Friday 5 February 2016

Project Plan

Project Plan is essential in property renovation.

You must see the whole picture and write all tasks and order them.

Thursday 4 February 2016

Sketching

Sketching must be your first stage of any renovation work.

Pen and Paper is always best. Draw a plan and put it on one paper. At the bottom, at the Pros and Cons for each draw then you'll be able to compare them with each other better.

Floor Planner is an online tool to help sketching your floor plan. You'd need to have your measurements first.

Draw at least 5 plans and compare them with each other.

If you have a friend or family member or has more experience in sketching than you, you must ask their advice on your plans.

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Renovation - Order of Works

When taking any renovation job, the order in which works are planned and carried out is critical otherwise you have wasted money.

For example, no decoration and plastering works should be done until all the electrical problems are tested and sorted out.

And no electrical tests and problems should be sorted out until the big picture and the master plan is drawn.

Unlike Agile Software Development, in property it's a Waterfall approach. Everything must be done in proper order and have the overall impact in mind.

Here is I think the order must be:

Phase 1: One month of Sketching the Ultimate Desired Layout, The Very Big Picture

  1. Get pen and paper and draw down and sketch the layout for the Whole Property Plot based on the ultimate future plan. See the Big Picture. Where should kitchen go, where should bathrooms go, how many, where should bedrooms go, etc.  The master plan for the whole property, not only for a single room. Forget individual rooms, you must see the whole plot. Whatever you do you have wasted time and money if you don't sketch the full picture.
  2. Spend at least 4 weeks drawing and sketching without doing any work to the property.
  3. Take your draw to at least 3 Builders and ask their opinion about the design. Brainstorm and update your sketch. Builders check drainage location, plumbing locations, etc and tell you what is feasible and what is not. What is economical and what is not.
  4. Ask builders to Price each sketch and see which ones you'd desire and can afford. You must know a rough estimate and be comfortable about it.
  5. Take your sketch to an Architect, pay him a fee and ask him to detail the sketch as 3D or on paper. Later the builder will use the detailed sketch to implement.
  6. Do you need planning permission or it's within Permitted Development.
  7. At the end of this phase, you must have your Sketch ready. How your layout will look like. Where rooms will be?
Right Mindsets:
  1. Big Picture, Full Potential
  2. No plan is planning to fail.
  3. You must do it only once and it must be done properly otherwise it'll be very expensive.
  4. Ask opinion of multiple competent builders about your sketch. Is it feasible? Is it economical?
  5. You either have to paint and do nothing if the property is in a very good condition or total refurbishment if has electrical problems or plumbing problems or damp issues, etc.
Phase 2: List the Works Required Per Room


Phase 3: Sign Contract by a Builder
  • You're better off delegating the whole job to one builder. You'll get better deals because builders have access to better resources and discounts.
  • Micromanaging it would be waste of time and money.
  • Giving it to multiple people also will create troubles and issues.
  • Contract the whole work to one builder