In general, home renovations are projects that owners meticulously plan sometimes years in advance which only increases the level of satisfaction once the final nail goes in. The feeling of relief comes from the fact that just planning for a home renovation which involves securing the materials and dialing number of professional renovation companies, usually takes months to complete. Unless you create a viable plan, your renovation is likely to fail and you will never complete it in the timeframe you initially imagined. In this case, it is more than useful to know a couple of tips about proper home renovation planning because attention to detail will guarantee a job well done!
Determining a budget
When it comes to budget planning, you need to list every nut and bold like in a commercial renovation. Homeowners let their guard down because they falsely think that a residential construction project does not require a lot of professionalism. However, failing to plan every last detail will almost certainly result in overspending at the end.
A typical home renovation budget should feature items like the cost of materials, council permits, potential labor, decoration costs, etc. You should strive to list as many costs as possible, from large wooden beams, all the way down to those minuscule screw caps. If you are outsourcing all or some work during the reconstruction, be sure to list the cost of hiring a decorating company as well.
Finally, don’t omit a contingency budget as things will definitely not be ideal as you start digging earth or tearing walls; who knows what problems might encounter. In general, 10% of the initial budget should be set aside for emergency repairs that might include a ruptured water pipe. Hopefully, no such accidents will occur but you, nevertheless, need to be ready to cover them financially.
Avoiding problems with contractors
Regardless of how handy or determined, you are to renovate the house on your own, there is a high probability that you will hire subcontractor at a certain point in time. This might be a single window washer who comes in at the end of the project or the company that rents skip bins but anyway you will have to decide to hire them in particular based on some criteria.
Personal recommendations are nice and all but you foremost need to look for contractors that specialize in residential renovation projects. You can determine if their services are right for your home by taking a good look at their portfolio that is nowadays available online. In order to make sure that they are fair towards their clients and that they respect the need so of the clientele. You can take a look at their Facebook pages’ comments section as well.
It might seem like a paranoid thing to do, but going through the social media pages and asking around if a given contractor is trustworthy is key to getting everything done on time. What good will all your diligence be worth if the contractors and subcontractors don’t deliver on time? Home innovations that never get complete fail because of fraudulent contractors that don’t live up to their end of the bargain, so you have to sue them to get your money back.
Applying safety measures
The uniqueness of a home renovation project is the fact there is a construction site in which there is often just one unskilled worker – you. From planning the whole project to dusting the completed renovation, you will bear the brunt of the whole construction conundrum. The area in which this might turn out to be the most problematic is by far work safety. The fact that you are working inside your house, that still might have tenants (your family upstairs), can mislead you to think that you are 100% safe. The reality could not be more different, as every construction project requires the application of proper safety procedures and measures. If you don’t take care of your safety, there is no one else to do it for you.
First of all, you need to seal off the part of the house you are working in by using impenetrable barriers. These can be consist of a simple transparent plastic sheet that will have the “do not enter” sign. The last you need is your family member approaching you from the back while you are wielding a power tool. Do your best to establish a perimeter from above as well, so the inside of the house does not get wet if you are repairing the roof. Furthermore, seal off the construction site from your pet and other animals as well, because the risk of their injury is quite high.
Secondly, you need to gear up properly. Demolishing a wall wearing shorts and flip-flop is by no means recommendable (or sane for that matter). In this case, water-resistant steel cap boots will help protect your feet from falling chunks of concrete and they will ensure you have a firm grip if the renovation requires you to climb up the roof. When it comes to using power tools like a chainsaw, protective gloves and glasses are mandatory, and a helmet couldn’t hurt if you are repairing something over your head.
Establishing a timeline
A successful home renovation is actually a mixture of dedication, budget planning, hard work, and last but not least, sticking to a time schedule. Since the renovation is going to be completed in stages, you need to have a sit-down with everybody involved to establish viable deadlines. This is important because certain work cannot be started unless the previous one is completed. There is no point in bringing in a brand new sofa if you still haven’t covered the house with a roof; that sort of thing.
Furthermore, you need to be clear about the date the renovation actually begins and realistic about the period that you plan it to end. As is the case with the contingency budget, by planning in detail and in advance, you will be ready for all eventualities like material deliveries that are late or contractors quitting on you.
Should I stay or should I go?
We have already mentioned the fact that you and your family might decide to remain living inside the house during ongoing repairs. This is an acceptable solution if the work involved is contained to a single part of the house, like the kitchen or the bathroom. However, if you are carrying out any structural repairs, such as replacing the roof or electric wiring inside the entire house, then it is best that is no one around. You can send your loved-ones away for the week while you finish up or they can go on a mini-holiday, so they will be having so much fun that they won’t miss their home.
Prioritize!
Since the project is going to have stages, you need to prioritize all the planned improvement. Some are more important than others and your general plan should reflect this. For instance, a towel warmer should be first hooked up onto the heating system and then you can install LED lights and mirrors in the bathroom. In general, all the luxury details should go in last, as well as fragile pieces of furniture, like large mirrors and glass kitchen cabinets. Also, inspect the completed work from time to time to be sure that the roof is not leaking or that there is a hole in the new drywall.
If you want your upcoming home renovation project to be a success, you need to plan. Such planning needs to be done in advance and it needs to be detailed, accounting for all the eventualities that might occur during the renovation process.
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