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The Easiest Way to Avoid Expensive Glitches

Remember how I said to stay involved in your project even though your general contractor is doing most of the heavy lifting at this point? There’s a reason for that: staying informed is the best way to avoid expensive changes, problems, or miscommunications.

As your remodeling project starts and continues, you and your team should schedule regular check-in meetings to keep everyone in the loop on how the project is moving forward. Don’t rely on hallway conversations and driveway updates. Take the time to sit down and actually discuss your project.

These meetings won’t always be long or involved. If your project is small, they could be fifteen minutes once a week to discuss what will be accomplished over the next few days and what the next steps are. Don’t let the short meeting time fool you, as they do require prep work, though. Both you and your contractor or construction manager should come to these meetings prepared.

Here are a couple of things to ask about at these meetings:

• Have your contractor point out where you are in the project timeline and explain any delays.
• Ask if there is other work that can be done if weather, material delays, or tardy shipments are delaying one part of the project.

Once the meeting concludes, make sure all parties receive a written recap of what was discussed, including any delays, alternative work plans, payments paid or due, and photos of work to date. Any items that require follow up should have a designated and clear “owner” to avoid the follow up item falling through the cracks.

Every time you have a check-in meeting, follow up on any agenda items that haven’t been fully resolved. Even if there are some items that need more time to be resolved, it’s possible work can continue while your team is sorts them out.