dispute, and the notice lapses if work hasn't started within 12 months. Checkatrade puts a party wall agreement at £700.
Planning: the cellar, or the dig
The Planning Portal says you're "unlikely to require planning permission for converting an existing basement into a living space", but a new basement "will commonly require planning permission", and a lightwell at the front faces stricter rules. Councils can add their own.
Some boroughs cap the whole thing
Kensington and Chelsea's Policy CL7 limits a basement to one storey and to 50% of each garden, with exceptions only on large sites. A London lead is worth a look at the borough's basement rules before you quote.
A way out of every basement bedroom
Approved Document B wants a basement with habitable rooms to have an escape window or door, or a protected stair to a final exit. The window needs 0.33m² of opening, at least 450mm each way, no more than 1100mm off the floor.
Building regulations, the Planning Portal adds, cover "fire escape routes, ventilation, ceiling height, damp proofing, electrical wiring and water supplies". The homeowner duties under Part 2A and CDM that pass to you on a domestic job are set out in the loft guide linked above. None of this shows on a lead. Two of the ten on the feed were listed buildings, and the Edinburgh customer wanted to dig under a listed courtyard. Ask before you visit.
What the customer is really buying
A bedroom needs Grade 3. A storeroom can be Grade 2.
BS 8102:2022 is the code of practice for keeping water out of anything below ground. The Basement Information Centre's summary sets out four grades, and Grade 3 is "No water ingress or damp areas". The Property Care Association is blunt about it: "If you are looking to use the new basement room as habitable space then you will need to achieve grade 3." Storage rooms should be designed to at least Grade 2. That is the difference between the Surbiton storage lead and the Saltash flat, and it's why the same £39 buys two very different quotes.
Tanking or a cavity drain, mostly
The PCA says "for most basement conversions you will be limited to certain type A and type C systems": a barrier on the walls, or a membrane that drains water to a sump. MyBuilder puts cementitious tanking at £60 to £120 a square metre and a cavity drain system at £80 to £150.
A designer on the job from the start
The standard says the waterproofing specialist "should be appointed at the early stages of a project". The PCA's CSSW is "a recognized industry qualification" for it, and the PCA keeps a register of Waterproofing Design Specialists. If you hold it, put it on your website and in your ads.
After the sale
Every Type C job leaves a pump that needs a service. Usually someone else gets it.
The PCA's Type C guidance wants duty and standby pumps in the sump, a back-up and an alarm in most cases, a first service "within 3 months of the installation", and service intervals "no longer than annual" after that. Then it says the quiet part: "Commonly this involves a service contract with a pump service engineer as most contractors do not service their own systems."
- A first visit inside 3 months, while the limescale is worst
- A service at least once a year after that
- Repairs MyBuilder prices at £200 to £400
- Fitting a pump, £500 to £1,500 on MyBuilder's guide
A bought lead gives you the conversion. Keeping the customer gives you the pump visits for as long as they own the house. The PCA also says the client should be told that skipping the schedule may cause the system to fail, which is a reason to book the first visit before you leave site.
Through the year
Searches peaked in September 2025 and sat flat all summer.
UK searches for "basement conversion" peaked at 2,900 in September 2025, picked up to 1,300 in January, and sat at 590 every month from May to August 2026, about 4.9 times below the peak.
UK searches for "basement conversion", by month
September 2025 to August 2026. Google Ads keyword data, rounded bands.
Don't plan around one September
Our loft conversion data shows a September 2025 high too. Until a second September does the same, budget on the flat months, not the spike.
Long jobs, long gaps
Checkatrade puts an existing cellar at 6 to 10 weeks and a full dig-out at 3 to 6 months. A quiet search month matters less than having the next job lined up when this one finishes.
Where the lead came from
Ask which website a basement lead came from before you book the survey.
The ICO puts the checking on you as the buyer, in proportion to the risk, and a seller's word that the data is clean doesn't count. Skean Homes was fined £100,000 in January 2024 over home improvement calls it blamed on its lead provider.
Before you pay for basement conversion leads, ask:
- Is it living space, storage or just a damp cellar?
- Is the house listed?
- Does it mean digging down or underpinning?
- How many other basement firms get it?
- Which website did the customer fill in?
A listed house or an underpinning job changes the survey you need, so get those two answers before you drive out.
Which way to go
The lead is cheap. The survey you do on the wrong one costs more.
Buy per lead if
- You do tanking and conversions both
- A £117 win cost is small to you
- You can sort leads by phone first
- You reply the same day
Think twice if
- You only take full dig-outs
- Up to 5 firms can get the call
- Every lead means a survey visit
- Nobody says which site it came from
Run your own if
- You want conversions, not damp jobs
- You service the pumps you fit
- You want the call to yourself
- The ad account is yours to take
Basement work is won on the survey, the design and the pump that keeps it dry, not on the first call. A bought lead can start that, as long as you know before the visit whether it's a £15,000 to £75,000 floor lowering or a £2,960 to £18,500 tanking job. General extensions are in our builder leads guide, the room people make out of the garage is in garage conversion leads, and how leads are sold across every trade is in our guide to trade leads. Weighing a directory listing instead? Read is Checkatrade worth it first.
Our sources
Where every basement figure here came from.
We build websites and run Google Ads for trades, so we have a side in this. Even so, our own tables show Leads Do Work's flat £39 undercutting a lead off your own "basement conversion" ad.
Seller pages and terms were read on their own sites on 1 October 2026, along with Leads Do Work's basement and damp feeds. Search volumes and click prices are Google Ads data for the UK, pulled the same day. Job prices are from MyBuilder's cellar, basement and floor lowering guides, Checkatrade's waterproofing guide and MyJobQuote. The rules are from legislation.gov.uk, the Planning Portal, Approved Document B and Kensington and Chelsea's basements guidance; the waterproofing from the Basement Information Centre and the Property Care Association. Google's position is from its Local Services Ads help, and lead consent from the ICO.
Questions basement firms ask
Basement conversion leads, answered.
- How much do basement conversion leads cost in the UK?
- Leads Do Work charges £39 plus VAT for a basement conversion lead from a homeowner, plus an £11 weekly service fee. It has no price for business customers. AceLeads takes a share of the work you win rather than a fee per lead, and quotes each buyer separately. Planning-application lists cost from £50 a month at BuildAlert and £44.95 at Planning Pipe. A click on your own basement ad costs £2.65 to £32.85.
- Are basement conversion leads exclusive?
- Not from Leads Do Work: its terms say 1 to 3 other firms usually compete for the same job, and never more than 5. MyJobQuote lets up to 3 local trades quote. AceLeads offers "Your area, exclusively" on its Founding Partner route. Checkatrade and TrustATrader list you in a basement category rather than selling single leads.
- What are basement leads actually for?
- Often not a new room. Of the 10 leads on Leads Do Work's public basement feed, 4 wanted a cellar made dry for storage, turned into a workshop or utility room, or simply modernised. 6 wanted living space or a new basement, and 2 of those were listed buildings. Every one cost the same £39.
- Do I need a party wall notice to dig a basement?
- Often, yes. Section 6 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies when you excavate within 3 metres of a neighbour's building to below the bottom of its foundations, or within 6 metres where the dig cuts a 45-degree line down from them. Notice goes at least one month before you start, with plans and sections. If the neighbour doesn't consent within 14 days, a dispute is deemed to have arisen.
- What waterproofing grade does a basement room need?
- Grade 3 under BS 8102:2022 if people will live in it: no water ingress or damp areas. The Property Care Association says most basement conversions are limited to Type A (tanking) or Type C (cavity drain) systems, and that storage space should be designed to at least Grade 2. The standard wants a waterproofing specialist on the design team early.
- Can basement firms use Google Local Services Ads in the UK?
- Not under a basement name. Google's UK list has no basement, waterproofing or damp category. The nearest it names are "Foundations services", "General contractor services" and "Water damage services", and the list doesn't say what each covers.
- When do people search for basement conversions most?
- In the last 12 months UK searches for "basement conversion" peaked in September 2025 at 2,900 and sat at 590 from May to August 2026, about 4.9 times lower.
- What should I ask a basement lead seller?
- Whether the customer wants a living space or a dry cellar for storage, whether the house is listed, whether the job means digging down, how many other firms get the lead, and which website the customer used. The ICO puts those checks on the buyer: Skean Homes was fined £100,000 in January 2024 after blaming its lead provider for home improvement calls.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
Basement conversions in the diary, from customers who searched for you.
We build your website and run Google Ads from an account in your own name, aimed at the conversions and dig-outs you want rather than every damp cellar in the county. See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll bid on the jobs you can survey next.