There are a number of different facets at play when you carry out a renovation or refurbishment on your home in London. Whether you have just bought a new home in that needs considerable refurbishment before you move in, or you feel your current property needs modernising, it is important to consider that managing the project yourself could take a great deal of effort and cause you a good deal of trouble.
Project management is hard work, indeed, there are project managers available to hire specifically for residential renovation projects. It takes up a great deal of time as you try to research and sort out the many legal aspects for your project. The time and expertise involved should not be underestimated. Elements you need to consider include planning permission, licences, permits and certificates, as well as securing architects, designers, builders and other specialist trades to carry out your renovation or refurbishment to your schedule.
The project manager needs to be able to timetable and schedule all the work that needs doing in advance, not missing a trick and if this is you, it is extremely challenging and draining to somehow fit all of this in around your day-to-day activities. The project management element includes all liaison between different trades involved – carpenters, plumbers, plasterers, electricians, tilers, skips, scaffolding as well as procurement and scheduling for materials that might be needed on site. If you get the timing wrong, order too many or too few, your project could begin to stutter and take much longer. The knock on effect of poor project management is that some specialist contractors that had allocated their time to your project might not be willing to wait for the materials to arrive, or they might not be able to physically do the job for you as other elements are still outstanding. If you want to keep them available for your job, you may need to retain them even when they are not working for you. Often, experienced, high quality trades will move on to another project that is more consistent (and rewarding) for them to earn their living. This could quickly become exceedingly expensive.
It makes much more sense to assign responsibly for the project management of your renovation or refurbishment project to someone involved in the process and who you will be regularly communicating with on a daily or weekly basis such as a local building company in London. You still exercise control over proceedings and will always be kept up to speed on where each element of your project is at – or should be at, and any reasons for delays or rescheduling. By handing this responsibility to a project manager, sometimes the communication between architect, builder, client and project manager is strained and becomes ineffective, slowing the process down with each party blaming the other, putting your project under further pressure as well as those trying to help you. Buildburo take on the project management of significant renovation projects as part of our service, adding substantial expertise whilst saving significant amounts of time and expense. Whatever you decide, we recommend the project management should always be entrusted to experienced renovation professionals. Our sole aim is to create a high quality renovation in a timely fashion, with the least disruption, stress and inconvenience to your household and lifestyle as possible.
