The Construction Timeline and How to be Prepared from the Client Perspective

Your builder will give you a firm start date for kicking off your new construction or home renovation. That date represents a ton of work on their end to secure permits and coordinate the appropriate subs to start construction. Here is what you can do to help the timeline shorten between the beginning and end of your project:

If YOU ARE DOING A RENOVATION:

Empty your ENTIRE home! We can tell you stories about clients partially emptying their homes and then out of their control; the contractors need those items out of the way. The moving out of things can be expensive when done by builders. Remember, time is money! 

TO MOVE OUT OR STAY:

Communicate with your builder if you can live in the house during construction, and get on the same page! For example, when we did our home renovation, we decided it was easier and less expensive to stay in the home with our three small children than move out (not sure what we were thinking here), but let’s just say it was quite an adventure! Every day before school, the contractors showed up inside our space and did their thing, and we just moved around them. They were gone by the time we got home at 3 or 4, so it wasn’t too bad, just awkward and lacked privacy. So with that, we still would recommend a rental. 

From here, the new construction and renovation clients collide and stand in the same position… what to do now? A lot. Now is the game of staying in front of the builder.  

You should already have pricing for construction materials and your plans, so you first want to ensure the house is on-site in the correct location. This is a civil engineer’s job, but you want to verify the house is in the right spot. 

Once foundation and framing are done, they will want all your plumbing rough-ins on site before the plumber shows up, so review your Abrigo Home Material Collections and verify that you are good with them. If not, please schedule a consultation so we can finalize everything. 

This is also the time to finalize and purchase lighting. Please open it upon arrival to verify the scale, finish, and design. Once installed, it cannot be returned. 

Next, tile should be tackled. Finally, everything from your materials sheet should be verified and ordered; specify installation instructions. 

Lastly, we have the beautiful details… paint, wallpaper, and hardware. Again, we have already specified the thousands of decisions to be made; just checking in to verify that this is what you like. 

The more you can stay ahead of your builder and provide the required information, the faster the project will move, and the more money will be saved.