Trade Day: How to prepare and be organized for your renovation

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This past week, I had a Trade Day at one of our upcoming renovation projects.  There was a lot of preparation that went into getting ready for this day so I thought it would make a great post.

First, if you are going to manage your own renovation, this post may give you some insight into how prepared you should be to obtain quotes from any trade.

Secondly, if you are not going to manage your renovation, this will give you an inside look at to all the work that goes into this stage.

Trade Day

First of all, what is a trade day?  A trade day is a day where I book a block of time at the renovation site.  I invite all of the required trades to meet me to carry out a walkthrough of the site.  We discuss what is in their scope of work, we discuss any potential curve balls that we may run into, and we briefly discuss timelines.For this upcoming renovation project, I met the following:

• Electrician
• Plumber
• Painter
• Flooring
• Contractor

Organizing the Trade Day

In order to get this all organized, I needed to do the following:

• Arrange a day/time with my clients.
• Communicate with my clients the lists for each trade and add in/delete any task required.
• Call/email/contact the above trades to see if they could accommodate the date and time.
• Create a schedule for the trades.
• Create a list for each trade.
• Have the detailed drawings for each trade.

Just so we have total disclosure, the above took a total of 6.5 hours to pull together in total.

Trade Day: Electrical

For this renovation project, the electrical part is the largest part and therefore, has the longest list.  Part of the scope is to upgrade the electrical panel, add pot lights throughout the home, add additional light for the kitchen cabinets, and add outlets for the new island.I always create a 'conceptual design' for a lighting plan KNOWING that we will discuss options on site.  Together, we make any changes so that the quote that I will receive is the most accurate.

Trade Day: Plumbing

For this project, there isn't a ton of plumbing changes that will occur.  That being said, the home that is going to be renovated is an older home so I need to prepare (both timeline and budget wise) for any curveballs that may be seen.  For the most part, the only thing changing is the location of the dishwasher.  We will be adding in water lines to both refrigerators. We will also need to relocate a cold air return that currently sits on one wall that is coming down.  That means the wall that I have planned to be installed may need to be moved 6" - 1' to accomodate this.  THIS is something I need to know in advance and I'm happy to make that small change on my plans.

Trade Day: Flooring and Paint

I typically give my painter and flooring guys the same plan.  What they really need to know is square footage.For my painter, he also needs to know how many doors, if he's including baseboards and casings, how many colours of paint we plan on using, etc.For the flooring, we need to know who is looking after the substrate (preparation), and what my contractor will be handling and what they will be handling.

Trade Day: Contractor

I left this for the last as the scope for my contractor is the 'fill in the gaps' from the above.  Some items on this list are:

• Demolition of 3 walls in the kitchen.
• The new framing of 1 wall.
• Install of drywall on the new walls.
• Install of all interior doors, baseboards, casing.
• Finishing work

Trade Day - Why Do I Bother?

As you can see from the above, there is a lot of preparation and work that goes into planning out a Trade Day.  So why do I bother with one?  After the trades have their information from me, they have seen the site, they can provide me with a fairly accurate quote.  The reason I say

fairly accurate quote

is due to the fact that their quote will not factor in any curveballs that we may run into.  While we do our very best to prepare, investigate and plan ahead, there sometimes are surprises and curve-balls that we just did not anticipate.  The quote that I receive from the Trade Day also does not include any extras that my clients may add on after the fact.  

My Facebook Live video prior to going in for the Trade Day

When the trades have provided me their quote, then the clients and I can continue to source product for their renovation project to pull together a final budget.I love knowing that I have a number of trade companies that I can call upon for all of my projects.  Although I use more than one plumber, one electrician, etc., this is the crew that is going to be working on this project for me.  While we look like a goofy bunch, we have a lot of fun working together and I know that these guys truly are part of my 'A Team'.