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Renovation - Building Works - Reducing the Intrusiveness Into Personal Life

Fri 07 Nov 2008 - 09:15

Renovation - Building Works - Reducing the Intrusiveness Into Personal Life
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lizzy_Van_Lysebeth]Lizzy Van Lysebeth

One of the most intrusive actions into private life one willingly engages into is home renovation or building work. 

Most of us will agree that building work in one's home rarely happens without the necessary amount of stress.  Apart from the fact one has to deal with the construction details and problems, the homeowner also needs to cope with the much less considered and investigated but nevertheless important aspects of privacy intrusion.

Strangers walking through the front door with all kinds of materials and equipment, making lots of noise and bringing dust to the most unlikely places and most of all disrupting daily routines, tranquillity and private space, can become very upsetting. 

Nevertheless much can be done from the homeowner and equally the builder/architects side to lower the threshold to stress free building work.  

In order to understand why building work can be so disruptive to our lives one needs to take a closer look to interpersonal relationships and more specific to environmental psychology.  It is beyond doubt humans have innate characteristics traceable to instinctive animal behaviour and whether or not we are aware of those it influences to a large extent our interaction with our surroundings and the communication we have with other people.

These characteristics have been largely investigated by anthropologists and psychologists, and the results of those studies have been actively integrated in marketing and commercial architecture.

A too narrow shopping aisle in a supermarket for example is very likely to induce what retail anthropologist Paco Underhill calls the butt-brush effect, where a customer will almost instantly loose interest in the product he was looking at when he feels someone brush against his back or backside while passing by.  The customer's intimate space was invaded and as a result, as studies have proven, the customer will often walk away and leave the product. 

In proxemics, a terms first introduced by anthropologist Edward T. Hall, social distances between people can be divided into 4 groups: intimate space, personal space, social space and public space.  These spaces correspond to the personal distance a person takes (often unconsciously) to other people, events and its surrounding.  Intimate space for example is reserved for actions like embracing, kissing, touching or whispering, where personal space is for interaction with good friends.

The intrusion of people into a space not appropriate to their social distance may feel uncomfortable and invasive.  In environmental psychology this is termed as crowding.  It is the psychological phenomenon when one is no longer comfortable with the number of people present and the extend by which they are invading ones space.  In home building or renovation work it often happens that the physical distance between someone of the building team and the homeowner is as such that both invade a portion of each other's space which under normal circumstance they would not do.   This is accepted however because it is temporary and necessary to achieve the work that needs to be accomplished.  Very much the same goes for territoriality, a concept in environmental psychology associated with the nonverbal communication that refers to how people use space to communicate ownership/occupancy of areas and possessions.  The intrusion of builders into the private territory (one's home) and the partly exposure of personal life and belongings is again tolerated because it is temporary and necessary but nevertheless feels uncomfortable.

Equally important are the effects of excessive noise, uncontrollable dust or changes in daily routines like wake-up hour or facility disruption.    

With some effort however many of these effects can be minimized and reduce the stress that often accompanies building work.  Although much can be done from the homeowner's side a truly successful plan involves the cooperation of the building team.  It is therefore important to incorporate the building team from the start.  This means at the hour of negotiating the budget.  Let them know from the beginning what you will be doing and what you expect in return.  Although finding a good reliable builder or interior designer/architect is a good start the key to stress free building work is preparation.  This refers to the work that needs to be done before the first builder sets foot on your property.

Contract

Getting a good builder/designer/architect is important.  Get preferable someone who has been recommended to you.  Make a contract with your builder/designer/architect.  For significant work (a bathroom renovation qualifies) include late delivery penalty fees.  Every good builder who respects himself and takes pride in his work will have no problems with that. 

Action plan

Ask your builder/designer for a day to day action plan.  This action plan should include how the building work should progress.  It will give you and him a guideline.  It will also pressurize the builder to stay on schedule because he is aware that you will know if he is falling behind.  It should list the people with their respective names that will be on site on which day.  Preferably you should be introduced to them on their first day of work.  Having their names will make them a bit less stranger and will take worries away to whether or not a certain person should really be in your home. 

Noise

An action plan should also include a noise schedule.  Although noise is constantly possible during building work there are days when it is more likely then others.  A builder / designer should be able to inform you on this.  It is psychologically proven that noise generates stress but also that this stress diminishes if that noise is anticipated.

Needs

Ask your builder his needs.  He will most probably need storage space, water, electricity, toilet and washing up facilities.  Anticipating and correctly catering for this will reduce significantly the intrusion into your private life.   Builders need to bring many things on site, materials, ladders, machinery, etc.  Make sure that the passage from the front door to the place of renovation/building is adequate for this.   Remove everything that might get damaged: paintings, art work, personal belongings, etc.  Remove loose things like papers or letters.  Many people leave incoming mail or office papers on cabinets at the front door.  Except for the fact that you leave personal information for anyone walking through to see because the front door will often remain open for longer periods during building work, air displacement is likely and may blow things on the floor or behind cabinets.  When things go missing, and since you moved lots of items misplacement is common, theft easily pops to mind.  In order to avoid this take precautions and remove those items.  In the place you dedicated as storage, protect at least 2 wall spaces with cardboard to lean large board materials against.  It avoids touching up paint work or wall paper scratches after your builders have gone.  Protect all none movable items (cabinets, floors) adequately.

Dust

Remember that dust is likely and that this dust gets carried around everywhere you walk, even in places no work is done.  In order to keep this to a minimum, limit the access of builders to your home to the absolutely necessary rooms.  Keep doors of all other rooms closed.  Put mats in front of those doors to wipe your feet before you walk in.  Also remove curtains and lampshades in working areas, it avoids having to clean them after the place has been covered in dust.  Ask your builder to carry out dusty operations like grinding stones/tiles, cutting wood, etc. outside.

Preserving your privacy

Another significant form of stress is the constant disruption of privacy when undertaking building work.  Every person has different standards as to how much they value their privacy but even if you are very relaxed about it the constant invasion of one's personal space over longer periods of time should not be underestimated.  A list of precautionary measures may help in keeping your home a home, even during building work.

This starts by informing the builders which facilities they can use.  Let them know which sockets they can use for electricity and which toilet and water facilities are to their disposal.  These facilities are bound to get dusty and dirty so it helps if you can temporary assign another toilet or other facilities for personal use and refrain from using those you assign to the building team.  Remember that they will need a basin to wash their hands but will also need some water supply to fill a bucket.  Most toilet basins do not cater for this so builders go in search for a bathtub or a kitchen sink.  Providing a water hose outside may solve that problem.  In order to avoid builders to wander through the house in search of things make sure you provide for their needs.  It helps to put signs on the doors.  Private signs on doors you wish not to be disturbed or water and toilet signs.  During the course of the building work builders often need to speak to the homeowner to discuss various building issues.  Knocking on doors to find you is an option but often construction noise may work confusing to adequately hear that someone needs you.  Since the front door bell is frequently used for deliveries and does not necessarily need your attention every time it is being run, temporarily installing a wireless doorbell (for little money in most DIY stores) inside the house to get your attention is an economical option.

Who does the work?

Protecting the home environment (like floors and walls) should be part of the builder's work ethics.  Nevertheless will you always be more protective about your home than the builder.  It is therefore important to let the builder know what you want him to do in terms of protecting your belongings and respecting your privacy.  He may argue to charge something extra as protecting takes time.  It is of course a trade off. One can not negotiate rock bottom prices on building work and expect builders to spare time and effort in minimizing home disruption to the absolute minimum.   Sound communication is important at this point.  It is well worth to invest in some doormats and protective material and make sure that what needs to be in place is in place, what needs to be removed is removed and what needs to be protected is protected.  It is very common more time and money is spent at the end to rectify damages than the time and money it would have taken to put necessary precautions in place. 

So key is, act before you start, and remember that a successful building or renovation plan involves the cooperation of both: you and the building team.

© Copyrighted and written by Lizzy Van Lysebeth.

Lizzy is Flemish furniture and interior designer with a design studio in London, UK.

He previously worked with GK-Design in Tokyo and was for several years a course director for a master in furniture design in Barcelona. More info can be found at http://www.lizzydesign.com
He
is also the initiator of ID-Sphere, a voluntary community weblog for interior designers and their related sectors to share articles, ideas, knowledge and resources. More info can be found at http://www.id-sphere.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lizzy_Van_Lysebeth http://EzineArticles.com/?Renovation---Building-Works---Reducing-the-Intrusiveness-Into-Personal-Life&id=1655086


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