4 problems preventing you from completing repairs on time

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you don't pay enough attention to these things, your apartment can turn into an endless construction site.

Problem 1. Lack of clear planning

Spend two weeks planning before starting your renovation. You can ask the designer for help, but this is not at all necessary.

Often the difficulty lies in the fact that customers:

• do not know what they want;
• they forget what they wanted at first and what they said to the builders;
• in the process change their minds and want something else;
• for a long time they can not make a choice and delay the materials.

Solution

Select pictures and photographs of interiors for each zone in your apartment. This will help determine the style. For such purposes, Pinterest is suitable.

Then choose a color palette for each room.

Use a felt-tip pen or pencil to draw a working floor plan. Mark on it with lines what needs to be demolished. Then draw a second picture - what walls need to be built. The new layout is ready, hurray!

Turn the sheet over. Sign what material should be used for ceilings, walls, baseboards. Craftsmen need to know what they are going to do.

In the plan with new walls, mark all plumbing points. These are taps, washing machines and dishwashers, sinks and toilets. Mark the distances from the walls next to which the plumbing will be placed.

Draw another plan with light points and switches, indicating with lines which one turns on which lamp.

Problem 2. Poor management

A married couple hired our best plumber, Sasha. They gave him the keys to the apartment, outlined the scope of the tasks. Sasha says that the work will take two days. Indeed, how much longer to put the comb and lead the pipes. But Sasha did it for a week, was very annoyed and stopped taking the phone. A couple calls the plumber, shouting: "Well, where have you disappeared ?!"

What does the story really look like from Sasha's perspective? He came and realized that he needed to lower the crosspiece of the riser. I looked at everything, made a shopping list for myself. Spent the day shopping. I called and said that he needed access to the neighbors below. He was told to go to the management company. And so on, you understand …

Also, often craftsmen cannot order materials with a stock. These people are not rich, they try to save a little and order the exact amount of materials. However, they often make mistakes in calculations - you have to order and wait for delivery. Therefore, it is better to take more and not waste time. If an opened pack of materials remains, you can always donate it to people in need or sell it cheaply on Avito.

Solution

Purchase materials on time and in the right quantity. How much exactly - check with the seller in the store or carefully study the labels on the packaging.

Organize garbage collection. Look for the truck yourself, which is allowed to enter the courtyard.

Make an agreement with the building supervisor that you will cover the elevator with cardboard before repairing.

No one should do this for you, unless, of course, you have hired a company. And if you hire a company, it is better to clarify what exactly is included in the estimate.

Problem 3. Low qualification of masters

There is such a nonsensical phrase “Masters are masters”. We are all accustomed to the fact that they work badly or incorrectly. Not all electricians know how to make a single line diagram. Not all painters understand that sponge and velor rollers give different density and texture of paint application.

I am sure: you should not expect from the masters that they will be well versed in new repair technologies. If you yourself do not know the sequence of application of materials, the duration of drying and other subtleties, then the master will do as he always did, as he was taught at a previous construction site or at a school, where he never saw an alignment system for tiled floors.

Solution

You need to take responsibility and independently google the technology for each stage of the repair, helping the craftsmen to do everything right. Each manufacturer of materials either on the packaging or on the official website indicates recommendations for their use.

Problem 4. Unforeseen circumstances

Many things we cannot predict. The writer, mathematician and economist Nassim Taleb calls events that are difficult to predict, leading to unexpected consequences, black swans. Every renovation has at least one such event.

Once we came to a new building to make repairs, and there was a stench in the apartment. Where it smells of feces is not clear: full Shell & Core. Screed only. With me was a builder who was more experienced in such matters. Says: "We open the tie." Opened up, and there is shit. I had to knock down the entire screed, fill it again, wait until it dries. And a 40 mm screed dries on average 28 days!

Solution

You need to make a rigid schedule like a Gantt strip chart, but lay another 20-30% of the total time for unforeseen situations.

Output

To complete the repair on time, you need to prepare well for it: make plans and technical specifications for the craftsmen, make a shopping list, familiarize yourself with the work technologies and set aside time for unforeseen circumstances. Don't be afraid and take on this adventure with joy. Soon you will gain new experience, knowledge and a beautiful apartment.