Who Comes First...The Chicken Or The Painter?

“Sequencing The Right Contractors At The Right Time In A House Renovation.”

By Van Sturgeon

Real Estate Investor

We are all human beings, and most mean well!

I mean...Most people don’t want to harm you on purpose.

Whenever I see chaos on a house renovation, it is rare that I see true intentions of malice toward one party or another. The problem usually begins with a misunderstanding of the roles and responsibilities that all parties have within the whole renovation process.

“The devil is in the details” and I can assure you that if you have all of the details taken care of, before you start your house renovation, you will have greatly increased your chances of success.

It starts by assisting the contractors and having a clear Scope of Work prepared for the project, and keeping a copy of the work schedule on site. 

We want all of our contractors to be working off the same page, right?

We want our contractors to know what they are to do and when it needs to be completed by. There will be some days where you will be able to schedule several contractors to be there at the same time.

This is good...and you need everyone to work together as a team, so that you can finish your renovation as soon as possible. At the same time though, you need to make sure that these contractors don’t get in the way of each other, and don’t cause harm to the work completed.

For example, do you want your hardwood floors to be sanded, while the walls are being painted in the other room? Probably not, as the dust in one room will find its way into the freshly painted area, and destroy the hard work that a contractor just put in.

Who do you think is going to pay for this scheduling error?

You!

As the person responsible for managing the work, you need to always keep in mind on how all work completions are affecting other contractors. There will be some days when only a single trade can work effectively. For example, there is no point in having the electrician on site on the same day, as someone who requires power, because the electrician is likely to need to turn the power off while they are working.

Regardless of your project, the scheduling of work should be as follows:

• List each task and decide who is going to do it. 
• Work out the scheduling of all of the critical elements, then the rest of the project.
• Allow some flexibility as you will need to modify things along the way.
• Sequence work with contractors who only need to return once or twice to complete their work. For example, an electrician and plumber come to the project twice. Once to do the rough in work, and then finally to complete an installation.
• Communication is very important and you need to know who comes and what is completed on your renovation project every day.

Renovations are a piece of cake, as long as you remember which goes first, the chicken or the painter!

For more information on house renovations and real estate investing, visit www.vansturgeon.com to help you in your real estate investment journey.