Building Survey Report: BLSS Alternative Therapies Renovation Project

This report, prepared by a student for Desklib, provides a comprehensive project management analysis of a building renovation for BLSS Alternative Therapies. The report outlines the project scope, which involves converting an old residential building into a commercial therapy center, detailing specific activities such as space conversions, the creation of reception areas, offices, counselling rooms, and treatment rooms, along with the addition of a small lift. It includes a network diagram to identify the critical path, a Gantt chart for resource allocation (materials, labor, and money), and discusses potential constraints and risks, such as foundation issues, material selection, and noise concerns, along with their severity and recommended actions, as well as the state of the old building structure. The analysis concludes with a discussion on the viability of the project based on risk assessment, emphasizing the importance of critical path evaluation and regular updates to the project schematic, and the importance of careful planning and execution for the project's success.

Project management
Student name
Student level or class
Lecturers name
School name
School location
Date of submission

Introduction
As a building surveyor, the role of this paper is to advice BLSS Alternative Therapies
client throughout the activities that will be involved in renovation process. The renovation is to
be carried out between 31st July 2019 and must be completed by 14th December 2019.
My task in this assignment is to prepare an advising report guided by three principles listed
below.
 Prepare a Network Diagram with the identification of Critical Path of the activities
required to do all the changes.
 Draw a Gantt Chart, which indicates the resources (material, labour, money) required for
undertaking all the changes during renovation.
 Critically discuss the constraints and risks that are likely to be faced to manage all the
changes for the property
To achieve the above objectives, the report starts by listing down all the related activities
that will be done in the process. These activities will then be assigned duration it takes to
complete. The timeline of the project has been given, hence this has been used to scheduled
the dates of activities in the Gant chart and the critical path diagram.
The relevance of the critical path diagram and the Gant chart is to estimate the time
assigned to each activity. The critical path, will be identified as the longest path, with which
delay in one activity, will affect the whole project time. This has to be taken care of since the
project timeline must be adhered to.
The last part of the report discusses the critical constraints and risks that will affect the
project. A table of risk matrix will be provided. This will analyse the degree or how diverse
the risk would be. Risk management will consist of identifying, assessing and prioritizing
risks that might arise or already exist in the project. The risk analysis will be helpful to
BLSS Alternative Therapies Project as it determines whether they should invest in the
project or not. management in this case will involve initiating, preparing, executing,
controlling and closing activities involved in renovating an old building (Sudhini, 2019).
Activities will be monitored depending on their significance in the project.
Activities to be performed during renovation
The old residential building is to be converted into a commercial therapy building.
Several considerations must be observed before renovating the structure.

Figure 1 the original ground floor house plan., snapshot from class brief

Figure 2 the original first floor house plan., snapshot from class brief
Before starting the renovation, it is important know which activity to start with. To
identify the activity, we have to list all the activities and discuss them individually (Mikkelsen,
2011).
The following are the activities to be done:
 The space in the garage has to be converted to space which can be used for other
activities
 A reception area with capacity of twelve clients, accessible reception office which should
be secured, and a washroom to be used by clients and stuff
 General office with area of not less than 12m2, the office should contain a kitchenette and
a sink, microwave for warming fast foods, washing machine, dryer,
dishwasher and lockable floor and wall cupboards.
 Two counselling rooms and three treatment rooms
 For first floor, two general offices with area of not less than 12m2, three counselling
rooms and three treatment rooms
 Small lift for accessing first floor.

Project network diagram
Critical path is the synchronous activity of a project from beginning to end. Though many
initiatives have only one critical path, depending on the flow logic used in the project, some
projects may have more than one critical path. If there is a lag time within the critical path for
any of the activities (Leach, 2012), there will be a lag in the results of the project. In most cases,
if such delay occurs, the acceleration or re-sequencing of the project is done to meet the
schedules (www.tutorialspoint.com, 2019).
The timeline for the project is between July and December
To calculate time, latest start date is 31st July 2019 and latest end date is 14th December
Available time = 14th December - 31st July
Available time = 134 days, weekends included
Available time= 19 weeks
The available time is 19 weeks, this time must be utilized to meet the deadline of the project.
To find the critical path, we first have to draw a table and assign time for every task
The project involves many activities, most of which are related and can be grouped to form a
major single task.

Finding the critical path

The arrow indicates the next activity in the path.
Critical path is the longest path in the project, through which delay in activity will result to delay
in project completion.
From the diagram above, the critical part is part described by ABCEF
Gant chart
sta
rt
A 14 B 20 C 4
5
E
2
0
1
4
2
4
24 F FINISH
H
F
D
G
2 2
7
3
6
2

Figure 3 page 1 Gant chart
Figure 4 page 2 Gant chart, clear copies provided in pdf and Microsoft project files

Critical activities in the project
The project involves more than 30 activities, the critical activities have been discussed below
1. New extension Earthworks – classified as critical since its delay will delay the whole
project deadline
2. Materials procurement – for project to start, materials must have been procured, any
delay in procurement process delays the whole project
3. All activities that appear along the critical path are deemed critical activities. Critical path
is determined by the longest route, hence delay in any activity along the path delays the
project.
resources to be used in the project
The resources to be used in each activity has been mentioned in the project timeline. These
activities have been classified into the following classes
1. Labour – refers to human efforts to be used in completing the project activities
2. Money resource- refers to all resources to be used in acquiring the required materials and
labour
3. Materials- refers to all resources that will be used during construction and renovation
Constraints and risks involved in implementing the changes
Renovating a house from a residential to commercial is far much tiresome. The planning
and implementation involve various activities which must be incorporated together. Despite
everything, all the added extensions must merge with the existing building. At the beginning,
putting a comprehensive plan would be the way to go if you consider a world of planning. Every
shift in the plan would then require a complete re - planning of almost everything (Davidson
Frame, 2014).
The following are the main challenges experienced in the implementation of the changes.
 Establishing a new foundation near an existing building requires a detailed draft of
performing the task. Care has to be taken not to tamper with existing building foundation
 Electrisation of the garage must be done carefully to avoid weakening the beams, only if
the cables are to be drawn in walls
 Choice of construction materials- the client didn’t specify exactly on materials they want.
Choosing expensive materials while they want affordable poses a challenge
 Dealing with noise is a challenge
Risks associated with implementing the changes
First floor was design to support light weight, the previous design for residential use
might not support the weight of the added materials.
Risks associated to the structure was evaluated using risk matrix as follows

RISK AREAS
AFFECTED SEVERITY LIKELIHOOD RISK
IMPACT
RECOMMENDED
ACTION(S)
collapse of old
building
structures Old building
Generally
unacceptable Possible High
support the
structures,
rectify the
defects
presence of
undectable
amounts of
asbestos
site workers,
occupants
Generally
unacceptable Not likely High
thorough
investigation.
Don’t rely on
previous reports
Dust from
demolition workers
Tolerable Probable Medium use dust masks
Old building
Lead paint workers Generally
unacceptable Probable High Avoid contact
from the paint
Mold growth
Tolerable Possible Low
careful removal
of old
structures,
always used
mask to avoid
contact with
molds. Avoid
wet old
materials
Critical activities that can hinder project
 State of the old building structure – the old building might not be to the standards as
specified by the construction regulation bodies
 Inadequate time given for contract – 19 weeks given for construction, this could be less
time
 Incomplete or wrong environmental analysis as provided before, i.e. absence of asbestos
 Fact sheet requirement not to standard, this may result to relevant authorities not
providing renovation permits (Designingbuildings.co.uk. ,2019
Conclusion
For any phase of project planning, critical path evaluation is required. This provides the
project administrators the correct project end date and flexibility to arising activities. as the

project progresses, a critical path schematic should be regularly updated with real data to refine
the predictions of the duration for the current renovation. Establishing a new foundation near an
existing building requires a detailed draft of performing the task. Care has to be taken not to
tamper with existing building foundation. Turning a building into a commercial property can
present some difficult logistical decisions to budding business owners.
Based on the risk analysis, the project is viable and BLSS Alternative Therapies can
continue with the project.