Managing a bathroom redesign project can be a nightmare

My friend decided that she was going to have her bathroom remodelled and that she would manage the whole project herself. She is a capable person and thought that it would be fun and satisfying to run the project herself. What actually happened was quite different to how she imagined it would go however.

Before she started hiring contractors my friend made sure that she was quite clear in her mind about what it was she wanted. She found all the best prices for the stuff she wanted to use then she drew careful scale drawings on graph paper square to make sure that it would all fit ok and to give her something to help explain the remodeling project to the contractors.

Remodeling tasks to be managed

My friend made many lists during the course of the remodeling project and one of the first was a task list to break the project down into smaller chunks.

* Remove existing bathroom fixtures.
* Legal requirements compliance.
* Design and styling of the bathroom.
* Walls, widows and other major building tasks.
* Interior walls finishing.
* Install plumbing.
* Install electrical appliances and wiring.
* New bathroom fixtures fitting.
* Wall tiling.
* Flooring.
* Remedial work.

Now that she had a list of tasks she was ready to identify the skills that her contractors would need to complete the job. So she made yet another list.

Skill requirements for bathroom remodeling

* Carpenter
* Builder
* Electrician
* Glazier
* Plasterer
* Plumber
* Floor covering specialist

Where was she going to find all these workers? She used the Internet and the phone book and she asked around friends and neighbours for any recommendations but she found that she got the best results from asking the staff in her local bathroom showrooms. They seemed to know everyone that could do the job personally and often had an idea about how good they were too.

Now to begin project managing

Making a plan of the project was the next thing to do and this is where it started to get difficult. Because there were so many people involved it wasn't easy to get everyone to agree to do things when my friend wanted them to do it. She wanted to get the project done during the school holidays when she would have more time but many of the contractors had children too and they wanted to go on holiday at that time.

In the end she came up with a plan that everyone was happy with and she congratulated herself for a job well done. Little did she know what was to come.

Watch out here come the problems

There was a delivery delay with the new bathroom items. This meant that she had to send the fitters away when they turned up to put it all in. Of course the old bathroom had been stripped by now and so she was left with an empty bathroom and no work being done. Her great plan was foiled and it was only day 2.

You didn't think that project management was easy did you?

That was just the start of this sad story. It seemed that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The wrong toilet arrived, it was huge and the wrong colour. The vanity lights were faulty, the shower doors didn't align properly and the plumbing leaked. My friend was almost in tears several times.

The problems went on and on and what should have been a 2 week project turned into 3 months and it still wasn't quite finished even then. My friend was at the end of her tether and swore that she would never ever do anything like that again.

Hire a project manager to do the job for you

If you are just about to start redesigning a bathroom you will be pleased to know that you don't have to do it yourself, no matter how much you may want to. You can hire a project manager to plan, coordinate and fix all the problems for you or you can do what I did and find someone who can do the entire job all by themselves.