So you're planning a renovation: Here's where to start

Shay Lally Quantity surveyor

IN OUR BRAND-NEW series, The Big Reno Clinic, experienced quantity surveyor Shay Lally provides answers and solutions to the big (and little, but important) questions you may have about making the most of your home.

This week’s question

“I’m planning a renovation project. Where should I start?”

Shay says:

Home renovations involve making lots of decisions and spending a lot of money. Many people put a lot of pressure on themselves during the process. My advice is to take your time, get very clear on what you want, consult the experts and make as many decisions up front as possible. Here’s why.

Get clear on what you want

As basic as it sounds, getting clear on what you want is something people often overlook when planning a renovation, resulting in needs coming unmet after the renovation is complete. The first thing to do is to get very clear on what you want and create a brief. The brief should have three parts to it:

Part 1 – Outline your needs

The number of reception rooms, bedrooms and any specific requirements you have.

Part 2 – List the big jobs you need to do

For example, do you need to replace windows and doors, insulate the attic, insulate the walls internally, rewire the house, replace the heating system?

Part 3 – Detail the scope of work for each room

This is where you go into detail on work aside from what’s listed above that you’d like to do to each room.

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Consult the experts

Engaging with an architect results in getting a set of drawings that illustrate what you plan to do to your house. Having these plans will make everybody’s life easier, reduce confusion, decrease the number of decisions you’ll have to make, result in better cost certainty and mean as the homeowner the builder will have more autonomy and be able to build or reconfigure your house as per your plans you’ve signed off on and provided them with. Using an architect will result in making the most about of the light and space and result in a better end result.

Quantity surveyors provide cost planning and budgeting advice at the early stages of a project and will give you an indication of how much your ideas or brief will cost. Undertaking this cost planning session with a suitable qualified and experienced QS can be beneficial and result in you asking your architect to design to budget rather than you trying to budget to design.

A quantity surveyor can also produce a document called a Bill of Quantities or BoQ which essentially itemises and quantifies the extent of work called for in the drawings. Once a BoQ is created it can be sent out to building contractors along with a set of tender drawings for pricing. The great thing about a bill of quantities is that you’ll receive like-for-like tender returns making it easy to do a tender analysis, ie compare the tender returns on a like-for-like basis to establish which tender return is the best value for money.

It’s wise to get a QS to assess the tender returns, discuss their findings and appoint the contractor on your behalf while outlining the contract terms.

With construction costs at an all-time high and budgets being stretched it’s common for homeowners to try and save money to not use an architect or liase with a quantity surveyor, but do think about what they might bring to the table in cost savings over the whole project.

Make as many decisions as possible early on

Once work starts on site decisions are needed quick and fast. Making lots of decisions can be overwhelming and stressful. I suggest making as many decisions up front as possible. This approach reduces delays as many items have long lead-in times, results in cost certainty as you’ll be able to get a cost for the option or item you’ve chosen, making it easier to keep the budget in check and give you more headspace during the renovation process

Take your time

I always suggest taking your time and thinking things through. As a quantity surveyor my phone often rings when there’s a problem. These problems are typically due to a breakdown in communication between the client and contractor, unclear costings and payment terms resulting in the contractor being overpaid in proportion to the work the work they have completed on site or the homeowner receiving a big bill for extras, variations and additional items.

By taking you’re time you’ll be able to put the project out to tender, find a contractor with a proven track record and take your time to assess what they’ve included and excluded from their costs and review their payment terms.

The key takeaway here is to think of the relationship between yourself and your contractor like the relationship between yourself and your employer. There needs to be a contract, clear terms, expectations, structure and consequences if what’s agreed isn’t delivered.

I hope these tips help those who are planning a renovation. To get your home renovation- related question answered please send your question to reno@thejournal.ie 

Shay will be back next Sunday to begin answering our readers’ questions and help them move or improve. Follow more of his work on his popular Houses to Restore Insta account.

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