Top tips for your renovation!

When taking on board a home renovation, it’s important to keep it personal, reflecting your style and the way you live. It may seem obvious, but is still often overlooked – Planning is the key to a trouble free environment. Here are a few tips that can help you better plan your upcoming project;

• Find yourself a top builder – The best way to do this is through recommendation, so try and stay away from the Yellow Pages. Use somebody that has worked with family or friends and see the work they completed first hand. If they are good builders that take care in their work, they won’t mind you looking at any of their past projects. It will give you a true reflection of their ability and competence in completing the task at hand.
• Manage your project – It’s good to treat your home project like a small business. Set it up properly with detailed budgets, schedules, and a project timing programme. Set a total price for the entire job with the builders, avoiding an hourly or daily rate at all costs. This stops project’s getting out of hand and builders allowing themselves to get carried away with the time it takes to do certain tasks.
• Keep control of your cash flow – It’s important to keep an eye on your money throughout the entire build. It’s not about having a budget and spending it, it’s about spending it in the correct way. It’s worth doing research before the build also. Furthermore, provide a detailed and accurate brief to your builder so they are entirely clear on what you want.
• Always have a financial back-up - It’s wise to hold back a contingency budget just in case. We recommend a minimum of 10% of your total budget. Don’t make the mistake of telling your builder about this or they’ll end up spending it for you!
• Make your decisions quickly – Try and make any key design decisions before contractors and builders are on site. Design time is cheap so invest plenty of your own time before your build starts, working out how it’s going to look and what materials you will be using. Changing your mind at the last minute can be costly and give your builder the excuse to add any additional costs.

Source: Selfbuild&Design