house renovation tips

My wife and I bought an Edwardian house (just over a hundred years old) that was in need of some renovation. Almost needless to say, this was not as easy as we first thought. Hopefully the renovation tips below can help you if you are in a similar situation.

• Get a full building survey. Insist that there is a short summary with FIRM RECOMMENDATIONS. This should include cost estimates, where relevant. Our survey had lots of useful information in it. Unfortunately it was buried in the main text. For example, our report said 'you may wish to get a drain survey'. Did we get one? Yes, 5 months later. By the way, this has given me perspective on how I deliver advice to my clients (I work in professional services).
• Get a drain survey done. Fairly cheap to get the survey done (£100-150).
• We chose a builder from a website. He had decent reviews, a good looking profile, and came across as being very professional when we met him and planned the work. Unfortunately it was all a facade and it ended badly. When you choose a builder, consider bearing these tips in mind:
• Get as many VERBAL references as possible. These should be for RELEVANT work. Its no good if he (or she) is a great electrician if you are hiring them to do plumbing work.
• The person managing the project should have at least one RELEVANT trade, e.g. be an electrician, and ideally have more than one, for the following reasons. Firstly, they need to be able to supervise the work properly. Secondly, if they are running late and over budget they should be able to remedy the situation by working late themselves. If they have to pay someone to do this for them it is more likely that the profitability of the job will deteriorate quickly for them, and they will be tempted to abandon the job. This happened to us.
• There are websites where you can check whether a builder (or anybody) has a poor credit record, for example if they have county court judgements against them.
• In terms of managing your budget, try to keep to the following rules:
• Do not pay ANY money in advance. Also do not pay it by time bound installments. This will only encourage them to back load the work as much as they are able. YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO TELL WHETHER THEY ARE DOING THIS (not unless they are totally taking the mickey). Instead I suggest you pay by room or discrete piece of work completed. This was the apporach we took with our decorators that we appointed after the builders left. It worked ok to begin with but broke down after there had been some delays. If that happens make sure that payments are reasonable in light of work that has been done.
• While it may seem comforting to appoint a builder who can project manage the whole piece, I would advise that you consider appointing separate workers for each piece of work (e.g. building, decorating, electrical, plumbing) and project manage yourself. If you delegate this task to the builder (or whoever is in the project management role) they will be very tempted to sub-contract specialist services on the cheap, or do it themselves; badly. If you do not feel up to managing the project, appoint a project manager using the same rules as for appointing the builder.
• In connection with the last point, consider breaking up the project into different chunks of work, to be completed sequentially and not at the same time. So, for example, for our project I would probably have done the work in this order: structural building work, rewiring, plumbing, new window installation, decorating. There will be some chicken and egg situations; this is unavoidable. By doing the work sequentially the different sets of workers won't stumble upon each other; if they do they will use this as an excuse for delaying their work or to justify why they need to charge extra.
• All 'renovation tips' articles will tell you to itemise the work in detail. One reason we chose our builder was because he appeared organised, and set out clearly exactly what needed to be done (with bullet points no less!). Anyway, include as much detail as possible.
• You may wish to consider employing the workers on a 'labour only' basis, and supply all the materials yourself. If you don't you can guarantee that the builder will supply the cheapest material possible. Also there will be fewer arguments, and it will also be easier to justify paying them in arrears, after each piece of work has been completed. We used this approach with our second set of (infinitely more professional) builders (well decorators). That said, ensure that your builders let you know what materials they need by when. Don't assume that they will ask. In fact, don't assume that they will have any common sense whatsoever.
• I would strongly suggest that you live in the house while they are doing the work, so that you can monitor it closely. This may of course not be possible, in which case try and go and see the house as often as possible.

Anyway, I hope that this was helpful and that our house renovation pain may at least help you plan your project well.