- What are you going to give up so you can get the renovation done on time?
Renovations take time and effort. It has been estimated, by online services provider WhoCanDo, that:
- 11 hours: the average time it takes between the decision to engage a tradesperson, agreeing to a contract and getting the tradie to your front door takes
- 47 minutes: the time it takes just putting together a list of tradespeople to call
- 2 hours: the time it takes to make first contact and then develop a shortlist
- 7.4 hours: the time it takes to make appointments and arrange on-site visits for quotes
- 97 minutes: the time it takes to review quotes, ask questions and make comparisons
- 27 minutes: the time it takes to sign on the dotted line
This is for one tradesman…
So if you need 10 tradesmen and suppliers to complete your home or property renovation, you need to allow at least 110 hours of your time, just to get them started, let alone check that the work gets done when you want it to be done and to your satisfaction. It is our experience that the actual project management of a 4 week job takes approximately 150 hours over a six week period.
So unless you have a spare 25 hours per week to spend on the renovation, the question you need to ask yourself, before the renovation starts is “what am I going to give up in order to allow me the time I need each day to deal with the renovations”? You will need to spend time on the following items during the renovation;
- problem solving
- purchasing items
- obtaining items
- co-ordinating tradesmen and suppliers
- checking the quality of the work
- paying accounts
- scheduling the works
If you haven’t – what are you going to outsource so that you have the time available to deal with these issues which will occur? Perhaps you can get a PA or a housekeeper or a nanny for the renovation duration to assist with housework, financial items, children pick ups and drop offs. Whatever it is for you, put things in place before the renovation starts.