Our house refurbishment project management service for properties in London and the home counties can help you achieve your goals without unnecessary stress on you or your wallet - we can also provide you with some room decorating ideas for your period property.
Is property renovation difficult?
Many people take on a project and then find that they are out of their depth in terms of time they have to spend on the project and their knowledge of building works. They therefore have to rely on the opinion of various so called professionals very few of whom have any knowledge of or love for old buildings. You might get lucky and find someone wonderful who is on your wavelength however experience has shown us that this is rarely the case especially if you are on a tight budget. Tradesmen usually have their own agenda in terms of getting the maximum money out of the job and doing their job quickly and getting out before the proverbial hits the fan. Read about the experience of Ben and Stephanie and some other customers in our article about what people wish they'd known before buying a period house.
Architects are not typically good with restoration projects, instead preferring to add a statement extension onto an old property in order to satisfy their vanity. Ask them to create something in keeping with the period and most will look disappointed and try to convince you otherwise.
Even planners have their own agenda, wishing to minimise contentious applications as it gives them more work to do. They will refuse anything out of the ordinary if they can and any ambitious projects really need some weight and knowledge behind them in order to get through the planning process. Add to that the reluctance of most conservation officers to change anything at all, even the most justifiable improvements, and most period property owners will give up on any grand plans.
So yes, in short property renovation can be very difficult for the inexperienced. However our period property renovation management service is here to help. Our agenda is the same as yours – to achieve the best finished project for you for the least money. We can take some of the stress out of your project and we have decades of experience of renovating period properties successfully and making a good return on investment.
Our Victorian Emporium house refurbishment project management service can help you
We can hold your hand right from the house viewings stage, when you are assessing whether a project is financially viable and how long it will take, through every stage of the renovation process. Our knowledge and experience spans:
- Replanning of the property layout
- Victorian Interior design ideas
- Knowledge of well priced sources of reclaimed materials, kitchens and other costly items to help you come in within your budget. Take a look at our reclamation yard top tips.
- Competitive purchasing
- Historical research
- Specification of jobs for tradesmen
- Assessing quotations and management of the trades.
We can be by your side throughout the whole process and provide an independent and impartial source of advice and hands on help. We can be your very own renovation projects Sarah Beeny! We can also manage the whole project for you although we can be used simply for ad hoc advice as and when you need it. Clients typically hire us because they find they need a sounding board for decisions they are deliberating over or that they may be disagreements over either with the builders or with a partner. Often we are needed to provide moral support for those at the end of their tether and can give advice about how to manage your stress and bring the project to a successful conclusion. We can also support you through choosing and buying the right period property for you acting as your own buying agent.
How does the house refurbishment project management service work?
We charge on a fixed fee or a daily rate basis, not on a percentage of project cost therefore unlike many other general project managers and architects, we have nothing to gain by encouraging you make bigger plans than are sensible.
Additionally we can help you to avoid the type of mistakes that can knock tens of thousands of pounds off the value of the finished project, for example:
- Buying a house which is overpriced for the state of repair it is in or is not appropriate for what you wish to achieve out of it
- Overspending on an extension when you won’t get your money back on it
- Specific issues that could cause damage to the building such as using the wrong type of plaster resulting in plaster and brickwork degradation
- Choosing inappropriate restoration products for example choosing concrete roof tiles (this can result in an ugly result or worse still, damage to the walls due to the unsustainable weight of the tiles)
- Choosing tradesmen based on cheap quotes when various parts of the job have been omitted from quotation so that they can charge you extra for them later
- Installing inappropriate fixtures and fittings which could devalue the property – think plastic windows, bricks that don’t match
- Overcoming issues with the fabric of the building such as smelly basements that may never serve as adequate additions, sometimes due to not choosing the correct method of damp proofing
If you would like to find out more about our house refurbishment project management service covering London and the home counties, please email [email protected] or call 01525 750333. We have vast experience of how to add value to your period home and we'd like to share this experience and knowledge with you on your house refurbishment journey.
Our house refurbishment project management services is available to home owners and developers in the following areas.
Northamptonshire
Posted by Window Man - Oct 15, 2014 - 17:18
Restoration is important in a society that wants everything new. I restore replacement windows as part of my business. I like what you do.