FAQs

Article from YOUR HOME AND GARDEN NZ

Set realistic expectations

Renovations can be a nerve-wracking process that don’t always go to plan.

A project manager can help, but if you’re looking after your own project, then you need to have a contingency set aside to deal with things as they come up.

It’s important to be realistic and open-minded when things don’t go to plan. Most tradies and consultants will come to you with a problem and a solution, not just a problem. Hear them out, be understanding and reasonable, and know that they will do their best to minimise impact to your reno budget and time frame.

Trust the process

A good builder, designer or project manager will take the time to explain things to you during complex renovation times. Try to remember they are experts in their field.

There are times when nothing seems to be happening - there are parts of a project where there’s a lot of work taking place but it’s hard to see. There are also parts of a project when there is lots to see and things look like they’re all coming together full steam ahead.

Make an appointment

A lot of homeowners feel it’s okay to turn up to the site any time they want because it’s their property. Please don’t. This can impact productivity as well as being a health and safety risk.

However, schedule a fortnightly site visit with your builder and architect or project manager, and everyone knows when to expect you, the team on site can make sure they’ve wrapped up their current tasks, the site is clean and tidy, and there aren’t any big deliveries of roof trusses or steel beams arriving that will interrupt your catch-up.

Consolidate communications

Try to consolidate emails, texts and phone calls. In most cases, the questions and answers won’t be urgent, so write them down and take them to your next site meeting or consolidate them into a weekly summary email so they can come back to you on everything at once. It’s much more efficient.

Respect work hours

Most people don’t like working after hours and your builder, architect, interior designer and project manager are no different. Please respect their work hours. Emails, text messages, phone calls and site visits should be limited to 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. Maybe make it 3pm on a Friday.

Pay on time

This one feels a bit obvious, but it needs to be said. When you sign up your builder, their contract should include payment details, deposit required, frequency of invoices, payment terms and so on. If you have an issue with the frequency, then raise it at the contract phase, not when you’re a few invoices overdue.

A contract is required for all work over $30,000.

If you have an issue with an invoice, communicate it with your builder the day you receive it. Otherwise, schedule an automated payment for the invoice due date – or better yet, pay early.

All jobs cost money, and they can have the same overheads, regardless of whether they are large or small.

These costs include travel, vehicle maintenance, set-up costs, administration time, marketing and compliance costs.

That includes getting the materials for your job, setting up at the start of the job and cleaning up at the end of the job to make sure your home is protected, rubbish removal, invoicing, record-keeping, and sometimes, a checkup afterwards to ensure the job has been completed satisfactorily – or coming back later when the paint dries to finish up.

If all these costs are not charged for, the job can cost the business money. Tradies historically have been poor at passing on these costs. One reason why many small trades business fail early and why it is difficult to get someone to do small jobs.

Talk to us about any concerns you may have with our estimates or invoices and we can explain what it is made up from.

Estimate - Due to the nature of construction sometimes it is difficult to calculate the exact cost of work due to unknown variables. It can act as a benefit to you, the customer, that based on actual costs from previous similar jobs, to provide an estimate of costs. This is normally accepted practice to be plus minus 10% of final invoice. If we can do the work for less, then the customer benefits by ensuring you pay the true cost for the product you receive. It is still recommended that a customer allows an additional 10% contingency for unforeseen variables during the project which could lead to cost variations, for example repair of rotten framing found when wall linings are removed.

Quote - When a quote is provided, also referred to as a fixed price, it is accepted practice for construction companies to add a buffer to cover things such as increased material costs, labour, etc. The benefit to the customer is certainty in pricing and better budgeting. However, it's essential to note that customers should still allocate an additional 10% contingency of the quoted price to accommodate any tagged exclusions.

The decision to use a quote or an estimate is usually determined by risk. For example, with additions and alterations, it can be very difficult to form a true picture of the work involved without having opened walls, roof’s etc. When there are numerous variables, we would most likely use an estimate whereas if the costs are generally more known, we would use a quote.

We will guide you through spending more time on the planning stage rather than making changes throughout the project which avoids significant additional costs. We will use our own sub-trades who over time, we have built relationships and are more willing to honour timelines. We will utilise our industry discounts to ensure you are getting the best price for materials. We use the latest technology to project manage your job to ensure deadlines are met and timelines flow seamlessly.

With all projects, it is recommended to have a contingency budget of at least 10% (preferably 20%) which is readily available in case of unforeseen expenses or problems, this is especially important with renovations. For any unforeseen circumstances, we will price up as a variation before continuing with the work so you are fully aware of the cost increase.

If we purchase the materials for you, firstly you get the benefits of our discounts, secondly if there are any problems with products, we can sort it out more easily along with ensuring beforehand that the product selection is suitable and will actually work for the project.

It’s helpful at the start to decide on your intentions for your house, ie short term investment, home for the children to grow up in or forever home and communicate this to whom you are working with. This will help them to understand your intentions and advise on the most suitable materials and solutions to your project. Be aware of over capitalising so you are not disappointed later on. It’s important to use a company who you can talk to, who is prepared to listen to what you want, answers the hard questions, who is open and up front with you and prepared to spend the time to explain things in simple laymen’s terms.

As time costs money the term “free quote” is not entirely true. It takes time and resources to put together a quote or Estimate including consultation time determining specifications for fixtures and fittings, drawings of the scope of works, requesting pricing from various subcontractors and suppliers and finally presenting the estimate and administering any changes. For example, a bathroom can take as much as 18 labour hours just to produce an accurate estimate.

For a business to survive this cost must be recouped from work that does go ahead. If a quote/estimate acceptance rate is 50% then effectively in this example the cost of doing the two quotes (32hrs) and companies often recoup these costs from the one that does go ahead.

The question is whether this is fair? And therefore should all quote estimate requests be charged for at a nominal rate to cover costs?