This blog describes how property renovation companies can help to remodel your home – from working with clients since 2004.
What Does a Property Renovation Company Do?
If you’ve not used a renovation specialist before, you’ll find that each offers a different service, and you may not know what suits you best. The following gives a breakdown of the total renovation task from start to finish, which you can use to question prospective companies. Do they:
— Produce initial concepts of what the renovation will look like?
— Co-ordinate structural engineers and architects?
— Submit planning applications?
— Oversee building control?
— Coordinate Party Wall Act matters?
— Carry out the work as a building contractor?
— Oversee a tender then manage contractors for you?
— Design and supply the complete interior, including soft furnishings?
— Supply fixtures and fittings?
This should start the discussion, and help you to work out what they can do for you.
“Style Within manages everything from concept to delivery so our clients only need to deal with us. We are not a building contractor, so don’t use direct labour, but we engage builders and trades on our clients’ behalf following a tender, then oversee the work to completion.”
Realism and experience
A home renovation company brings experience of past projects, and adds realism to the timescale and budget. To the uninitiated, things seem significantly more expensive and planned to take much longer than expected, but it is always best to be realistic from the start.
“Most of our clients rightly want to know indicative costs early in the process. They often expect the price to be lower, usually because they’ve not taken everything into account. A kitchen might cost £10 000, but new power, lighting, plumbing, flooring, decoration, and making good would almost double the price. We visited one delightful family recently in a highly desirable property. They wanted a knock-through kitchen, a utility room, a new bathroom, two en-suites in existing bedrooms, and an outbuilding made into a habitable space. They expected this to cost around £80 000. We explained, using real costs from real projects, that the total price would exceed £150 000 – the kitchen fittings alone for that property would have exceeded £20 000”
Saving you money
Professionals can actually save money for their clients from negotiation and trade discounts.
“In one project, our clients were quoted £16 000 for a kitchen. We supplied it for £13 000. We saved further on the worktop, splashback, and flooring, totalling over £4500 which effectively paid for most of our project management fee.”
Saving time and stress
Not only can professionals save you money, they also save you time and stress. You’ll get a sense of the knowledge, experience, patience, and dedication for a home renovation from reputable TV programmes like Grand Designs. Some people have the time and are ready for the challenge; others aren’t. That’s where a property renovation company can help.
It’s also logical for a specialist to see a project through from start to finish. Otherwise you run the risk of miscommunication as work is handed from designer to contractor to sub-contractor to next sub-contractor to flooring supplier. A project needs consistent oversight – preferably by someone who carries the vision through all phases of the renovation.
“We dedicate literally hundreds of hours to our large renovation projects, carrying out a professional job for our clients and giving them peace of mind”.
Cost control
Naturally, you may be concerned about costs running away – another feature of TV property programmes. A responsible property renovation company will be open and transparent at all times. You will agree the price in a contract.
“For each project, our pricing spreadsheet has four main sections. The first shows the costs for the five trade types:
- structural and building
- plumbing and heating
- joinery and carpentry
- electrics, and
- decoration.
The second covers supply costs and any extra labour:
- flooring
- fabrics
- feature lighting
- kitchen cabinets and appliances
- bathroom suite
- etc”
“The third section lists fees:
- designer
- architect
- structural engineer
- party wall surveyor
- water board
- project management
The fourth and final section allocates an amount for specific and non-specific risks (typically referred to as contingency). May discover:
- rotten joists
- house needs to be re-wired
- roof needs to be re-felted
- extra foundations needed following pilot investigation
- unknown unknowns
Only then will clients have a reasonable understanding of the total cost from start to finish. They can then budget for this, deciding whether to draw down savings, arrange a loan, re-mortgage, or phase the work to meet cashflow. We’ve seen all these funding options used to deliver the project successfully”
Paying contractor’s bills
Your contract will state payment terms and for larger projects you should look to set payments against milestones (such as “groundworks signed off by building control”) or for a measure of work complete.
“Most contractors are happy to be paid for work complete. Our spreadsheet lists all the activities with their associated prices. Month by month, we estimate the percentage complete for each activity, multiply by the associated price element then sum those values to give the payment for the month in question.”
Never agree to pay a set amount each month; you must pay for results, not for elapsed time or effort. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’ve paid 80% of the total cost, but the contractor has only completed 25% of the work.
You should also consider a retention for resolving snags after completion. Most contractors expect this to be 5% paid after 6 months so long as there are no major snags outstanding.
Property renovation companies in Bath and Bristol
We hope this blog has gone some way to explaining how home renovation companies work. We’ve produced a download with typical fees and a timeline to show how a typical engagement might work. Please get in touch if you think we can help further.
