Well we’re back here again with Part3 of the Renovation Journey.
It’s beginning to feel like a book from Lord of the Rings at this stage!
But don’t worry this blog post won’t take you ages to read!
So as a reminder here are all the steps in the Renovation Journey:
And we give an overview of this in the first part of this series in this blog post: Click Here
And in Part 2 we went through the first Phase called the Creative Phase and you can find that blog post here: Click Here
In this blog post we are going to delve into the Organised Phase of your project and look at the first 2 stages of that.
Th third stage of this phase gets a post of it’s own as it’s the one with the most moving parts.
So now look a bit closer let’s at the 2nd phase of your project which is the Organised Phase.
This is where we takes things up a notch and start involving a lot more people with helping you improve your home and we’ll start with the first stage in the organised phase which is called the Assemble Stage.
Assemble Stage
This is where the rubber meets the road and is when your Architect begins to shape your planning drawings into a set of drawings that a building contractor can base a quote on for building your home improvements.
This is called the Tender design.
This is also where other construction professionals may get involved with your job such as Structural Engineers, Interior Designers, Quantity Surveyors, etc
You might need a party wall surveyor too if any of your building work affects the party wall between you and your neighbour.
You see: Each designer has a respective tender design to do, so for example your Architect will do the architectural design & drawings, the engineer will do the engineering design & drawings and so on.
To get a quick over view on what each person will do for you:
An architect will design the new spaces in your home, and by that I mean the new room sizes, how each room sits with each other and the general flow of your new home and how you intend on using it.
They improve the usability & functionality of your home to whatever you desire
A structural engineer designs the shell, the structure that creates that space and makes sure the rest of your house remains stable & safe.
An interior designer will help you with finishes, colours, furniture, lighting, etc and how each room will look when it’s finished – architects can do this too but obviously specialist home interior designers will be better.
A quantity surveyor will manage the money on your project, they will price up how much your project will cost before you go to tender so you know in advance how much you can expect the quotes to be from building contractors and they also handle all the payments to the builder on your behalf – but whilst the 3 just mentioned are usually essential to any decent sized build, you really need to be spending over £250k to justify a QS.
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Rip Off Fact No. 4
Each person’s design must complement each other and be co-ordinated so everyone’s individual design comes together in harmony.
If there are differences and the design is poorly co-ordinated this will carry through right until these items are to be built, and guess what happens if a builder has a load of contradicting information?
Yes, he stops until it is sorted out between your design consultants which will of course cost you a lot of money.
Co-ordination is one key area that generally gets done poorly.
It involves a lot of communication between your designers and it’s something most designers are reluctant to do.
PLUS: It is a lot harder than it sounds, and never gets done properly on 99% of projects.
Designers tend to work in their own little bubbles with little consideration on the impact of their work on the other designers and communication skills are something that designers truly lack in.
It’s just the way they are for the most part so you will have to be a little vigilant on this.
If later on down the line the respective designs are found to be contradictory then you will find that the designers will blame each other when the truth is if they spent a bit more time communicating with each other and collaborating rather than working alone in their own little bubbles then these issues get naturally designed out.
The worst thing is that they only come to light with a builder working on the job.
Look: I’ve seen issues like this end up in court and there is never a winner in all this – there is just too many people to pin the blame on, it’s the groups fault rather than any single individual.
It’s a bit like putting all the ingredients together for a cake and putting a little bit too much of one ingredient and a bit less of another.
When it’s all mixed together and the cake doesn’t taste the best but it’s impossible to pin it on just one single ingredient.
There is an easier way though to make sure your job is co-ordinated properly.
Top Tip: When you do end up with more designers on your job make sure that all the different people meet together at your home to go over their respective designs together at least once (for example you would have your Architect, Engineer & Interior Designer meet up at your home).
This will give you an edge to ensure that the designs have been properly co-ordinated
Make sure you are there for this meeting to get this bit sorted at this stage when it won’t cost you anything and will save you a lot down the line.
Can you see how see how important this is?
When our team meets up at our clients home to go over each persons design to make sure it’s all perfectly co-ordinated just as a final sanity check.
We encourage our clients are there for that meeting too so they can get a real feel for what’s coming next.
Again I recommend you get your consultants to do this too because there are always bits and bobs that get missed and uncoordinated and these only come to light when everyone is in the property and can see the building in front of their very eyes.
Appoint Stage
Next we’re on to the Appoint Stage and this is where we start to look at hiring builders to build your new home.
Once your Tender design is ready, we recommend you send it out to as many prospective builders as possible (your Architect will help you here), and send to at the very minimum at least 5x building contractors.
You then whittle it down to 3 you like the look of and interview them.
Remember though: You must appraise the prospective builders on other criteria as well as price.
Other criteria should include having experience with similar projects to yours, references to back them up, healthy finances, etc
The last thing you want happening is the builder goes bust halfway during the construction work – and it happens more than you think especially if you are going down the design & build route.
Now’s the time to find all this info out.
Also ask them who will be specifically working on your job and see their references too
as the chances are they won’t be the people at the interview.
This might sound over the top, but if you’re gonna spend a lot of money with these people it’s never too much to ensure you get the right people.
Now isn’t that a good thing?
You then hire the builder that meets your criteria, Sign the contracts and then you’re off.
Rip Off Fact No. 5
The obvious rip off fact here is hiring a dodgy builder who’ll cut corners any chance he gets to save himself money whilst giving you inferior workmanship.
Or hiring a builder who tries overcharging you left right and centre, claiming for delays when there aren’t any, just don’t know what they are doing and causing damage to your property instead of improving it, the list goes on and on…
It can be difficult to get all these insights and get a feel for what a prospective builder is really like by simply meeting and chatting with them.
Plus: 99% of Architects won’t know how to this this step adequately either!
So how is it done?!
Here at Bespoke Home Design we have a simple step by step process for interviewing building contractors for our clients with our very own Builder Integrity Test so our clients get the best people working on their projects and we do all this for them.
Our Builder Integrity Test interview process is specifically designed to spot the cowboys and to get the perfect builder for your project.
And protect you from (all the things) we mentioned earlier.
Now doesn’t that sound like something you might find handy?
There’s already a blog post here on how to do it and that can be found here: Click Here
Actualise Stage
Now the final phase is where we get into the physical construction of your renovation and due to the complexity of it we’ve dedicated the last part of the Home Renovation Journey to it so keep an eye out for that.
Thanks for checking our Home Renovation Journey Part 3 post! If you have any questions then just pop them into the comments section below.
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