How to work in harmony with your interior contractor

It is a big decision – choosing the right interior contractor for your property renovation, whether it is office renovation, shop renovation or factory renovation. After you have settled for the right interior renovation contractor for your renovation needs, then here comes the real collaboration period the two parties. Effective communication between parties is an important factor contributing to the success of the joined project.

In this article, Trends Interior demonstrates some useful tips on what to pay intention to when working with your interior contractor for the sake of your project success.

1. Payment.

Remember that timely payment is of highest priority. You should pay maximum attention to maintain the scheduled payment, as per work finished. This practice allows your contractors to pay to his other sources such as subcontractors, material suppliers, workers, etc.

The point is as long as both parties comply with the project schedule, the friendly atmospheres will remain. If you delay the payment, you will be fully responsible to any setback in your plan, as without the fund injected, the contractor neither get the necessary supplies nor keep the worker onsite and maintain the working process. However, you may consider keeping around 10% in total of each scheduled payment as “collateral” and pay this amount back in full after all of the progress is completed.

A general completed office area in Geneva.

2. Communication.

Define your plan and specifications clearly; then make the timeline and your expected deliverables clear to you constructor. There are several phrases in an interior renovation project. Before each phase, take your time to communicate with the contractor the tasks required for the period, the time needed to finish each task, and the level of completion and satisfaction you expect to see in the results at the end of that phase. You can compromise the timeline a little if any postpones happened due to uncontrollable factors. However, the overall timeline should be allocated properly to meet desires and keep up the contractor’s level of workmanship.

An office under construction in Florida.

3. Feedback.

Be active in giving your interior contractor honest feedback, fair criticism and even referrals if you are willing to. Individuals have a tendency to be more expressive when they face issues and be less likely to speak up when they experience exceptional service; and that’s not fair.

Your opinions, whether it is negative or positive, are all important to the constructors. However, in either case, express your opinion in a constructive way. Even if they haven’t work up to your expectations or unable to work in compliance to the agreement, you should give them a chance by making your concerns and ask them for improvements. Ask them to motivate you to continue working with them first before taking any serious action. On the other hand, if they are doing a great job for you, don’t forget to compliment them, review them high praise on professional directories, social networks, etc. or even recommend them to other acquaintances of yours.

4. Availability.

Sometimes, stressful situations arise. The contractor cannot make the final call alone and immediate decisions need to be made, then the owner should be accessible. If you are hardly available to the constructor for an appropriate amount of time, then you can consider hiring a project manager to not only supervise the daily works, but also settle certain decisions on your behalf. In that case, make sure you set the influence level of the project manager clearly.

5. Care.

You can show your contractor and workers that you do care for them through small gestures. Those gestures might not be significant; you can just simply treat them lunch sometimes. However, it would motivate them to work for you more delicately. They would appreciate your consideration on their needs outside of work.

6. Sympathy.

Be considerate and don't contact your builder outside of ordinary business hours. You should build a common understanding of both sides on this issue. For example, each party can contact the other outside official working hours for certain issues, but not on a regular basis. Interior, in the same way as you, have other responsibilities to fulfill outside of work, regardless of the possibility that they are simply spending time with their own family.

Ready to get on board with a professional interior designer and contractor firm for your office renovation, shop renovation orfactory renovation? Contact us at +65 9023 4335 for a free initial consultation now!

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Source: Trends Interior.