Semi-Official I'm Thread XVIII
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 93,305
Likes: 820
From: Nowhere
Originally Posted by SR71BB,May 18 2005, 10:53 AM
I'm reminding Bent of our conversation regarding his relations with the local hardware store. Every household project will result in scope creep, accept it.
Dean,
I teach construction scheduling. When it comes to
scheduling DIY home improvement I have a simple two
step method that always yields good results:
(1) Take your first estimate of the time, and multiply
by 2
(2) Change to the next larger unit of time
Thus if my first estimate is 3 hours, I multiply by 2
and change hours to days, making the adjusted estimate
6 days. Similarly a 5 day project takes 10 weeks and a
2 week project lasts 4 months. I never tackle a home
improvement project lasting a year, as that would take
decades to complete. In your case having the WalMart
open and finding your part there was just a lucky
break; otherwise a 1 hour faucet replacement would
have taken 2 days.
Try this simple method and I think you will see that
your time estimates are much more realistic.
I teach construction scheduling. When it comes to
scheduling DIY home improvement I have a simple two
step method that always yields good results:
(1) Take your first estimate of the time, and multiply
by 2
(2) Change to the next larger unit of time
Thus if my first estimate is 3 hours, I multiply by 2
and change hours to days, making the adjusted estimate
6 days. Similarly a 5 day project takes 10 weeks and a
2 week project lasts 4 months. I never tackle a home
improvement project lasting a year, as that would take
decades to complete. In your case having the WalMart
open and finding your part there was just a lucky
break; otherwise a 1 hour faucet replacement would
have taken 2 days.
Try this simple method and I think you will see that
your time estimates are much more realistic.
Thread Starter
Former Moderator
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 52,827
Likes: 17
From: State of Confusion
I'm telling you that those estimates are about correct. I've been doing renovation projects like this on old houses for many years and I never expect them to go quickly or smoothly...
