You’re smart to have decided to contract out your major home project. Re-modelling a kitchen or bathroom, building an addition, or totally re-modelling your home are all jobs that extend far beyond the skill level of most homeowners.
If you have ever survived an arduous do-it-yourself project, finding a contractor may give you a sense of relief, as you envision yourself telling the contractor what to do and then having it magically done for you.
But while your physical labour will be minimal, a different kind of work is involved: preparing yourself, preparing your home, and dealing with your contractor. Let this guide ease your home’s transition into a gorgeous sanctuary that you will love for many years to come.
Prepare Yourself
Should you stay or should you go?
The timeline for building that addition is eight weeks. The timeline for your once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe: eight weeks. Like peanut butter and chocolate, they just go together, right?
Well, no. Unless you have a fully briefed friend or relative who is willing to supervise your renovation while you ply the canals of Venice, this is not the time to take an extended vacation.
Even in our virtual, connected world, nothing compares to seeing and touching your ongoing renovations in real life or talking to your contractor in person.
Arranging your schedule
Do not expect to rearrange your work schedule or curtail local leisure activities due to your remodelling project. Contractors work around your local schedule. Remember, they are receiving a hefty commission. So, meeting you at the job site after work or during your lunch break is what they do.
Protecting your relationship with the project
If you enter a major home remodelling job knowing that it will put significant strain on your relationship, you are already off to a good start.
A remodelling project is a perfect storm where many factors clash: huge cash outlay, mess, and diminished privacy. Protect your relationship by keeping the lines of communication open but giving each other ample breathing room when needed.
Neighbour and community relations
If you live in a single-family detached home, you probably are not legally obligated to seek approval from your neighbours for your project. Remodelling projects that touch the property line are an exception.
If you live in a condominium or flat, you may need to seek approval from the board for remodelling projects within your walls. It is almost certain that you will need approval for projects that involve common (shared) walls or your home’s own interior walls. As a goodwill gesture, though, you should talk to your adjacent neighbours, informing them of your upcoming plans.
Prepare Your Home
3 things you must do:
1. Move fragile and precious items
China, photos, artwork, electronics, and all other items that you do not want to get broken or dusty should be moved by you out of the work area and into safe zones.
2. Clear rooms of large items
What about the big stuff, like sofas, cabinets, and large rugs? If you are capable, the best-case scenario is for you to remove these items from the work zone and seal them tightly in plastic sheeting. If you are not capable, speak to the contractor about this. For a nominal fee, the contractor may agree to have some of the workers perform this task for you.
3. Keep your items safe from theft or misplacement
Whether located in the work area or not, any items of monetary value—jewellery, cash, precious metals, even some prescription drugs—should be removed from the home and placed in a safe deposit box. If you have a home safe, store them there. You don’t want to play the blame game with your contractor or their workers, especially if it turns out your child misplaced something.
Working With Your Contractor
Communicating with the contractor
Before you start a project, you and your contractor will establish lines of communication: phone numbers for calling or texting as well as email addresses. Contractors are all about communication; they spend their days talking to clients, sub-contractors, and designers. If the contractor is not responding to you on a timely basis, that person is not doing his or her job well.
But what is “timely”? Since you are probably not the contractor’s only client, it is unreasonable to expect the contractor to return your call within minutes. Calls or texts should be returned within the day. Emails involving documentation, such as drawings or change orders, may take a couple of days for the contractor to process.
Change orders
Change orders are addendums to the original contract that account for any changes made to it. Home improvement and building are fluid processes. Writing a contract before a job has begun is like trying to nail down Jell-O. While you try your best, you are essentially trying to predict an uncertain future.
This means that you should not be alarmed by change orders. These are mutual agreements between you and the contractor; nobody is telling you to do anything. You have a choice. In fact, most change orders are initiated by clients as they creatively reshape the project.
The price is going up—what to do?
Most changes involve more work and thus more money. The contractor may discover unforeseen complications that require extra work. Or you may ask for changes that involve additional work.
Limiting changes is the key to controlling remodelling and building costs. The main way to do so is to make sure that the entire scope of the project is discussed in your pre-construction conference.
Another way to limit costs is to purchase some building items yourself, rather than the contractor ordering them. Often it makes design sense, as well as financial sense, for you to buy light fixtures, paint, window coverings, and other small items.
How to deal with delays
Nobody welcomes delays in the project: you want your house back and the contractor wants to move on to other jobs. Your project’s timeline is spelt out in the contract. Change orders will undoubtedly slow down the timeline. So, limiting your changes is an important step toward meeting project deadlines.
In fact, if no changes have been initiated, the blame for the delays most often rests squarely on the contractor’s shoulders. In extreme cases, you can sue the contractor for breach of the agreement.
In most cases though, it won’t come to this. By planning out you’re remodelling in advance and knowing what to expect, you will be prepared for the minor bumps in the road along the way. Contracting out a home remodelling or construction project helps you by leveraging the skills and manpower of experienced professionals.
Article published on Cromly and originally written by Fix.com
