Planning a Remodel? Don’t Forget the Scope Statement

The following is adapted from The Scope Statement by Damian Carroll.

It doesn’t matter how much you think you do or don’t know. Your project(s) will be a disaster without the proper planning in place.

I recently prepared detailed scope statements and financial budgets for commercial clients that entailed various building and property upgrades. These included essential building infrastructures (boilers, cooling towers, etc.) as well as waterproofing under existing exterior facades, among other things.

The scope statement provided clarity for the respective clients about the enormity of the tasks and their intricate nature. This allowed corresponding trades to provide fair and reasonable costs, with the aim of keeping variations/change orders to a minimum. It allowed us to set a sensible budget for the project that was realistic, fair, and told the true story.

So what does all this mean? If you want your project to be as successful as possible, you will have to put in some work up front.

There is no getting around that. Period!

Years of experience have taught me that this needs to happen — no exceptions. Set aside the time and do it. It’s not as daunting as it seems.

You will have no end of pain if you think that you can undertake a project of any size, such as a bathroom, kitchen, and so forth, and complete the upgrade without any planning. I guarantee it. The more time you put into your project up front, the more you will understand it, and the more you will save yourself the pain of your expectation (low cost) versus the reality of actually doing it (higher cost).

Having written hundreds and hundreds of scope statements, experience has shown me the value of spending the time doing this. In short, the client understood what they were buying, and the supplier(s) knew what they were expected to provide.

What does compiling a scope statement and budget estimate mean for you? What does it look like?

Get your mind into the position that preparing a scope statement will probably take the equivalent of two to three days in total (sixteen to twenty-four hours). Might be more, might be less. Understand that those time requirements do not occur all at once but in total. It doesn’t matter if it’s done over the course of any number of weeks or months. Whatever makes you feel comfortable. My advice is, don’t worry about the time commitment because you can go as fast or as slow as you want. But do the work.

The scope needs to be completed first, and then you can work out the cost associated with each task. The budget estimate might take a similar amount of time as the scope (sixteen to twenty-four hours) to assemble all the data you need. Once again, take your time on this and don’t cut corners.

How to Build a Successful Scope Statement

The success to putting together a scope statement is to look at each component of a finished product and then peel back the layers that make it up. The included example is one for a bathroom. It is real as this was my own bathroom at home. It considers the respective sub-trades that are required to do the work and then what each of them needs to do and how it all ties together.

Okay, so where do you begin and how do you put one together?

The best thing to start with is having the end in mind. Some good questions to ask to get this process going are:

• What do you want to achieve?
• How do you want the finished product to look?
• What functionality do you want it to serve?
• Who is going to use it?
• Do you want it to be a feature of the house?

Once you’ve figured out the basic look of the bathroom you want, you’re now ready to start putting this together.

If you’ve never done a remodel of any type, it’s going to be hard to know what you’re looking at. No problem.

First thing to do is look at the current layout of the area of the project. Using my example of the bathroom, go and look at where the existing toilet/shower/sink(s) and so on are located. If you’re doing your kitchen, do the same thing.

My main piece of advice is to leave the new fixtures (sinks, toilet, etc.) in the same/similar location. The best thing to do is to plan around the location(s) where all existing supply lines, waste, vents, and so forth are installed. That is, put the new shower, toilet, and so on right where the old ones are now.

When dealing with plumbing, distance equals money, so moving plumbing services a long way will blow most budgets out of the water. Stay “local” to where all existing items are located.

Next thing to do is to get a blank piece of paper and hand draw what you’d like the layout to look like. Do at least two of them: one as though you are looking at it from the ceiling (plan view) and one from standing in front of the wall (elevation view). I would focus on the elevation view for the vanity wall. You may want to do one for each of the walls, but don’t make it too complicated for yourself. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it will make you think about where things go.

Other items to consider:

• Where do you want the vanity? How are you buying this? Pre-made or custom built?
• One or two sinks?
• Any medicine cabinet(s)? Recessed or surface mounted?
• New mirror(s)?
• Towel rack(s)? How many? Where? What style?
• Power outlets? How many? Where?

This is where your previous research will start to pay dividends as you already have an idea of what you want, and we’re now moving into the where-are-we-going-to-put-it phase.

The scope statement is taking shape without you even knowing it and before you’ve started any writing. By doing this work up front, you can see the type of things that are going to help you write it and why it’s important to do it.

At this stage, you’re now in a good position to start typing this out (you can handwrite it, too, if that’s your preference).

Follow the same categories as I’ve shown you in the example. If you’re not using any of them, delete them. If you’re doing something else, add it in. No problem.

You should now start to see that there are quite a few more layers to this than meets the eye, and that is why things end up being more expensive than it first seems.

The tricky part of this is being able to peel apart what you want each sub-trade to do and articulating it accordingly. The example will guide you through the types of things you need to write and this should help make it easier.

You don’t have to have all the finishes finalized before starting the scope statement. You can continue to toss around ideas of different sizes and styles. The infrastructure work (water supply, drains, etc.) will have to be done irrespective of the end result.

A piece of advice to pass on: I have always stayed away from telling the builders and sub-trades how I want something done. Instead, I’ve focused on telling them what I want done. It has kept me in good standing with them. They are the experts. Let them do what they know best.

An important item to remember when doing the scope statement is finding out in advance if you will need a permit from your local jurisdiction to perform this type of work in your home.

I’m not going to provide direction either way on this. You will have to get this information yourself as well as the costs involved. Be very mindful that obtaining a permit may trigger other requirements that are unrelated to the job itself (e.g., upgrade sewer lateral, etc.). Go in with your eyes wide open.

For more advice on how to craft your own scope statement, you can find The Scope Statement on Amazon.

Damian Carroll has worked in the construction industry for over 15 years and written hundreds of scopes. After seeing how often a good scope statement can save your skin and how wrong things can go without one, he wrote this book to help inexperienced homeowners create the home of their dreams at a fair and reasonable price.

To learn more and connect with Damian, please visit www.damiancarroll.com or www.thescopestatement.com.