10 Tips How A Professional Should Tailor Your Home Projects
Our life is in a state of constant change and this change is inevitable. Home refurbishments & decorations are part of this change. These changes are made sometimes by our request and sometimes by necessity. Whatever the reason of changes, we are looking for to decrease the cost and increase the quality of our home refurbishments & decorations. So how can we do it? Why do we need to work with experienced professionals? The architects and interior designers select and adapt the appropriate artefacts according to your requirements. This is selection and adaptation are known as tailoring.
First of all, as a householder, you need to think about, and you need to know the answers of the below listed questions before staring to search the right professionals in the market:
a) What does my start point? And what is the purpose of my project?
b) What is the feeling I want to have when I enter the room or home?
c) What is the scope of the project?
d) What is my budget?
e) What is my time schedule?
If your project includes multitasks (such as electric, plumbing, flooring, new walls, ceiling...etc.), it is always better to work with architects or interior designers for coordination and sequencing of the works.
In 10 tips how a professional should tailor your home projects?
1- During the preparation of quotes, professionals should describe the scope of the works clearly to avoid any misunderstanding which may lead into an increase of the initial quote. And it is better to see out of scope works as well in the quote. As a householder, if the scope of works has not been clearly listed in the quote, you should solicit a clarification of the scope of works.
2- As a householder you should request a price breakdown of the quote from your professionals. Then you can be able to compare the prices with other professionals or suppliers.
3- If you are supplying the main materials for construction, do not order them without the knowledge and control of the professionals. If we give an example from an event that happened. Householder ordered the plank laminate flooring material without the knowledge of professionals. Supplier told her that she can install them as herringbone laminate flooring. We realized the wrong type of material after the delivery. There was no time to replace them with a correct type of materials, so she accepted the plank type of laminate flooring.
4- As a householder you should keep in mind that the priority of the suppliers is to sell their products. They may not know which product is the right one for your project.
5- If you want to stay in your budget, as a householder, you need to avoid scope creep and gold plating. Scope creep means, uncontrolled expansion of the scope of the project. Gold plating means, are doing an out-of-scope work, a negative situation arises.
6- There is a term about time schedule that you need to avoid if you don’t want to spend money over your budget. That term is crashing. It means; you should trade time for money by adding resources to finish the works faster. If you are running behind your time schedule, you should ask your professionals to do fast tracking (It means: Doing the activities parallel where possible) instead of crashing.
7- Most of the UK houses are old, and we don’t know the history of the building. In every project, there will be risks and ignoring the risk does not make it go away. If your professionals don’t consider the risks at the planning stage of your project, it can be costly and time-consuming when they realize it in the middle of the project. So, you should request a risk assessment at the planning stage of your project from your professional.
8- Most of the professionals have trade accounts to the material & furniture & kitchen & bathroom suppliers. They may get better prices than the householders, so you may decrease the cost of your projects.
9- Experienced architects & interior designers may predict the less costly solutions for your home decorations. They may also avoid costly mistakes. Such as: Unmatching colour of wallpaper or paint, wrong size of furniture, wrong type of materials.... etc.
10- Sometimes it is difficult to see the small details. Experienced architects & interior designers can find the smart ways and best look for small details. Such as: Joining details of different building materials, heat and water proofing details of outer face materials.... etc.
UNIQUE DESIGN PROJECTS – CENK ERGI