One of the first things you need to do when planning a home improvement or a DIY project is setting a budget. With a clear budget in mind, you can decide on the scale of the project, the modifications you want to add to the house, how much of the project you want to do yourself, and other details.
One of the most forgotten details when planning for a home improvement project, however, is the project timeline. Even when you have a clear budget in mind, it is very difficult to stay within budget and conclude the project with great results. You need to nail your timeline from the start.
Do Some Research
With a budget in mind, you can start working on details about the home improvement project. You can get in touch with multiple contractors for quotes and inspections, you can search for products and inspiration, and you can figure out other parts of the project in great details.
While completing this step, make sure you also do some digging about the time it will take to complete the project. How long does a window replacement job take? If you are to do the backsplash replacement yourself, how much time do you need?
The point here is to gather information about different tasks in the project and how long it will take to complete them. These details are important for the next step, which is….
Create a Timeline
When you first start with your project timeline, don’t worry about too many factors and simply lay everything out in a linear way, one task after another. Your focus is to make sure that tasks that depend on other tasks follow them perfectly.
Once the initial timeline is completed, you will be able to make some tweaks without difficulties. Tasks that can be completed at the same time as other tasks, for instance, can be moved to overlap each other.
There is a third step to this process, and that is optimising the timeline to save time. There are always ways to organise tasks so that you can move from one to another more seamlessly. At the same time, things like waiting for paint to dry before applying another layer require you to add enough gap between those jobs.
Plan Ahead
Creating a project timeline is actually NOT the planning part. You’re just visualising the project into something linear that is easier to work with. The planning bit begins when you have completed the timeline.
For starters, you can arrange for materials such as scaffolding to be delivered in time for the tasks they are associated with. Because you already know when you’ll be painting the ceiling, you know exactly when you’ll need scaffolding and the paint supplies.
You can save money with a detailed timeline too. Cutting workdays in a realistic way and ordering supplies or services beforehand allows you to negotiate better prices and get great deals in return. It all starts with a project timeline; make sure you use this valuable planning tool the next time you are planning a home improvement project.
