This guide outlines the steps to take to avoid problems with an office renovation, whether at home or in commercial premises.
If you’ve read the news over recent months, you’ll have heard all about the influx of renovation projects. Put simply, with the pandemic consigning most of us to home, it meant that builders were inundated with renovation requests to bring these properties up to scratch. However, there’s most certainly a right and a wrong way to conduct an office renovation project.
Office renovation tips
This guide isn’t designed to be an office renovation project management bible, but rather some hard and fast tips to make sure your works are completed in the best, possible way.
Dust will make more difference than you ever imagined
We’ll start with a simple issue – but one that causes issues for anyone who has taken on a serious office renovation project. Put simply, while dust particles might be small, they can wreak havoc with any type of project. Even if your renovation is taking place in the kitchen at one side of the home, dust will somehow make its way to a room at the opposite corner.
The solution? Well, as well as the standard dust sheets and preventative measures, make sure you’re protecting both yourself and furniture. During those days where a lot of dust will be generated, considering staying elsewhere. You should also look towards facilities to store your furniture in a bid to keep it clean and dust-free.
The budget will always, always blow
There’s no getting away from it, a budget is important for any office renovation project. With that being said, in the majority of cases, the budget will always, always blow. In our experience, this is more often than not down to two issues – either people underestimate the cost of materials or the time it will take to complete the project.
The solution is much simpler than you first might think – firstly, be realistic about the cost of materials, and secondly, factor in a contingency for both time and money. This will help you to avoid any nasty surprises down the line.
Stay on the right side of your neighbours
If you live in a terraced property, the chances are you’ll be familiar with the ‘party wall’. This is the wall that sits between two properties, and any work that’s conducted on this wall needs to be agreed by both parties. This is a good time to give them a friendly alert with site plans for building permits so they can see everything is in order.
However, in our experience, even if you do everything by the book, there’s a very good chance that your neighbours will still complain. This is often down to two issues – firstly, they might not be happy with the work that’s being conducted, and secondly, they might be concerned about the noise and disruption.
The best solution here is to try and be as considerate as possible during an office renovation – make sure you let your neighbours know about the work in advance, and try to keep the noise to a minimum. If you can do this, then you should be able to avoid any problems.
Not all renovations are equal from a value perspective
There’s a common misconception that all office renovation will add value to a property, if this is a home office. However, this is simply not the case. In fact, some renovations can actually end up reducing the value of your home.
The solution here is to do your research in advance – speak to local estate agents and get an idea of what kind of work is popular in the area. This will help you to make sure that you’re not wasting your time (and money) on a project that’s not going to add any value to your home.
Photo by ATBO
