Managing a project

 If you are thinking of embarking on construction work in your home, it is essential to have a clear idea of how long it will take, whether you plan to live with the chaos surrounding you, or whether you are going to move out and stay at an AirBnB or with friends or relatives for the duration. If you are using a small contractor, their time management can be excellent, or quite the opposite. I was recently overseeing a small wood restoration project that the contractor assured us would take five days and ended up taking nine working days! 

Time management becomes even more important if you are project managing your alterations yourself and have several contractors coming in to do demolishing, bricklaying, plastering, plumbing, electrical and cupboard installations. You need a clear time map so that you can sequence the work and arrange for each group to start when the project has reached the right stage and to make sure you don't have too many people at once, falling over each other.

I discovered a really handy and simple tool when I was studying project management, which is also a great way of communicating with the rest of the team - it is called a Gantt Chart. You can do it on ordinary squared paper or graph paper. 

Start by listing all the different "trades" that you will be needing: I find this easiest if I go through room by room. For example: Bedroom: remove old cupboards; install new cupboards; fix floor boards and skirtings; paint.

Find out from your contractors and suppliers how long each task should take, and at the same time, find out what the "lead time" is for manufacture (here, for the cupboards) and for the delivery of materials (eg. if you have a specific paint that needs to be ordered in advance). As you can see, each task for this room follows on from the one before, in a "chain", which you can now map onto your squared paper, with each square representing one day. You now need to work backwards from when a task begins on site to map in the "lead time": this will show you how far in advance of the site-works you need to have finalised the design and details of the cupboard manufacture to avoid a delay when the demolition work is done.

You will see on my chart, that I have only allocated weekdays for tasks. There are two reasons for this, one being that if you live in an apartment or complex, there may be a restriction on building work being done on the weekends (check with your managing agents or board of trustees, and check for working hours at the same time). The other reason is that it is good to keep some "float" in the plan in case there is a delay or a task runs on for longer than planned.

So you can see, for a relatively straightforward project, the planning is quite easy, providing that every estimate of duration is fairly accurate. But what about a more complex job, with much more coordination? Here is the scope of work for refurbishing a kitchen: remove sink and shut off water; remove old cupboards; remove old tiling; install new cupboards; install new sink; install new stove and oven; replace tiling; install new plug points; paint.

Here we have four different teams - plumber, carpenter, tiler and painter, and electrician. The plumber will have to come in on two separate occasions, to remove the sink and after the cupboards are installed, to plumb in the new sink. The electrician can do all the work together (install stove, oven and plugs) on the same day, but only if the tiles have been installed and the grout allowed to harden before (s)he arrives on site. If you are overseeing the project, you will need to arrange in advance for the days on which each team will arrive, so the completion of each task can become quite critical. To map this, we can use arrows on our Gantt Chart for these critical relationships.

You can use the Gantt Chart to keep a track of progress, filling in each box as the work is completed. If you pin this up where the workers can see it, it is a great way for the whole team to stay committed to the time-scales that were agreed during the planning before work started on site.

If you have only one contractor, or a main contractor who will be overseeing all aspects of the work, they should be doing this time management themselves, but it is a good idea to ask for their time management diagram when you are getting quotes. This is quite a good way of weeding out the builders who don't have sophisticated project management skills and in this way, avoid a project that seems to draw out indefinitely!