Somewhere during one's tenure as a property owner, one may decide to renovate or build onto the existing.
 
The Construction "Five’s"
1. The Budget
2. The difference between "The Wants" and "The Needs"
3. The Construction Plans
4. The Construction Tender
5. The Construction Company
 
Simple Steps to a successful Construction Project
 
Step One

• Sit down and decide on a budget. How much money will you feel comfortable to invest in your project? Bear in mind - proper construction costs money. Do not expect to rebuild your house for the same amount of money that you purchased your house 5 years ago.
• Rather cut-down on the work and get a proper project than trying to do everything on limited funds.
• The result may just bring down the overall value of your project.
• Remember "buyers" tend to pick-up poorly added alterations

 
Step Two

• Decide on what you want and what you need.
• Playing the "Keeping up with the Jones's Game" has often resulted in people getting themselves into unrequited financial difficulties.

 
Step Three

• Preferably engage the services of construction companies that have in-house architectural staff
• This would mean that at all times both construction and architects would be liaising on your project.
• The result would be designs that actually work and the project within your budget.

 
NEVER ... call those numbers advertising plans drafting on corex boards nailed to trees. You will pay
money to somebody and 95% of the time, you will never see approved plans. Ownership of a drafting
board does not necessarily mean ability to draw plans. It is one thing to draw lines on paper and
another to draw doable lines on paper.
As the Afrikaans saying goes ... "goedkoop koop is duur koop".
 
Step Four

• The Construction tender should be detailed.
• A tender that merely gives a price and not itemize what is to be done, will leave you as client with too many loopholes.
• Guaranteed you will pay more than originally quoted.
• Any Tender document less than 10 pages will have been under quoted.
• Look for bills of quantities on the document.

 
Step Five
Remember - What you may consider as a lot of money now is miniscule to what you could end up loosing because of "trying to act smart"!

• Never appoint the cheapest!
• Never just, pick people up along the road! Not only is it a security breach - but you will not get your project finished!
• Evaluate each tender and construction company accordingly.
• Compare apples with apples.
• Do they sound as if they know what they are doing?

 
If everything is, a "No problem" be afraid! Construction has problems. If the contractors do not point
out potential problems, rest assured you are going to cry hard and very expensive tears!
The idea could either be the biggest mistake you have ever made or be a truly exciting experience.
Very few people can truly say, "Their building experience was a truly pleasant project".
Unfortunately, too often the Construction companies are blamed. The fact however remains that the onus remains vested in the client to ensure that he / she appointed a capable company to do the work.
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