When we launched OSCAR in late 2024, we started with two service categories: plumbing and locksmith work. The choice was deliberate. Both are high-frequency emergency services where trust and speed matter most. Both have clear, documentable license requirements in Portugal. And both, when done badly, leave obvious evidence — a leak that persists, a lock that sticks. That gave us clean feedback signals to learn from.
Six months later, we have three new categories live: electrical work, tile repair and installation, and interior painting. This post explains what we learned from the first six months that gave us the confidence to expand, what each new category required operationally, and where we are still figuring things out.
What the First Six Months Actually Taught Us
The biggest operational lesson from plumbing and locksmith work was not about scheduling or pricing — it was about job scope creep. A homeowner books what they describe as "a leaking tap under the kitchen sink" in Bonfim. The professional arrives and finds that the tap is leaking because the pipe joint behind the wall has corroded. The booked job and the actual job are different things.
We spent the first three months building out what we now call the scope resolution layer: a structured set of follow-up questions triggered when job complexity signals suggest the booked category may be understated. For plumbing, we have 12 signal conditions that trigger additional questions before confirming price. Getting that process working correctly was a prerequisite for expansion — because electrical and tile work have even higher scope variance than plumbing.
The other thing the first six months gave us was a professional network with a quality baseline we could trust. Every professional who joined early went through our standard vetting process: license verification, in-person identity check, two-job probationary track with mandatory photo documentation. By mid-2025, we had enough network history to know which professionals completed jobs within quoted scope, which ones had repeat callback rates, and which ones the data suggested were cutting corners. That history gave us a pool to draw new category professionals from, and a benchmark to hold new applicants against.
Electrical Work: The License Requirement Question
Electrical work in Portugal has specific certification requirements. Electricians performing installation work must hold IMPIC (Instituto dos Mercados Públicos do Imobiliário e da Construção) registration, and any work affecting the fixed installation of a building requires documented compliance with RTIEBT (Regras Técnicas das Instalações Elétricas de Baixa Tensão). We verify both before a professional can accept electrical jobs on OSCAR.
What this means in practice is that our electrical category covers a narrower scope than homeowners sometimes expect. We handle: replacing outlets and switches, installing fixtures and ceiling fans, troubleshooting and replacing circuit breakers, and fault diagnosis. We do not currently cover new circuit installation that requires pulling permits or coordinating with EDP Distribuição (the grid operator). That type of project falls outside our fixed-price model — the scope is simply too variable and the regulatory coordination required is beyond what we can reliably complete in a single day booking.
We are not saying permitted electrical work is not something OSCAR will ever handle. We are saying we are not ready to handle it yet, and we would rather be explicit about the boundary than have a professional and homeowner arrive at a job with mismatched expectations.
Tile Work: The Complexity Problem
Tile repair is the most scope-variable category we have added. The difference between "replace two cracked tiles in a bathroom" and "re-tile a full bathroom floor" is not just time — it is material sourcing, subfloor assessment, and the question of whether matching tiles are available for the existing pattern. In older Porto apartments — particularly the building stock around Cedofeita and Paranhos that dates to the 1950s through 1970s — tile matching is often genuinely impossible, which turns a repair job into a design decision the homeowner was not expecting to make.
Our tile category currently covers repair jobs only: replacing damaged or cracked tiles in areas where matching tiles are available or the homeowner accepts a close match, and re-grouting deteriorated joints. Full re-tiling projects — bathrooms, kitchens, or terraces — are in our scope but require an on-site quote first. We do not offer a fixed price for full re-tiling without a site assessment, because the variance is too high to quote responsibly from photos alone.
Our complexity estimation model for tile work currently has roughly a 23% error rate on scope — higher than plumbing (14%) or locksmith work (8%). We know this because we track the difference between booked scope and actual completed scope. We are still accumulating job history to bring that number down.
Interior Painting: The Material and Surface Question
Interior painting is the most price-sensitive category for homeowners because it is the one where the range of possible quotes from independent professionals in Porto is widest. We have heard homeowners describe getting quotes between €200 and €800 for the same bedroom repaint, depending on who they called. Part of that variance is legitimate — paint quality, number of coats, prep work quality — and part of it is information asymmetry.
Our fixed-price painting model prices by surface area (square metres of wall surface, not floor area), surface condition (standard or requiring patch repair), and paint tier. A standard two-coat repaint of a 20 m² bedroom in Ramalde using our base paint range runs to a price the homeowner sees before confirming. If the walls have significant plaster damage that requires filling and sanding before painting, that is an add-on with a separate listed price. There are no surprises at the end of the job.
What painting does not currently cover: ceilings (different access and skill requirement), exterior facades (requires specialist equipment and safety assessment), and decorative finishes like venetian plaster or wood staining. These may come later. For now, interior walls and doors.
How Professional Recruitment for New Categories Works
We do not advertise externally for new category professionals and wait for applicants. When we decided to launch electrical and tile work, we contacted professionals who had already expressed interest through our waiting list and professionals who had been referred by plumbers and locksmiths already on the network. Word of mouth within the trades community in Porto has been our most reliable recruitment channel — a plumber recommending an electrician they know brings a pre-existing quality signal we cannot replicate through a cold application process.
Every new professional in every new category goes through the same two-job probationary process. In the first two jobs, a second professional from an adjacent trade monitors the job report — reviewing photos, checking that scope documentation is complete, and flagging anything that looks inconsistent. It adds friction, but it is how we maintain the quality baseline as the network grows.
We currently have 14 electricians, 9 tile workers, and 11 painting professionals active across the Porto metro area — covering Matosinhos, Gaia, Maia, and the city itself. That is enough to offer same-day availability in most cases, but there are gaps. Matosinhos and Foz do Douro have consistent coverage. Campanhã and parts of Paranhos can have two-to-three day lead times depending on the day. We are working on it.
What Comes Next
The next category under evaluation is cleaning — both post-construction cleaning (a natural follow-on from painting and tile work) and regular domestic cleaning. Cleaning is operationally simpler in some ways but has higher professional turnover risk than trades, and the quality signal is harder to document objectively. We are not launching it until we have a better quality measurement framework for it.
If there is a service you book regularly that you wish OSCAR covered, write to us at [email protected]. We read every message and have made category decisions based on what homeowners tell us they need. The tile work category came directly from a cluster of messages asking about bathroom renovation help. The painting category came from plumbers who kept getting asked if we covered painting after they finished pipe work in Gaia apartments. We are listening.
