Are You a High-Maintenance Client?

One of the biggest surprises I've had over the past thirty years isn't discovering how difficult renovations can be. It's discovering how much easier they become when homeowners and renovation professionals work well together. Most people assume delays, budget overruns, and frustration are caused by poor workmanship or bad planning. Sometimes they are. More often, however, they're caused by something much simpler: the way people communicate with one another. A renovation is a partnership. Just as homeowners want to hire reliable, organized, and respectful professionals, renovation companies hope to work with clients who communicate clearly, make timely decisions, and treat everyone on site with courtesy. When both sides do their part, projects tend to run more smoothly, cost less, and become a far more enjoyable experience. Here are five habits that can unintentionally make any renovation much more difficult than it needs to be.

One of the quickest ways to delay a renovation is by taking several days to answer simple questions. Your project manager may need clarification about cabinet hardware, tile direction, paint colours, or the exact location of a light fixture before work can continue. Until that answer arrives, tradespeople are often left waiting or forced to move on to another task. That doesn't mean you need to reply within minutes every time your phone rings. Life is busy. But making an effort to respond promptly helps keep the project moving forward and demonstrates respect for everyone else's schedule. The same principle applies to your renovation team. If they consistently take days to return your calls or emails, that's a sign they may be disorganized and/or hard to work with. I find that the most difficult clients are the ones that are too busy or unfocused and take more than a day or two to get back to me. Most questions needs to be answered quickly, especially if something has to be decided on quickly at the jobsite. If you take more than a 24 to 48 hours to respond then you could be a high-maintenance client.

We've all been late for a meeting from time to time. Traffic happens. So do unexpected events. Problems arise when arriving late—or forgetting meetings altogether—becomes the norm. Every site meeting involves more than just you and your designer or contractor. Tradespeople, suppliers, consultants, and project managers often rearrange their schedules to be there. Not showing up just wastes everyones time and showing up prepared helps everyone make better use of the meeting and keeps the renovation progressing as planned. Likewise, a renovation company that repeatedly misses appointments or fails to arrive when promised is sending an important message about how it operates. I once worked with a cabinetmaker that would oftentimes show up 30 to 45 minutes late for meetings. They would also deliver kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts very late, usually past the project deadline. It caused me and my clients endless stress and heartache. I’ve since chosen another cabinetmaker that’s a bit more expensive, but infinitely more reliable and respectful or everyone’s time. Life is short so doing what you say when you’d do them is not only the professional way to do things, it just makes everyone’s life easier.

Every renovation is made up of hundreds of decisions. Flooring, lighting, plumbing fixtures, cabinetry, paint colours, hardware, and countless other details all need to be finalized before construction reaches that stage. Changing your mind occasionally is perfectly understandable. That's part of the design process. Repeatedly revisiting decisions after materials have been ordered or work has already begun is where problems start to appear. It creates delays, increases costs, and can have a ripple effect on every trade working on the project. A good renovation team will help you make thoughtful decisions, but they also need confidence that those decisions will remain reasonably stable. I once worked with a client who could never make up her mind and filtered her decisions (and communication) through her husband, which caused endless delay and ended up costing my team more money (and more time) to finish the job. She was pleasant enough but just couldn’t make up her mind quickly enough and would consult everyone she knew before giving us her decision. Clients like that are hard to deal with, and the same goes for renovation teams that take too much time taking action or returning your calls.

Almost every homeowner thinks of something they'd like to add once construction begins. "While you're here..." is one of the most common phrases heard on renovation sites. Sometimes those additional requests are simple. More often, they affect scheduling, material orders, pricing, and the work of several different trades. None of that means you shouldn't make changes when they're genuinely worthwhile. It simply means understanding that every new request has consequences for the budget and timeline. So constantly changing your mind whenever you hear or see something new or trendy (or something your neighbour has done that you’d like to copy) simply does not help when it comes to finishing the project on time and on budget. The same applies in reverse. I once had a client who thought that they could make endless changes whenever they felt like it, which made the project inefficient and exhausting. I have done only one project with them and probably won’t do another one with them as they keep changing their mind often and causing the renovation team needless grief.

After more than thirty years in this business, I've become convinced that technical ability is only part of what makes a renovation successful. How one treats other people matters just as much. Everyone has difficult days. Renovations can be stressful, especially when you're living through them. Even so, speaking respectfully to your project manager, tradespeople, suppliers, and consultants creates a much healthier working environment. People generally do their best work when they feel appreciated rather than criticized. The same standard applies to the renovation company. If people are dismissive, argumentative, or consistently disrespectful toward you, that's usually a sign to look for a better (i.e., more professional) company to work with. And if you’re constantly short-tempered with your project manager they may end up losing patience with you and walk off the job instead of being constantly subjected to verbal abuse. I once did a bathroom renovation for a client who was very impatient and would snap at me and members of my team whenever he felt that things were not going as smoothly. There’s no need for this type of behavior on a jobsite as surprises can and do happen and it’s best to deal with these things calmly and professionally. I’ve since dropped him as a client as his short temper and lack of professionalism just made it harder for me and our team to do our jobs.

One of the lessons I've learned over the years is that successful renovations rarely happen because one side is exceptional. They happen because both sides work well together.

The best clients communicate clearly, make decisions thoughtfully, respect everyone's time, and understand that a renovation is a collaborative effort. The best renovation companies do exactly the same. They show up when they say they will, keep homeowners informed, treat people respectfully, and take responsibility when problems arise.

In the end, being "low maintenance" isn't about asking fewer questions or expecting less. It's about creating the kind of working relationship where trust, professionalism, and positive and respectful communication allow everyone to focus on the same goal: creating a home you'll enjoy for many years to come.