Lifestyle

Published on November 6th, 2019 | by admin

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3 ways to renovate your home on a budget

Do you have an exciting idea for how you’d like to renovate your home? Perhaps you envy neighbours who have had VELUX windows fitted to their roofs, your bathroom has long been lacking a shower unit, or you would even like to overhaul your home from top to bottom.

However ambitious you are with your project, heed the warning of Real Homes that a residential renovation “is likely to become one of the most expensive home projects you’ll ever undertake”. Many renovators veer over their original budget, but you can still take steps to avoid where they went wrong. Here are some reliable ways to cut the cost but not the quality…

Plan the project thoroughly

One strong incentive to renovate a home is the value that, theoretically, it would add to the property. However, before you get underway with the heavy lifting of your renovation project, you should consult an estate agent for clarity on the value, if any, your home is actually likely to gain.

If the project idea passes this particular hurdle, you still need to calculate your renovation costs carefully to make sure your money is allocated appropriately between the different tasks. Knowing your budget as the renovation work itself gets underway can help prevent you from getting caught by unexpectedly high costs, potentially including those of plumbing or groundworks.

Be your own boss; be the project manager!

Project managing the renovation yourself enables you to pick and hire separate trades as you need them, an approach that could assist you in uncovering sources of financial savings on labour and materials. You could even save some jobs for yourself to complete on a DIY basis.

Still, none of this is to say that being a project manager is straightforward. The Homebuilding & Renovating site warns that the necessary decisions to make and time to spend in this role are “often all-consuming”. You will need to keep on top of things with your management and logistical skills.

Especially extensive renovation work might require you to live well off-site – in which case, you should still schedule visits for at least every morning and evening. Tradespeople working on-site will have questions to ask you each day, too – so, make sure you stay readily accessible by phone.

Reassuringly, though, if you do successfully juggle all of this, you could save yourself 10% to 20% on the project’s total cost when compared to relying on the builder or main contractor instead.

Insist on at least three quotes for each part of the project

Once you know accurately how much the project will cost responsibility-by-responsibility, you can source multiple quotes – we recommend at least three – for each task. This will make it easier for you to find what you deem the most cost-effective service.

Note, though, that “cost-effective” and “cheap” are not synonymous terms. Quality must remain the most crucial deciding factor, whether you seek a builder or roofer in Sunderland, Durham, Hartlepool or any other North East area, for example.

 

 


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