Things To Keep In Mind When Renovating Your House

January 07, 2022

When it comes to renovating a house, you don’t want to be the person who has no idea what they’re doing. Between the permits, dealing with contractors and organizing everything, it can be a ton of work for one person. This can be even more difficult when it’s your first house renovation project. I compiled a list of things that can derail your remodeling plans.

Lack of planning — What are you going to do and in what order? What tools do you need? What supplies? Do you need permits? Are you going to do it all yourself, or contract anything out?

Lack of know-how Replacing a floor can be pretty easy if you already have underlayment and boards in good shape, but replumbing your house is not. Do your research before you get started and make sure you understand everything involved with the job so there are no nasty surprises.

Permits! — If you live in an area that requires a permit for certain aspects of a home renovation or building project, then it is important to know if your property requires any permits prior to work being started. If you don't there could be some serious problems with your insurance and ability to sell the house as well as some major issues with the inspectors while they determine what needs to be permitted and inspected, not to mention whatever might happen during the course of remodeling without a permit.

Constant changes to plans -It's tempting to keep changing your plans. After all, your ideas or opinions are only getting better, right? However, this can be really bad for your project. Any changes to your plans will cost you greatly in time and money. Changes can also affect the overall quality of the final product.

Running out of time — If you are doing it yourself, realize that is will likely take you longer as an amateur to complete a job than a professional could do it. Realize that some renovations are going to take part of your house out of commission until it is complete. If you are renovating the only bathroom in your house, be sure that you are prepared for impact not having a toilet or shower will have on your family. Renovating the kitchen? Add money to the budget to get the materials needed .

Unexpected Problems — It’s all fun and games until you decide on decking out your house with a new kitchen, or maybe you need or want an open concept floor plan, but then you realize that the wall between the living room and kitchen isn’t just full of studs. That wall is hiding something that was unexpected — HVAC ductwork, plumbing lines, electrical lines. It is the unexpected that will hit you hardest, because you never know when or where it will hit or how much it will cost to deal with it.

Running out of money — The bane of any renovation is cash. Plan changes, material cost increases, time crunches, and unexpected problems that require pros to come in to mitigate the damage all add to the final cost of any renovation. Be sure you have accurate estimates for the work you will do and then add at least 10% to that amount to account for the unexpected.

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