Managing a building project can be daunting. Costs can rapidly escalate if there is insufficient organisation and co-operation between the trades involved. Good project management is all about communication – between the client and contractor, and between the various trades. If everyone is talking, and everyone is working – things usually go well.
The problem with working on old buildings is that nothing can be properly planned in the same way as for a new-build project . You just dont know what is going to appear from under the woodwork – another rotten beam, a broken lintel – decayed stonework, or previously unknown historic fabric that changes the direction of the work.
Good project management is essential – and the more insights that management have into the things that are likely to go wrong, the more chance we have of keeping the entire project to a sensible budget.
Its not easy – clients have to establish a firm budget, and everything has to try and stay within that – which is where communication comes in. At every step of the way, changes have to be discussed and understood – so if something goes wrong, financial tweaks can take place to allow a compromise. Sometimes, you run into emergency budgets – sometimes we can do things well under the original estimates. The most important thing to remember is ‘Communication’! Always talk, always ask questions, never be afraid to ask a question – there’s no such thing as a silly question in this game…