How to get a project done properly
Planning, pricing, scheduling and hiring. The project management discipline used on large construction, applied to work on your home.
Practical writing about planning, pricing, scheduling and hiring for work on your home. Written by people who have managed construction projects from multi-million-dollar builds down to residential repairs.
No sponsored posts, no affiliate links, and no contractor pays to appear here.
A good project starts long before anyone picks up a tool
Concept, plan, contract, execution. Four stages, and the reason most home improvement projects fail in the first two.
Read the articleHow to estimate what a project should cost
Where the money actually goes, why bids differ, and how to tell a competitive price from a problem.
Read the articleHow to select a good contractor
Licence and price are the easy part. The things that predict a good outcome are harder to see and more reliable.
Read the articleScheduling: why projects run late and what to do about it
How contractors think about time, why the honest estimate is a range, and which delays you can prevent.
Read the articleWhat actually makes a project successful
On time and on budget is the usual definition. It is also incomplete, and chasing it can produce a bad outcome.
Read the articleThe predicaments homeowners run into, and how to get out of them
The contractor stopped showing up. The bill went up. The work is wrong. What to actually do in each case.
Read the articleHow to get good quality work, not just finished work
Quality is specified, sequenced and inspected. It is almost never the result of hoping for the best.
Read the articleChoosing a contractor on more than cost and time
Two contractors, same price, same schedule. Here is what actually separates them.
Read the articleGetting the most out of Project Express
How to write a description that gets you accurate quotes, and what to do with them when they arrive.
Read the articleProject management, translated out of jargon
Scope, schedule, budget, risk and change control. What each one means when the project is your kitchen.
Read the articlePlanning home improvement that is worth the disruption
Which projects to do first, how to sequence them, and when to leave something alone.
Read the articleSay what you need. Get it done.
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