Just a quick question for anyone running an office, if you need work done such as building new areas to your office or having new equipment put in what is the general preferred time to have these things done? In the morning to run a full day, in the evening after hours or on a weekend. Any replies will help, going self employed and I'm trying to figure out what times to offer customers
depends on what time your open. most of the time it is after you close when adding new equipment. Adding new areas can be done when open if the noise is not too loud.
Depends on how intrusive the work is going to be, if it will stop production then it needs to be done after hours or weekend, if it is necessary for production then it's ASAP you have to bite the bullet and get them in and out as quickly as possible with the least amount of disruption to the work flow.
Lots of this type of work is performed after hours so down time is limited, and most contractors know, understand, and will work with you if they want to do the job, of course off hours work like this does carry a premium cost.
Having worked with contractors / builders, they will prefer an early start on the job-site. Normally a few days or weeks before, they would have given a quote / price for the work to be done.
If you're have a new area added to your office (a renovation), you need to have that particular area clear of any obstructions prior to the contractors arriving (nothing annoys a contractor more than doubling-handling, and you will be paying for his / her time)
Either way, whether the work is conducted on the weekend or after-hours you're going to pay extra for the contractor's time.
Most contractors I've been with prefer early morning starts, as often they will have jobs lined-up after yours.
Most times the contractors electrical tools (saws etc) may trip-out other electrical items in your office, so it may pay to switch off electrical items, and operate at a bare minimum or not at all.
If it's possible, for a full renovation it may be better to shut down the office for a day to enable the contractors / builders to work un-impeded.
I appreciate the replies, I'm coming from a stand point of me personally performing such work, currently I'm working full time 5 days a week however I'm becoming involved in a business partnership that offers installation of office equipment including pc's and my only availability will be evening and weekend times, if the majority of work such as this is best done at these times with a customer I can go ahead with it.