CASE STUDY · WIRRAL
The family needs to stay in the house.
Occupied renovation · Pre-Construction · Project Coordination
The situation
A Wirral family asked us to help plan a renovation while they remained in their home. The initial programme assumed an empty property. Kitchen access, temporary services and protection of occupied rooms had not been properly included in the contractor discussions.
What we did
We brought the occupation requirements into the project brief. Working through the sequence with the appointed team, we identified phases, temporary arrangements and the need to assess safe separation between the family and the work. We asked for these constraints to be priced explicitly.
Our recommendation and the trade-offs
We set out the implications of a phased approach: it could support continued occupation, but might take longer and increase site-running costs. Some stages could still require temporary accommodation. We did not treat staying in the house as a cost-free option.
What we made clear
Our work made the trade-off between disruption, duration and cost visible before appointment. The key was agreeing practical arrangements in advance, rather than discovering the problem when essential rooms became unusable.