What is the best way to deal with a renovation project?

First of all, do I need to call a technician or a company?

• A technician.

Why?

• Because you need to carry out a few preliminary checks (both for conformity and technical reasons) to establish if a project is feasible and, if it is, how. You can’t do that without a technician;
• After that, the project is gradually developed, taking into account the client’s indications, preferences, needs and budget.
• Once the executive project has been carried out, the technician will draw up a bill of quantities, which is a document companies need to calculate the quotes. This allows us to have accurate estimates that we can analyze and compare;
• Drafting a complete executive project, including all the necessary calculations, does not take a few hours or days, it takes several weeks, depending on the size and complexity of the project.

What if I contact a company or a general contractor directly?

• You basically assign the project to someone (by paying a deposit) without making any prior checks, which means you expose yourself to the risk of unpleasant surprises, namely finding out that the project cannot be realized;
• After a brief on-site inspection, you will receive a bill of quantities, without an upstream study. This may lead to several extra expenses and limited control of the building operations;
• If you contact more than one company or general contractor to get more quotes, they will be very difficult to compare as they will not have been made with the same calculation methods, moreover, you won’t have the support of a technician to analyze the estimates, make sure nothing is missing and check that the quoted prices are appropriate.

Does this mean the general contractor’s or, more generally, the building company’s technicians are incompetent?

• Absolutely not. It simply means that the process is incorrect, as the technician cannot carry out all preparatory work with the utmost caution and comprehensiveness the client expects (and deserves).