ᐅ Construction complete – now time to get the mess under control!
Created on: 21 Feb 2017 16:23
H
hausbaunerd
Hello everyone,
I have a few quick questions about paperwork and such: When you think back to the purchase contract, land register entry, structural engineering report, site plan, cadastral map, floor plan, energy certificate (?), utility connections, cable installation plans, heating system, numerous expert reports, photos, invoices, own work, quotes, warranties, and so on... All of this was once recorded, agreed upon, documented, and now it’s scattered around in various places (at least in my case). Most of it is in paper form.
I’m interested in how you approach this:
- What has been the biggest challenge for you?
- How have you handled it?
- How do you keep track of everything?
Does anyone else get similar worries with thoughts like “When exactly does my heating system’s warranty expire? Who will remind me to have it checked before then?” … I can’t be the only one xD
I hope to learn something useful from your answers. I’m really not a neat-freak, but at this point, I think: organization is essential. Thanks for your experiences and tips 🙂
I have a few quick questions about paperwork and such: When you think back to the purchase contract, land register entry, structural engineering report, site plan, cadastral map, floor plan, energy certificate (?), utility connections, cable installation plans, heating system, numerous expert reports, photos, invoices, own work, quotes, warranties, and so on... All of this was once recorded, agreed upon, documented, and now it’s scattered around in various places (at least in my case). Most of it is in paper form.
I’m interested in how you approach this:
- What has been the biggest challenge for you?
- How have you handled it?
- How do you keep track of everything?
Does anyone else get similar worries with thoughts like “When exactly does my heating system’s warranty expire? Who will remind me to have it checked before then?” … I can’t be the only one xD
I hope to learn something useful from your answers. I’m really not a neat-freak, but at this point, I think: organization is essential. Thanks for your experiences and tips 🙂
RobsonMKK schrieb:
And this from someone working in IT 🙄 Come on, speak into my crystal ball. [emoji5]
PDF/A files and ODF are currently intended for long-term archiving, but whether that will remain the case is effectively nobody’s guess. As soon as a new and more practical format comes along, software providers will switch over, and you can only hope your old clients (Adobe Reader and others) still work on the new systems.
So you have to convert your data into the new format. I experienced this myself as a fresh graduate student when accounting first started adopting PDF … it was absolutely not fun.
We might be going off-topic, but I can still open DOC files from 1990 today. Standards don’t disappear quickly; just look at MP3 or the JPG format.
They are all roughly the same age (almost 30 years on the market), dozens of alternatives have appeared—some probably better—but they still survive.
And if you’re worried that a PDF might one day become unusable, just use TIFF instead; it will last a few years longer. The current version, by the way, dates back to 1992.
This has little to do with speculation and more to do with what the market demands. A few people will always jump on a different trend, but the majority will stick to what works. I could actually give you plenty more examples of “typed” products that disappeared shortly after introduction, even if they might have been slightly better.
They are all roughly the same age (almost 30 years on the market), dozens of alternatives have appeared—some probably better—but they still survive.
And if you’re worried that a PDF might one day become unusable, just use TIFF instead; it will last a few years longer. The current version, by the way, dates back to 1992.
This has little to do with speculation and more to do with what the market demands. A few people will always jump on a different trend, but the majority will stick to what works. I could actually give you plenty more examples of “typed” products that disappeared shortly after introduction, even if they might have been slightly better.
77.willo schrieb:
Can you name a standard format from the past that you can no longer open today? It’s difficult, since the real standards have been established since the 1990s. 😉
Bieber0815 schrieb:
Did you destroy the originals afterward? Does this also apply to notary and loan agreements (if available)? What about manuals (where the contractor later stamps during maintenance)?
.I destroyed invoices and similar documents. However, I have also filed and stored some documents.
In Google Drive, I have a rough folder structure but mostly rely on the search function to find things. On my computer, I no longer use folders and just put everything into "Documents"...
77.willo schrieb:
Can you name a standard format from the past that can no longer be opened today? None comes to mind immediately. But do I really want to take that risk with such important documents? Not everyone has enough IT knowledge to keep up with these developments.
Considering how fast development cycles are nowadays, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Conclusion: I would always keep the paper documents and store them in a box at least.