Amy D: Welcome to our special mini series called Home Truths. We’re gonna be talking about some common misconceptions in the world of renovating, and basically shine the light on how to avoid a stressful renovation. If you’re thinking about renovating or about to start, or you’re right in the middle of it, this is for you.

Welcome back to Home Truth. Today we’re at the final stage of the renovation journey, the moment everyone has been working towards. It’s when the build is nearly finished, The dust is settling and you are starting to imagine what life will be like without any builders and in the space that you’ve created. But definitely finishing a build is rarely as simple as handing over the keys and I think sometimes we imagine it would be a kind of, do you remember the show Changing Rooms, Jane? Um, where it’s kind of like

Jane: everybody wants the Definitely. It’s not like that.

Amy D: definitely not like that. Yeah, there’s, snagging lists, there’s final details and inspections and often quite a lot of lingering questions about is everything quite kind of tied up? and I was thinking, Jane, maybe it’s about seeing it not as an end of a project, but

Jane: Yeah.

Amy D: As a transition. What do you think?

Jane: Absolutely. It’s a hundred percent a transition. You are progressing into this final stage where you are starting to look, get to grips with the property, you are understanding what needs to be fixed, what things might not be working, understand how your heating works. You know, you’re really test driving it.

I would say for the first few months after handover and you know, the building process accommodates that. But it definitely, the moment the contractors leave is not, is not the end.

And we’ll be talking through how that works throughout this episode.

Amy D: let’s start with something that maybe people notice kind of going towards those final, final weeks of a project. Because the structure goes up quite quickly. Walls appear, roofs go on, and that’s all quite dramatic. And then suddenly there seems to be a really down. Like everything seems to slow down.

Why, why do the finishes take so long? That last bit.

Jane: Yeah, there’s a few different reasons. One is coordination. So in the early phases of a build, one trade can move quickly. You know, they’re getting on with the job foundations, brickwork, roofing, but the finishing stages require multiple trades or working really closely together around each other.

You might have electricians finishing, putting light fittings on decorators, preparing surfaces, joiners, installing cabinetry, plumbers fitting sanitaryware. And all of those jobs require kind of handovers, we call it first fix and there’s second fix. And so people are coming and going off site in order, multiple times.

And so you can see how it quickly becomes, like waiting for one person to come and then waiting for another. It suddenly, you know, you are relying on all of these things happening, in sequence.

Amy D: It’s definitely like this very elaborate dance, isn’t it? Of like taking turns

Jane: Yeah,

So just the logistics of everything slows everyone down. And then the other factor is something called tolerance stacking, which is where every construction element has a small margin of variation. So when you start layering finishes, plaster flooring, joinery, tiles, each of those,little margins accumulate.

And that means that achieving a, a clean, finished results, it just requires quite a lot of careful attention to detail and potentially small adjustments in putting things right to make sure that things align and, and the job is completed to a satisfactory manner. It just takes a lot, you know, to get that final 10% takes as much as the previous 90%.

Amy D: Can you give an example? Because I think it might help explain what we mean.

Jane: Okay, so you’ve got the flooring, you’ve got a tile flooring that’s meeting a wooden flooring, and they’re not quite the same level, and so you’re having a threshold that you know, goes between the two. That threshold becomes a bespoke item

Amy D: Mm-hmm.

Jane: matching one level to another, and it takes a joiner to, you know, get that the right size and send that down and, and fit that just right between those two things with the right tolerances.

So I guess the level of precision required to get that just right is a lot more than putting a stud wall up, you know, because obviously you know that’s a set size and you put it up and you add things to it, whereas the final bits are all making bespoke things to make everything neat.

Amy D: Yeah.

Jane: Does that make sense?

Amy D: Yeah. No, that’s really helpful. I guess that brings us onto a word that people hear and maybe I always think is a bit of a weird one, snagging. Um, and it’s a word that probably homeowners hear for the first time during the renovation. Do you wanna explain what it is?

Jane: Yeah, so snagging is the process of identifying those small little defects or unfinished details at the end of the build. So that might mean like paint touch-ups or minor alignment, adjustments, fittings that perhaps aren’t working correctly or small cosmetic issues that you can see. and that is absolutely normal on any construction project.

Amy D: And when should it actually happen?

Jane: Well, typically it’s at the end of the project, so near as you are approaching the end of site and you can see things are finishing up, that would be the time when your kind of weekly site meetings will turn into looking and checking and spotting things that aren’t quite right or, or don’t seem to be as you expected them to be.

And you can start compiling those lists then, so that your contractor can. Put those things right before they leave site at practical completion.

Amy D: I think this is where it’s quite hard to get the balance right, isn’t it? Between being thorough and catching all those things that need to be caught

Jane: Mm-hmm.

Amy D: maybe becoming a tiny bit obsessive

Jane: Yes.

Amy D: yeah. How would you kind of guide people through that?

Jane: I thinkyou kind of want to be doing it together with the contractor, so you are walking around site, just having a look at everything. Just making sure that everything’s okay and everything’s, you know, as expected. And you can talk about, what is expected in terms of tolerances and neatness.

But I think Perfection is around us everywhere, isn’t it? And we, we buy products and we see things and that, we can now get to a level where things are, are perfect. Um, and that’s not what a house is. A house is a bespoke made object made by lots of different people or working together.

You know, a, a built project is never perfection. So it’s understanding that, you know, snagging might be you’ve got a skirting board and the two ends, you know, they, they totally don’t line up. You know, that would be a problem. But when you run your hand over it maybe you can feel a small bump where two things meet.

You know, there is an understanding about what is achievable with a build, and I think that’s, It’s really about talking with a contractor and seeing what he thinks is an issue and, and should be fixed and what you feel is an issue, and how that can be rectified. But definitely keeping in mind that this is a crafted thing and it should be at the back of your mind.

Amy D: I guess it’s like asking a key question, which is like, does this issue affect the function performance or the appearance of the building in a meaningful way? but what about things like that aren’t wrong but aren’t as you

imagined,

Jane: I’m trying to think of. I do remember being on site on one of our projects and everybody running their hands up down the banister trying to feel for this specific thing that the client could feel. And I was all stood there being like, I was like, I can’t really feel anything.

And the contractor was like. That’s just how it is, you know? but, but the client really, it was something that was really irking them. So, I think in that particular case, it wasn’t really a real snag, but the contractor, you know, there’s a balance. Like, it wasn’t that on every single thing, it was just that one particular item.

So the contractor kind of agreed to send it down and repaint. But you know, that was just a goodwill gesture really. There wasn’t anything wrong with what they’d done. But obviously you can see how they couldn’t go through every single aspect of the project and, and go with that level of detail.

Amy D: Another phrase that people hear around the stage is practical completion. Do you wanna talk a bit about that?

Jane: Yeah, so practical completion basically means the project is essentially finished and usable even if small items remain outstanding. So at this point, the building’s safe to occupy and the major works are complete and only these minor defects remain. So after practical completion, the contractors will leave site.

You know, you’ll come back into the house or move into the part of the house that’s had the work done and you take ownership of that. And at that point, that’s when the project enters the next phase, which is called the defects period,

or the retention, period. And what this is, is this is like the test period then. So on the run up to practical completion. You are, trying to spot things that are obviously wrong or obviously not quite right, and you’re basically giving your contractor a hand in terms of spotting all the things that need to be completed.

At the point of practical completion, you’re kind of saying, okay, there’s another line in the sand. You are leaving. We’re takingownership of the house. And then you start this period, the defects period is usually agreed in your contract. So I think on the homeowner contracts, it’s normally set at three months, in some of the, larger scale contracts, it will be six months. You can basically agree that with your contractor and update that if you want to. It’s normally a good idea to try and encompass your heating in that period. So if you’re finishing in the summer, you might want to have your defects period extend into the point where you are turning your heating on regularly, so that you can test that out.

So in that period, it’s like the next stage of snagging really. Sometimes you move in and you open the drawer and the handle falls off, or you know, you are, you are trying to use the heating and it’s not heating up properly. Or you notice that the

shower door, it’s not shutting properly and the seal’s not working and the water’s coming out. It’s like you’re testing and using the things and just checking to see if everything’s working okay. And then really that period, unless it’s an emergency, you’re not necessarily calling up at every single thing, you kind of collect those defects in a list.And you return them to the contractor and they can, they can put them right at the end of the defects period. So they’ll come back onto site, sort all of those things out. and that’s the end of that stage of the works.

Amy D: And just to say that money, that kind of little pot of money that you’ve accrued,

Jane: The retention

Amy D: does that go towards fixing the thing or doesthe builder

fix the defects, but out of his own purse, if you like, not out of that pot.

Jane: Yeah, so the pot is just kind of,

Amy D: for finishing it

Jane: Exactly. It’s not the literal amount of money it takes to put the defects right. So you’ve kept back a little bit of the money kind of as an assurance. At the practical completion, when the contractors leave site, usually 50% of that fee will be released to them, and then the other 50% is saved until the end of the defects period.

Um, so. You are right. It’s not like you have this pot of money and you’re like, Ooh, the only thing that was wrong was a handle fell off. So we don’t need to pay you the whole of that money. That money’s theirs. It’s part of the contract. It’s just like a little assurance that you can use to make sure that people come back to finish the defects and, and finish off at the end of that defects period.

I think one thing is that, you know, again, with the tolerances, some things in the defects period, like for example, if you were like moving your furniture in. You scraped a big hole down the wall, that’s not a defect because it’s not something that was wrong with the original contract’s works.

That’s something that’s happened afterwards. So there is a little bit of a process when you make your list. You are kind of talking it through. If you have an architect, they’ll review the list. If not, you’ll be talking it directly through with the contractor just to check what is a defect and what isn’t.

So some things might be considered a defect as other things might be like, well that’s just wear and tear, or, that wasn’t really part of the project, if you know, I mean, so there is a little bit of a process of doing that. Then they have a few weeks to sort all those defects out. And then once that’s finished, then you release the money.

That makes it all sound very simple and kind of like everything goes to plan, but obviously this part of the project is tricky because it doesn’t always feel like that.

Amy D: I think what’s important though for people to hear is just that that is normal.

Jane: Hmm.

Amy D: there will be things that need fixing, and I think that concept is quite crazy, you know, as a homeowner who’s just spent what, a hundred thousand plus whatever money

Jane: Yeah.

Amy D: feel

Jane: Yeah.

Amy D: should be working.

So the fact that things might fall off, like the handle or whatever is important to just know that that is almost like the building just settling down. I guess, it kind of goes into the latent defects, which is again, another bit of, jargony stuff and there’s also kind of normal movement and material settling.

Maybe there’s some cracks, that kind of thing. Buildings are adjusting, aren’t they, to temperature and moisture and structural loads, but what are the common examples of normal movement? What do they look like?

Jane: You often get this in loft extensions, so you know you’ve got a timber build and that you’ve added to the top of your house. You’ve got plaster, which is drying. You know, there is a small amount of movement that happens and you might see, yeah, small hairline cracks in plaster is a really clear one that always comes up. That actually isn’t a defect.

It’s it’s something that, you know, is the building just doing its job, but most contractors will absorb that and help you, you know, cover up the hairline cracks. But in contractual terms, they don’t actually have to, because that is a natural process of what’s happening to the building. But it would be interesting to just ask your contractor about that, like, oh, if we get any little cracks, you know, will you come back and fix them and just see, see how they react to that process. But the settlementin new materials is normal. There are other faults that could be something to do with the construction itself, which might indicate something more serious that you obviously need to raise and discuss and have a chat about how to rectify those issues.

Leaks are a big one. So quite often with roofing works or roof flights, you might experience leaksin heavy rain and you might not experience that straight away. So that is sometimes when it’s like, oh, we have an issue here. And in that situation you would call your contractor like straight away and get them back to look at the problem immediately rather than waiting till the end of the defects period.

Anything that would cause damage to your house or is dangerous, you obviously need to contact them.

Amy D: And once the builder has finished and the the snagging is resolved, another common misconception is that. you feel like the building will look after itself, you know, but that isn’t, again, isn’t really how buildings work. And I’m, I’m quite excited that we’re gonna talk about this ’cause I don’t think it’s talked about enough. Buildings need looking after, don’t they? And do you wanna talk a little bit about that?

Jane: We often build things these days to reduce maintenance. Like that’s one of the big requests from clients, that we’ve had is, you know, putting in materials and systems that help the building need less maintenance, but maintenance always going to be required. So say for example, you’ve put in your heating system, maybe you have a heat pump, perhaps you’ve even got a ventilation system,

they should come with good handover information, but you really need to understand how those systems work, how often they need to be maintained. Do they need servicing? Should there be adjustments based on your heating, perhaps it might be necessary to have somebody come back and just check that it is all functioning correctly, and that for your use and your needs that

the systems are operating most efficiently. But I think other things such as, updating painting, looking at your cladding, whether that needs re oiling, cleaning your gutters. There is just stuff you need to do and if you don’t do it, it can cause problems and it can cause damage to your house. So it’s just good to bear that in mind and just think about what are the regular maintenance tasks you might need to do for your project.

Amy D: Mm. Maintaining the building properly will, you know, it, it protects the investment you’ve just made, doesn’t it?

Jane: Absolutely.

I was just thinking about those end of project things that you do really need ticked off. You know, when we’re talking about that run up to the end of site, not only are you looking for snagging issues in terms of things that don’t look right or need finishing off or haven’t been completed properly, you also want to be getting building control back to make sure that everything’s agreed and signed off.

So there are certain things that the contractors will self-certify like electrics, maybe a boiler install or an air source heat pump install, and anything that comes with a contractor certificate, you need to be gathering those certificates, and it’s really good to start that process when you see the site’s nearing completion.

Because it’s really hard to get them afterwards. So I would be saying, pushing towards that practical completion, get the certificates, get building control in, see what they require for sign off because signing off building control can often be a real problem in terms of handing over the site and getting, over that final line of things that are required to tick all the boxes.

You know, maybe there’s a window that needs an extra latch. You wanna find that out as soon as possible so that you can get that wrapped up into the works and get your building control certificate at that, handover point, not dragging on all the way through the defects liability period.

Amy D: I mean, it sounds a little bit, overkill, but I think we try to collate all of that into one folder and it’s kind of almost like a presentation to your client is

Jane: Yes.

Amy D: you go, here are all the manuals, here are all the certificates, here’s all the thing. And if you are not working with an architect on site, I would really encourage you to do that.

Because you’d be surprised how difficult it is to find things retrospectively. So just having a

Jane: Yeah,

Amy D: place where you put all that stuff is really helpful.

Jane: and just when everybody’s really tired and everybody basically just wants to get offsite and you are all a bit sick of each other, it is really hard to have that final push to make sure that one, everything’s done, and two, that you are asking for these documents.

You don’t really want to be asking for extra things. But if you’re not working with an architect, it really is a good moment to do that, because it won’t happen later on because everybody’s minds shift onto, new projects.

It’ll be hard to get their attention again. So really focusing, working towards that practical completion date is a really good deadline for yourself. Also just thinking about things like, health and safety. How are you going to wash windows? How are all these different new, fancy things that you’ve got in your home gonna work.

It’s the moment to clarify all that. So that’s a really good deadline for yourself.

Amy D: And if someone is reaching the end of their renovation right now, What do you think is the most helpful thing to keep in mind?

Jane: I think that the end of the construction isn’t the end of the relationship with this ongoing building and ongoing works like you’ve reached a, an amazing milestone, like getting to the end where the contractors leave is a massive achievement for everybody. And it’s exhausting and it’s tiring, but just remember not to feel too crest fallen that the process continues afterwards.

The goal isn’t like perfection. It’s having a home that functions right, that does the things that it set out to do. And there’s a process of adjustment with that, with coming into your home and learning how to live in that new home. And I think not only learning how everything practically works, but also just coming to terms with some things perhaps that weren’t as you expected.

We all have that feeling of coming in and being like, oh, that window doesn’t actually feel perhaps how I thought it was gonna feel. Or I can see the neighbor’s, extractor and I didn’t expect to, or the flooring isn’t the color I really thought it was going to be.

You will find that over those first three to six months of living in the house, there will be those things that annoy you, but actually they do just dull with time, like you get over them. It’s the adjustment between what was in your head and what is reality

Amy D: Hmm.

Jane: just to be kind of give yourself a little bit of a

break and just know that those things, A, if you really still hate them after six months, maybe think about that then. But give yourself six months to just see if it matters to you once you’ve really settled in.

Amy D: Yeah, that’s really great advice. So, for anyone who’s, finishing coming to the end of their projects, remember I guess that finishing work takes patience. snagging is normal. What other things have we talked about? Buildings have tolerances. the defects period exists for a reason. And like Jane’s just said, like your new home will continue to evolve once you are, you are in and you move in and you kind of make it into your home. And I think we’ve, we’ve had some really nice episodes, haven’t we, where people have seen that moment as the beginning of their layering up of family life inside the house. And I think that’s a really positive way to kind of look at it. So you’ll be adding your personality even more, in, in that next period.

Jane: Yeah, for sure. And if you are anything like most of the people on our podcast, you’ll then two years later, start again with another house.

Amy D: But come and talk to us first. So, um, yeah, anyone who’s at that, that stage, come and talk to us and you can be a guest on stories from site. We’d love to have you.

Jane: Yeah.

Amy D: that kind of brings us to a close. I still feel like we could do a whole other series actually on site because there’s so much to say. But if you have been following it from the beginning, we really hope that this series will help you have a smoother process and a more enjoyable kind of experience. and yeah, we hope that, this has been a help.

Jane: Yeah, if you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please give us a review or a like, it really helps us spread the podcast to more people. And also it’s just nice. We don’t really, sometimes we forget that we’re eventalking to people, don’t we? It’s really nice when we see something, when we see some feedback from somebody, it’s like, oh wow, people are actually listening and they, there’s people out there.

so we love it. If you like the podcast, let us know. It’s really nice to hear.

Amy D: and thanks for being with us. We’ve really enjoyed, putting this together.

Jane: Yeah. And we’ll see you next series.

Amy D: Take care

Jane: Okay. Bye.