5 Tips To Make Construction Works A Breeze

Hey everyone, it’s Naomi here.

You’ve made it! After months and months of hard work, research, planning, designing, organising and saving, you’re finally at the construction stage. All of that effort has been leading to this part.

So how do you make sure that your renovation is a guaranteed success? Do you have everything in place so that it all goes through as fast as possible? Are all of your trades organised and ready to go?

Today, I wanted to delve into some really handy tips I have picked up over the years that have to do with the actual construction stage of your renovation.

And it all starts with strict planning.

The moment you step onsite, you should already know who is where, what is being delivered that day, and what work is being done. Most of this stuff you would have already planned out. But to make sure you don’t miss a thing – and potentially miss out on any profits because of it – here are some of my top tips for managing the construction side of your renovation.

1. Know who comes when

First tip is this: know the order of events for your renovation.

I’ve spoken about the importance of a renovation timeline in another blog post. Time is money, and you need to have a clear idea of which jobs are being done at what time, as well as which tradies are coming in to do those jobs.

Is Bob the plumber coming in on Tuesday and Wednesday this week? What part of the job is he looking to finish? And can Jack the carpenter be in at the same time, or are they just going to get in each other’s way? Can Phil the tiler come in this week or does he have to wait for John the electrician to finish off the wiring first?

Just remember that no matter how well planned out your renovation schedule is, not everything every goes strictly according to plan. Sometimes, due to an emergency or perhaps the rainy weather, some jobs will be pushed back a day or so.

To make room for these potential circumstances, you should always include a “buffer” day between big stages of the renovation. This way, you can tweak and adapt your schedule as you go along, without freaking out because you haven’t let enough leeway in your original timeline.

2. Have your supplies ready

Tip number two: there’s nothing worse than having to stop all renovation works because you are waiting on a delivery of tiles or wooden floorboards.

If your renovation is held up because of these sorts of delays, it will mean you are not only wasting your own time, but also the time of the tiler or other tradies who are relying on those materials and that job to be completed.

The last thing you want is to frustrate your tradies – they are busy people and have other jobs to attend to as well. Plus, wasting their time is essentially wasting your money. Not to mention these extra days will mean that you have to fork out more for mortgage repayments and the like.

So, make sure that you do all the necessary calls and chase up all the relevant suppliers WELL BEFORE your tradies rock up onsite to do the handy work. For example, have your tiles delivered early and stored somewhere where they won’t get in the way and won’t be out and prone to getting damaged.

3. Get your custom order in early

The third tip for doing a quick flip is this: make sure that all your customised orders are placed super early. Why? Because they’re not already sitting on a shelf ready to go, they need to be made up especially for you.

Sometimes you can’t just pick up a flat pack kitchen from Bunnings or Ikea. Sometimes the windows in the living room are an odd shape and you need to have those blinds and curtains made specific to your job. In these cases, custom orders will do wonders.

However, this tip doesn’t give you the green light to just rush into a project and order twenty kitchen cabinets before you have properly measured out what exactly it is you need. You need to have your final designs down pat first. But when these are ready to go, order away.

Also keep in mind that it’s not just the custom making part that you have to wait for, but also the delivery part. Sometimes kitchen cabinets are made up in Perth, and need to travel for a few days to get to your renovation project in Melbourne. And if it’s a busy time of year – such as close to Christmas – there might be an extra waiting time for these sorts of things.

As long as you have taken the time in advance to order these custom cabinets and blinds, you will have nothing to worry about.

4. Be the onsite help and support

This fourth tip is a blend of a few things I have mentioned over the span of my posts. It involves keeping your tradies in the loop about what you want, sending them reminders and generally communicating with them to make sure the renovation runs smoothly with minimal hiccups.

This one isn’t about being in their face or constantly nagging them about their work. Remember that there’s a difference between friendly reminders and micromanagement.

But beyond leaving construction plans stuck to walls as a reference guide (which is a good idea), there are plenty of other things your tradies might need support with.

And one of the biggest ones is keeping the site clean, tidy and safe. No tradie likes working in piles of debris or dust. So, make sure either you, or somebody else you have delegated to the job – but not the plumber or electrician doing work that day – is keeping on top of the sweeping and taking out of the rubbish.

What about a toilet? This one is a basic human necessity – you don’t want to make your tradies uncomfortable, or running offsite to use the loo. So always have one that is working and accessible (whether it be a porta-loo or one in the actual house).

5. Make sure your approvals are sorted

Tip number five: Always keep your approvals in check.

Is your property a house or apartment? If it’s an apartment, does it fall under strata law?

Your A-Team – probably your lawyer and certifier – would already have gone through the finicky parts of the different rules and regulations that apply to your property.

Obviously if you have started to renovate, you would already have approvals from either council (if it’s a house) or from strata (if it’s a unit). What you need to make sure is that you are always sticking by the rules that they have set.

This can be a little trickier when it comes to strata, because there may be heaps of rules surrounding the type of flooring you can have, and even how much noise you are allowed to make and at what time. This is because any work you do will not only affect you and your property, but can affect your neighbours too.

So, be nice to the neighbours and stick to the rules – which means no drilling on weeknights and Sundays!

There are plenty more tips where that came from, located in my handy Rapid Renovation Formula. Keep them in mind when planning your construction and you will be on the right path to renovating for wealth.