Things to know about Inspection of Home Interior design works

One of the exciting phases for a new Home buyer is decoration of house starting with searches for Home decorating ideas, Home interior designs, interior design of bedroom, interior design living room, interior design for kitchen, and list goes on. It starts with Interior furniture, Home painting, painting bedroom or living room with painting ideas is part of interior decorations resulting in colourful living room.

A home designer can help you with home decorating ideas for interiors and there are even specialised bedroom designers.

All that said how do we go about interior works and how do we inspect the work done?

There are many ways to get an interior work done and below is the list of approaches.

1. Engage an Interior contractor

This is the simplest way and more suitable for interior design for small houses. He would show pictures of all the previous work done and recommend you the choices for various rooms starting with Foyer, living room, bedrooms, Kitchen, Pooja room interiors and end with cabinets at Toilets or shoe racks.

Pros are:

• simple process
• easy to coordinate without multiple agencies involved
• Lump sum price quoted so easy to negotiate and finalise.

Cons are:

• No drawings will be made, so cannot visualise in advance
• Difference in what is shown in pictures and what is done
• Left to the workman’s whims in the absence of drawings
• No control on output quality or quantity
• Disputes are common due to variations

Most importantly, without drawings, detailed specifications and Bill of quantities, it is almost impossible to check the work.

Inspection will only be limited to workmanship issues and will be usually disputed ending in compromise.

2. Engage an Interior Designer to start with

Here services of a specialist Interior Designer is availed in two possible ways.

 One option is after the building is ready and construction is completed then Interior Designer comes on board and starts home interior. The drawback here is the Interior Designer will have to work around what has been already constructed and may sometimes have to break the construction to accommodate his ideas. This will be waste of materials, labour and time, ultimately waste of money.

Second option is engaging Interior Designer well before the completion of construction so that Interior Designer can integrate his/her ideas for completion avoiding waste and rework. This early engagement is much easier in case of independent houses/bungalows but has limitations in case of large apartment complexes, where the Builder may not always be accommodating.

In both cases the Interior Designer prepares a concept drawings of his/her proposition for the approval of the owner. This includes interior design of bedroom, interior design living room, wardrobe inside design, interior design for kitchen, and small office interior design for Home office ending with even schemes for home painting.

Once the concept is approved by the owner, detailed drawings will be made along with specifications and Bill of Quantity (BOQ). The BOQ will help in estimating the cost with good accuracy thus helping the budgeting for Interior works without surprises.

Advantages here are the clarity on what is going to be done and what are the costs the Home owner should be prepared to bear.

Next step is appointing a contractor to execute.

3. Engage an Interior contractor to execute the finalised design

The Contractor may be recommended by the Interior Designer or you have the choice of calling in competitive quotes by different contractors. The disadvantage of engaging the Contractor recommended by the Interior Designer is, there will always be suspicion of collusion between them but advantage will be the good coordination in working thus making it less stressful for the owner.

In other way when the choice of contractor is made by inviting bids from the qualified contractors, the process is elaborate. First a list of capable and reliable contractors has to be made. Then bids are invited on the basis already prepared BOQ, ensuring a common basis to quote. Here the services of consultant is required to evaluate the various bids received. The selection may not always be based on the lowest bid but has to be considered on the basis of contractor’s capability in executing such work with best quality practices. The past performances of his work will be an indicator of the capability. Also any history of disputes/litigation or aborting the work midway has to be looked into before awarding the work.

Another aspect here will be the involvement of the Home Owner in selection of some materials for colour or texture or appearance as everything cannot be depicted in drawings nor visualised. The contractor should be accommodating to involve the Owner or the Consultant for the selection aspect of materials. Also there could be changes in midway due to change in perspective of any stakeholder and both Consultant and the Contractor should be able to accommodate within reasonable limits.

Thus method of engaging an Interior Designer and executing through a contractor will be more suitable for large homes with bigger budgets which justifies extra cost.

To conclude, in whatever way the home interior or even office interior  work is got done, it is worthwhile to get the Interior work checked by an independent Inspection agency to ensure your money is well spent on a good quality work and also make your interior design ideas come to life.