My top tip is to make sure you get your bedroom done and completely finished and furnished as an absolute priority, so when you are 3 years into a 1 year reno project and wishing you had never started, you always have somewhere clean, beautiful and finished to escape to every evening and wake up in every morning - does wonders for your state of mind and motivation to keep going.
One thing to consider when doing a renovation that affects the plumbing in the house, such that you lose a bathroom for a while, is to get an inexpensive gym membership. This way you have a place where you can go and shower/clean up when you need to.
Inexpensive gym, ha good one troll. I'd have to drive 20 minutes to take a shower and pay $10 a day to do it. Get some friends or family, maybe ya shouldn't have dumped your mum in that nursing home
boom! . . . . . on target. did exactly this & kind of like keeping 1 room as highest quality for empowering the next day's attitude . . . . going for the cleanup at my community center with hot showers & a basketball court (shooting baskets was a beautiful chill!) after a super tough day on my 1910 house foundation was god strengthening.
My best tip is to take Sundays off or one weekend a month and go somewhere else. When you’re living and working in the same place there is a big risk to go on and on and get really sick and tired of it. Do something else to keep up moral every once in a while 👍🏻
The biggest tip I can give with anything about project management is there will always be unexpected hurdles which take time. You don't need to try and recognise everything that could happen but always add about 20% more time that you think.
Its usually something barely thought of but temporary lighting and power is a instant moral improver when renovating. I'm a sparky, I have heaps of lights and small temporary boards I like to sprinkle around the job (depends how big it is) it takes extra time to set up because I don't like to throw extension leads everywhere but being able to walk to any location and have lighting and a power point made everyone so much happier
I'm working in a 3 story, approximately 8000 square foot house right now where they only have a single spider box in the underground level. Literally all the site lights and power tools for all the trades coming out of one box in the freakin basement. It's bonkers.
Just finished a ‘back to brick’ kitchen remodel. Like you advise, we decamped to a table in the hall. Twin induction hob from ikea and a microwave meant minimal disruption to meal prep. Bath used for washing up. 6 weeks and no hassle really. Would recommend this route.
I’m so happy to have been watching your channel for so long that I knew exactly what those clips were about. I loved the flexi buckets full of debris from under the bungalow. I’m doing a Reno on my craftsman style bungalow now and I need to get better control of the time line and will be employing your method soon.
For anyone looking to make a Gantt chart you can use Microsoft Project (included with Office) its great for project management. So say you need to do Task #1 before Task #2 but Tasks #3 and #4 can be done unrestricted, the program will organise it all for you to get it all optimized. You could end up with something like Task #3 --> Task #1 + Task #4 --> Task #2. Great advice Scott!
Spot on Scott! Your methodology is exactly how i approach my projects. #1 goal keep mother nature out, # 2 keep it strong, start at the bottom and work up when possible. #3 keep organized. Plan plan plan,
Thanks so much Scott! We just Reno our second house while living in it. The biggest issue I ran into was bathrooms. I think next time I would line up the tiles and new toilet going in quicker.
We renovated the first and second floor of our house (205m2) about two years ago. We little to no prior experience with renovation/building. We used a grant chart with mixed experience. The positive was that we thought through the entire renovation, and had a decent plan. The negative was that we always underestimated the time every step took. We did almost everything ourself, to save money, and that came with some challenges. With a big project like ours, the motivation to GSD became a big factor. Big tip for the budget: make a detailed plan of every single purchase, down to the last screw, than multiply that sum with 3. Then you have a decent approx. of the total cost
When doing things yourself that you haven’t done before, it’s always a good idea to double your time estimation - in similar vain to your budget tripling
I have been doing this since the age of 4 with my dad. Time is always exceeded. I can plan some, but factors and obstacles arise. Budget... Always more. Materials have gone way up. In the current repairs/restoration,, I am actually making stuff like casings and trim and mouldings and doing a blend of restoration or it would be impossible. The current situation is a hybrid between repairs, renos and restoration of existing material which brought costs way down. I think you also have to work with the era and category of your property. If not doing it yourself, know what you can recoup as an R.O.I. or you may have great problems.
We're gong through a reno on the house we're living in now (full DIY), with 2 kids (4 and 2). We cut the kitchen sink cabinet and adjoining cabinet out of the old kitchen and re-installed it on our balcony, and plumbed it to the garden hose. It ain't pretty, but it'll get us through the 4 weeks it takes to do the kitchen!
You're getting better and better each episode in the way you lead into your spnsor message. In fact, it sometimes blends so well, it's almost invisible.
Great video. I run houses flips in the US. The hardest part at the beginning was learning the flow; what trades should come before which. Nothing worse than a trade showing up on site only to realize they can’t start because something isn’t ready. Once you understand the flow, the next practice is estimating how much time each trade needs, which of course is highly dependent on the scope of the project. Lastly is learning where and when trades can overlap on site, to maximize your turnaround time without interfering in each others work. Anyway great video for someone new to the concepts 👍
The one thing I find generally pretty tricky, is logistics of supplies. So you need a pallet of bathroom tiles, and three pallets of gardening pavement tiles, several tons of stabilizing sand etc, where do you store them and how do you plan their delivery. Lead times are generally a week or two, and since they're very heavy delivery costs are significant enough to preferably not split them up over multiple deliveries. Also, need to be stored in locations where they're easy to work with for the people needing them to prevent long, tricky, or multiple movements. Always a puzzle. 😊
I love this stuff man the one thing my old boss never talked about really so now that I am on my own I have been struggling with keep everything thing straight especially having multiple jobs going
Yep. When we totally renovated (gutted) the living area of our last house, we did as you mentioned - we did a kitchen in the garage....our contractor took the old kitchen counter and cabinets and set them up complete with a sink....it worked.
Ty Scott. Trying to explain ghantt charts, budgets and planning the order of works to my teenage construction students can sometimes be difficult. This may help somewhat, so it’ll be added to my links for them.
Such a helpful video. We are getting to the tail end of renovations our house, this channel has been one of the biggest and best sources of information and guidance. Thanks for your videos Scott and Jess! Looking forward to see your place all come together.
Ghant charts are the mainstay of any project planning. The is software to create these. A companion is the dependency chart which shows the sequence of tasks along with timeframe
@@Peterdecz the cinematography of the video, they way it's edited and filmed. The editing is short and sweet and quite minimal and the content is as if he's telling a story
Thank you. I am in just this situation atm and no experience at it, and have to replace my kitchen and flooring myself. Working out the Project Planning has been one of the most difficult parts as it's all just been up in the air and vague. This helps make it more concrete! :)
LOL, I helped a mate rebuild and renovate his place a few years ago. Day one, I said let's sit down for ten minutes and talk it through to get a rough idea of sequencing, material needs etc. He exploded in frustration and anger and yelled that you don't waste time on crap like that, you just do it. I could not resist and said, let's go to the moon, we'll just do it. Oh crap, we've dropped off all our stages and we're running out of oxygen, let's turn back and pick some up from Bunnings. Mutterering something he stormed off, started banging in nails for framework, about 15 minutes later, jumped in the van and raced off to Bunnings and got a box of nails. Fine. This went on for the whole job, get partway through and off he went again, sometimes two or three times a day and only getting one thing at a time. Glue drying out, concrete going off, half finished, no order just doing stuff as it came to mind. It was the most frustrating thing I'd been through in years and I walked off to let him muddle through on his own. It took him nearly three months to do what I figured would take five to six weeks. We're still friends.
Chimney... I am guessing with age of property this structure is built in lime mortar... you have an opportunity few day before Demo to reduce dust significantly take a hose up onto roof, set to spray, pop into top of flue and leave running for a morning or so, Most importantly when stack is removed the bricks below roof line Scott... are worth a fortune to be cleaned off and stacked for future use in project Malcs in Perth WA ♥️ 😎
We did a reno in 1999/2000 that doubled the size of the existing house. We lost the kitchen and the second loo early on. An electric frying pan and a Weber kettle substituted for the kitchen. It was interesting climbing out of a window aperture in the new part of the house and down a step ladder in the middle of winter to roast a chook or a leg of lamb in the Weber. It's amazing what you can survive.
Scott! This video rocks. I loved the lil slide edit. I think this might be the most well produced video of yours ; ie: the edits and props. Might we ( the loyal watchers) think of you the "Casey Neistat" of carpentry?
I’m currently in the middle of a school renovation that is 2.5 years long and the school has to remain in use during that time. We will end up demolishing about 80% of the existing building when complete. We have a schedule manager that we meet with every 2 weeks to make sure things are staying on schedule and adjusting the schedule as required due to weather or other delays. We also meet weekly with all the trades currently on site and those starting soon to go over schedule and how each trade will affect the work of others.
Tip : plan a budget and decide where spending money will save you time or disruption. (An additional £400 to pump only £900 (18 tonnes) concrete seems a unnecessary expense, the alternative is wheel barrows....which leaves you buggered the next day and a so much wasted time clearing up the mess)
top tip what every time is give to complete reno double it. plus some owners think while you here can you do this and that ( the add ons) and don't forget about the hidden stuff you can not see
Biggest tip I can offer is only demolish what you need to as you need to. Don’t demolish the area only to find you have run out of money or lead times on materials are longer than expected. Nothing worse than living in a partly renovated house, so minimise the time spent when things are undone.
This is THE video that homeowners and investors need to watch. The sequel is how to manage your budget to ensure you can pay all trades and not skimp on finishing 🤣 Afterthoughts, I should actually start handing Gantt charts to customers to streamline/eliminate process queries. I normally just do a sketch in my diary, or small jobs in my head. It might be beneficial to show them that a two or three day delay on a week long job translates to I'll be back in a month or two to continue, because if you're on week long jobs, next week equals a whole other site and cashflow is king.
The last chimney removal I did, I hired an extraction fan with 8metres of tube. I ran it out the window and pointed it at the hedge which caught all the dust. Made working inside a whole lot better and it was a cheap hire.
Would 2nd this idea when making loads of dust! We use them on site when there is little open space or ventilation (ie working in the middle of a house with finished/original walls up)
I wish you'd done this in March. I'm just nearing completion of a new kitchen, bathroom, toilet and laundry in my own place. Nothing structural and all inside. I didn't have a written plan but it all worked out. A week for demo, a week for new framing where needed, a week for plumber and gas fitter, a week to fit gib, a week for stopper, a week for painter, a week for kitchen and bathroom install and then a week for floor sander. Generous timelines as I was working full time as well.
It's interesting to see how others think of planning as I have doing planning in various ways for 25 years, including some multi-billion $$ projects.... The hardest part of any planning is identifying all of the components with enough detail to be accurate and not so much detail that you can't understand anything. It's also fascinating how planning is so common & similar across industries....
Started rewiring the house in April Thought we'd be done in two weeks It's now September and we've just finished bedroom number 3 (out of 4) and still have the entire downstairs to do But at least we had the sofas to sleep on
Totally appreciate this video. Just finished remodeling the basement in my brick bungalow and currently trying to remodel the rest. No structural issues in our way in the basement but we had to pay for everything little by little
We recently hired a reputable builder to do a bathroom reno and the quality of work was just woeful when I see the quality that Scott and his crew achieve. Things like making sure walls are all level (aligned) were just overlooked on our build and it’s really obvious in the finished product.
@@adammacer it was at the point where I didn’t want him working on it anymore. The straightness of the walls (framing) wasn’t obvious until the tilers had finished. At that point, fixing it would’ve involved demolishing the bathroom back to the frames and starting again.
@@janeblogs324 we did. We even looked at his work on other houses and he came highly recommended. The problem, I believe, was that, due to the building and reno boom here in Aus, he expanded his business very quickly and was employing builders and other trades that were not working to the same standards
@@Pat.Mustard That's too bad and I get it - you'd lost trust in his ability to do it right even if he was willing. Sounds like greed got the better of him - hope he learned his lesson
Great video, Scott. Would be interesting to see similar about how you make videos at some point. How you plan, if you script or storyboard, etc etc Cheers!
I love how "easy" it is in New Zealand. Scott would cry in other countries :p. (love his stuff btw, as an architect/contractor I often watch his stuff to learn)
Microsoft Project is probably the most accessible way to create a Gantt chart. But if you don't have access to that software package, there are free and open-source programs which are basically the same. ProjectLibre is one and OpenProject is the other. These will allow you to drill down in more detail than Scott gave you as an example, listing the specific tasks in each sub-project. Never underestimate the power of a Gantt chart... Trust me, I'm an engineer!
Very good run down of the process. You got a good start by getting a design professional involved early on. I have been designing homes for over 30 years and getting all or as many of the questions and decisions out of the way before the first nail is driven is always the best idea. Cheaper to change it on paper than on the job site, is what I always tell my clients. Depending on where you live and the complexity of your build, you may not need a registered architect, and that will be a great cost saver for you. Some locals require sealed drawings from a professional or at least some coordination between the designer and an architect or engineer. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Cheers.
Your videos are always top notch mate! As a fellow carpenter&trim tradesman I appreciate the details you go into about the jobs and work you do. Hopefully we can meet one day if your ever stateside in the U.S.
One good thing with Gantt is that you will visualize the critical path. What are the tasks that need to be done in time to not postpone other tasks. You not only plan the expensive tasks but also the tasks that can make a build expensive better. Scott, do you use software for project management?
Scott, You'll need to start reminding people to click the like button and subscribe, on every video, maybe as a part of your intro or outro... The fact that 108k watched it and only 4.8k clicked the LIKE button it is a crime.
Might want to review the linear kitchen as they can be tricky to use. May be add a full height unit at the end with breakfast bar, coffee station etc, and overhead storage. Do you have any 3D views or a model to walk through and test the design?
My tip to anyone wanting a full reno and deciding to do it bit by bit… don’t do it. Just full gut it and live elsewhere. Do it all at once. Like removing a plaster on your skin.
Hey Scott, I love your advice on budgeting time for a job. I recently started my own carpentry business, one question I had for you is how to you account for extra materials. An example being in your video “How to straighten a floor quickly” you had to “sister” the floor joists to make the floor level. How did you account for the extra joists? Did you have a contingency budget for unexpected problems? Thanks for the advice, I love your channel and have learned quite a bit from you.
Hi Scott, Just curious to know what you lined your garage ceiling with. I am halfway through a garage renovation 9m x 3.5m and eventually turning it into a workshop/studio at the rear. Roof had old building paper which has basically fallen off. Will have to remove rooofing iron and lay down new ceiling underlay. Notice you have wire mesh to support roof underlay? Did you use unsupported roof underlay? Hope to catch up with all your past vlogs. Cheers
When I price a project, I give the client two prices. 1- Not living in the house. 2- Living in the house, double the price. They usually always move out! Better for everyone.
