Budget & Scheduling
Nicole Bickley
How Should Renovation Payments Be Staged?
Pay in stages tied to completed and inspected work, never in advance of it, with a five to ten percent retention held until snagging is closed...
Nicole BickleyBudget & Scheduling
Contingency, payment stages and the realistic length of a job.
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
What Should You Buy Before Demolition Starts?
Order everything with a lead time longer than four weeks before demolition: kitchen units, windows, steels, bespoke joinery, stone worktops and tiles. Order the rest after...
Nicole Bickley
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
When Should You Book Trades for a Spring Renovation?
Book the key trades eight to twelve weeks before the intended start, and the specialists, plasterers and tilers, twelve to sixteen weeks ahead. A good plasterer...
Nicole Bickley
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
Is It Cheaper to Manage a Renovation Yourself?
Usually ten to twenty percent cheaper in cash and considerably more expensive in time, because you take on the coordination, the sequencing and the liability that...
Nicole Bickley
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
How Do You Handle Variations Mid-Project?
In writing, priced before the work starts, with a signed instruction and a programme impact stated. A variation agreed verbally is a variation that will be...
Nicole Bickley
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
How Do You Compare Three Renovation Quotes Fairly?
Compare against your own schedule of work, line by line, with each quote priced or explicitly excluded, and treat any unpriced line as a future variation...
Nicole Bickley
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
Why Do Renovation Projects Always Overrun?
Because the plan assumes the building is as surveyed, the trades are available when needed, and the client decides once. In practice all three assumptions fail,...
Nicole Bickley
Budget & SchedulingNicole Bickley
How Much Contingency Should a Renovation Budget Hold?
Fifteen percent on a like-for-like renovation, twenty percent where services or layout change, and twenty-five percent where structure is exposed or the building predates 1960. Below...
Nicole Bickley