Bathroom Remodeling Your Project Management Options

Caution - Project managing your bathroom remodel can be detrimental to your health.

This is the story of a friend of mine who decided to handle the project management of her bathroom remodel all by herself. She is a teacher and is well organised. She also has more time to be at home than most of us so she was well placed to handle the project, or so she thought.

Before she started hiring contractors my friend made sure that she was quite clear in her own mind about what it was she desired. She found all the best prices for the stuff she wanted to use then she made careful drawings to scale on graph paper square to make sure that it would all fit ok and to give her something to help explain the remodeling project to the contractors.

Remodeling tasks to be managed

My friend made a lot of lists during the course of the remodeling project and one of the first was a list designed to break the project down into smaller chunks.

* Rip out existing bathroom fixtures.
* Legal requirements compliance.
* Design and styling of the bathroom.
* Walls, widows and other building tasks.
* Interior walls finishing.
* Install plumbing.
* Install electrical appliances and wiring.
* New bathroom fixtures fitting.
* Wall tiling.
* Flooring.
* Remedial work.

Now consider the list of skills that she needed for the bathroom remodel.

Skill requirements for a bathroom remodeling project

* Carpenter
* Builder
* Electrician
* Glazier
* Plasterer
* Plumber
* Floor covering specialist

She could see from this that she would have lots of work just phoning around for a day or two. She used the telephone directory and the Internet to look for suitable workers to do the job. Then she visited her local bathroom showrooms and asked the staff. This strategy turned out to be the most effective way to find good people to do the job, as often the staff knew the contractors personally. She also obtained a few leads from her friends who had recently remodeled their bathrooms.

The project management starts

She now had to make a plan of what needed to be done when and arrange for the right people to be available to carry out the tasks at the right time. This turned out to be a lot harder than you might imagine with so many people involved. They all seemed to have something else to do at the times when my friend wanted them to work for her. Because she was a teacher she tried to arrange for it all to happen in the school holidays so that she would have time to supervise but this only made the planning more difficult.

My friend managed to draw up a plan in the end that everyone was able to agree to and she thought that she had done very well. She patted herself on the back for that but I'm afraid that it was the last time that she felt she was able to do that.

Let the problems commence

The new stuff didn't turn up on time and the contractors that arrived on time to fit it all had to be turned away. They weren't able to return at the time when my friend needed them to. She was left without a bathroom and a project going nowhere and this was just the start of it.

Project management is much harder than it seems

If it could have gone wrong then it did. Or at least that's how it seemed to my friend. The bathtub had a crack in it and had to be returned. They could not get a replacement for 4 weeks! The shower didn't work and the manufacturers had to get involved. The painter managed to cause a flood, which destroyed the ceiling below.

It seemed like there was no end in sight, the 10 day project turned into 12 weeks and it still wasn't quite finished then. I don't think that my friend will be doing this kind of thing again in a hurry.

Get someone else to manage your project for you

You don't have to do the project management part all by yourself I'm pleased to say. I know it looks like a fun way to spend your summer holidays but project management is a difficult job that rapidly gets more complicated as more people are involved. Find and hire yourself a project manager to do all this for you. It might look an expensive option to begin with but it's a lot less stress and might not be that much more expensive by the time the project is finished.

Article Source: http://www.diyarticlelibrary.com

Bathroom remodeling options Management of bathroom remodeling projects at www.bathroomsremodeling.this-info.com

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated