It is no secret that a commercial remodel is a huge endeavor for any project owner to undertake. You better have all of your ducks in a row before starting any of the physical work, and that means thinking through all the details well in advance.

Every project owner desires a smooth & successful project from start to finish. Here are six key areas to commercial remodels that you can't afford to overlook.

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1. Preliminary Budget

The most important parts of every remodel come before any physical work has begun.

And as with many things in life, qualifying your budget is where everyone should start. Be certain you have funds properly lined up to not only start the project, but more importantly, to go all the way through and finish the project.

2. Pre-work Survey of Existing Site Conditions

If your project is at a new location (i.e. the company is making a physical move) it is important to visit the site with the construction contractors to get the lay of the land.

During your pre-work visit, you should determine whether there are any major obstacles that will need to be cleared early in the physical work phase of the project. The last thing you want is a wrench thrown in your designs and plans last minute because a proper inspection and survey of the building and land weren't completed.

3. Project Timeline

If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else. And if you don't know when you're project is going to be complete, it may never get finished.

Be sure to discuss with your contractors any required start or completion dates that should be specified in the construction contract. If you aren't sure about the dates, you should still ask the contractor for their scheduling plans for the project and discuss any perceived issues or problems (i.e. road restrictions, weather conditions, site conditions, time constraints, etc.).

Your goal should be to determine when construction will commence and about how long the contractor estimates it will take to complete the work. Find out whether the contractor intends to work weekends or holidays. It's your responsibility to take note of specifically when and how long each subcontractor will be working on the project. Being thorough with timeline specifics upfront will give you leverage in future conversations and help keep your contractors accountable.

4. Pricing

Over the course of a commercial remodel project, it is not uncommon to work with a dozen to two dozen different types of subcontractors.

As you can imagine, that's a lot of moving parts to keep track of. But it's also a lot of billing to maintain. From a financial perspective, you have to know and understand what to look for in a subcontractor. Without the ability to qualify bids & understand the details of what each subcontractor is offering, you're setting yourself and your company up for disaster.

Too much trust in an unknown subcontractor could possibly lead to inflated pricing.

Only worrying about saving money and choosing the cheapest bids can result in a recurrence of shoddy work over the course of the project.

5. Ordering Materials

Your strategy when it comes to ordering materials can have a huge impact on the cost of your project.

The best tactic for ordering materials is to - wherever possible - order in bulk. For the most part, ordering in bulk comes with discounted prices.

Many people overlook this opportunity in the long run because they're worried about saving money throughout each step of the process and put less money down upfront.

But a more long-term approach can be the difference between staying under budget or blowing up your budget.

6. Project Clean-up

The quality and thoroughness of a project's clean-up is often overlooked.

It is human nature, once most of the work is finished, to be ready to be done with a project and leave some things that may seem unnecessary at the time undone as far as clean-up is concerned. If clean-up isn't completed in a timely and quality manner, it only creates more work for someone else to deal with in the future.

Plan, Plan, & Plan

Business owners or other project owners realize how big of a task it is to take on a commercial remodel project of any sort. The key is to plan well and do your best to stay on top of each phase of the project. Anticipate hiccups and obstacles along the way; that's just the nature of remodels. But with thorough and thoughtful planning, you set yourself up to know exactly where you're going and exactly when you're getting there.