Most renovations do not fail on the building work. They fail on decisions made late, money tracked loosely, and expectations nobody wrote down. The bricklaying is usually fine. The managing is where projects come apart.
Renovation Project Management is a 36-page illustrated handbook from award-winning London studio Akiva, written for homeowners rather than professionals. It assumes you have a job to hold down while all this is happening, and that nobody has ever explained how a building project is actually shaped.
It starts with the scope, because everything downstream inherits its clarity, and shows you how to write one a builder can price without phoning to ask what you meant. Then choosing a team, reading a quote properly, and the conversation that tells you more than any reference. Then contracts: what the document must state, how retention works, how to pay safely, and what insurance to verify before anyone starts.
EU edition: Written around national contract forms, Directive 92/57/EEC safety coordination and local building inspectorates, with prices in euros.
The middle chapters are about running a live project: the critical path and the lead times that quietly wreck programmes, a five-column money sheet that catches overruns while you still have options, and the four habits that prevent most renovation misery. A weekly meeting. A written summary. A decision log. Variations priced before the work happens.
There are also the chapters nobody writes. Living on site, and how to decide whether to. The low point in the middle that everyone hits and nobody warns you about. Neighbours. And what to actually do when a project is going seriously wrong, including the three kinds of delay and who properly carries each one.
It finishes with snagging done properly, the handover pack to insist on, and what to do in the first year so the work ages well and the eventual sale is straightforward.
Format: PDF, 36 pages, A4. Instant download after purchase. Read on any device or print at home.
Most renovations do not fail on the building work. They fail on decisions made late, money tracked loosely, and expectations nobody wrote down. The bricklaying is usually fine. The managing is where projects come apart.
Renovation Project Management is a 36-page illustrated handbook from award-winning London studio Akiva, written for homeowners rather than professionals. It assumes you have a job to hold down while all this is happening, and that nobody has ever explained how a building project is actually shaped.
It starts with the scope, because everything downstream inherits its clarity, and shows you how to write one a builder can price without phoning to ask what you meant. Then choosing a team, reading a quote properly, and the conversation that tells you more than any reference. Then contracts: what the document must state, how retention works, how to pay safely, and what insurance to verify before anyone starts.
EU edition: Written around national contract forms, Directive 92/57/EEC safety coordination and local building inspectorates, with prices in euros.
The middle chapters are about running a live project: the critical path and the lead times that quietly wreck programmes, a five-column money sheet that catches overruns while you still have options, and the four habits that prevent most renovation misery. A weekly meeting. A written summary. A decision log. Variations priced before the work happens.
There are also the chapters nobody writes. Living on site, and how to decide whether to. The low point in the middle that everyone hits and nobody warns you about. Neighbours. And what to actually do when a project is going seriously wrong, including the three kinds of delay and who properly carries each one.
It finishes with snagging done properly, the handover pack to insist on, and what to do in the first year so the work ages well and the eventual sale is straightforward.
Format: PDF, 36 pages, A4. Instant download after purchase. Read on any device or print at home.
