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As a homeowner, you’ll end up renovating your house at some point or another. It could be when you first move in or several years later, but it’s an inevitable part of owning a house. Despite this, it can be a long and difficult process.
It shouldn’t be. You can make it much easier for yourself by following certain steps, especially when you’re in the planning stages. Seven, in particular, are vital for this, as they’ll have a significant impact on the renovation process.
If you’re interested in renovating your house the easy way, there’s no reason not to take advantage of them.
Renovating Your House The Easy Way: 7 Steps You Need To Take
1. Know What & Why You’re Renovating
Have you considered why you want to renovate your home? For many people, it can simply be the urge to make their house look and function a little different. There can be other reasons to renovate your house, including:
- Improve efficiency
- Getting ready to sell
- Updating rooms
- Making maintenance easier
Now you know why you’re renovating your home, you can figure out exactly what to renovate. Be specific with what you want done, and base your next steps accordingly. While it could start off relatively simple, you could find it’ll get increasingly complicated.
Don’t like that overwhelm you, however. Think of what the end result will be like, and keep that in mind during the process. You’ll have no problem motivating yourself throughout the renovations.
2. Get Inspired
You could have the urge to renovate your home, but not know what you want to do. If that’s the case, it’s as simple as finding some inspiration to base your decisions on. Doing this is as easy as hopping online and looking around for renovation ideas.
Even taking a look at some high-quality and visually appealing homes could be enough to inspire you. You should be wary of jumping on trends, as these come and go by default. You should make sure you’ll want your home to look a specific way long term. You’ll have to determine whether you’ll still like the inspiration in the future.
Keep in mind this is just inspiration. You’ll have to adjust them and be practical when implementing them into your home. With a bit of time and research, you shouldn’t have a problem coming up with ideas for your home renovation.
3. Have A Scope & Budget
The scope and budget of your renovations are deeply intertwined. How much you can afford to do often dictates what you’ll end up getting done. Make sure to figure out both of these before you get any work done.
The scope of your renovations doesn’t just mean what you want to have installed or expanded. Since the likes of plumbing and electricals are much more expensive than putting in some new lights, for example.
Know what the overall costs of your scope are and compare them to your budget. Adjust accordingly before moving forward to save yourself a lot of stress.
4. Decide Between DIY & Contractors
Someone will naturally need to handle the renovation process, so you’ll need to decide whether you’re hiring a contractor or doing it yourself. Both of these have their pros and cons to be aware of when you’re making the decision.
DIYing it means you’ll save a significant amount of money, but it also entails needing to do a lot of work yourself. You’ll also need to be skilled enough to carry everything out, which could be difficult for certain renovations.
While contractors come at a decent cost, hiring them means the work will be carried out to a high standard while preventing any problems from coming up. You’ll get the renovations you want without needing to put much effort in.
It could even be worth taking a mix-and-match approach for the process. Knowing what you can and can’t do is vital to this.
5. Get Your Supplies
You’ll naturally need quite a few materials and supplies to carry out your renovations. You can’t do them with nothing, after all. Naturally, you should get these as early as possible to make sure the renovations start on time.
You’ll likely already know most of the materials you’ll need for the renovations, such as kitchen tiles. These are the most obvious things, but they’re far from the only ones you’ll need. If you’re carrying out the work yourself, you’ll need to be aware of the smaller supplies for your renovation process.
Will you need a threaded steel pipe and multiple other nuts and bolts, for example? Make sure you don’t overlook these, as you’ll end up needing to get them in a rush if you forget them.
6. Demolish & Remodel
If you’re doing extensive remodels, you’ll likely end up needing to demolish a few parts of your home. It’ll make room for the remodels and let you start the actual renovation process. By default, it’s one of the first things you’ll need to do when starting the renovations.
While you can do this yourself – it saves you a decent amount of money – you’ll need to be careful with the demolition. Knowing where the plumbing and electricals are is vital to this, as damaging them can be costly. That’s without considering how dangerous it can be to accidentally take a sledgehammer to them.
Either map out where the plumbing and electricals are, or let a professional take care of it. Once you’ve this done, it’s time to get the remodelling work done, as per your designs.
7. Have Inspections Done
Some renovations will be required to have inspections done once the work has been completed, especially if they involve any electrical or plumbing work. Your local municipality will likely mandate this, and you could run into issues – such as fines – if you don’t get these.
You should get this inspection done as soon as possible. It’ll not only avoid legal problems, but it’ll make sure the work is done to a high standard, certifying there aren’t any safety issues. If you have a contractor taking care of all of the work, they’ll likely arrange these inspections for you.
You shouldn’t take this as standard, however. Clarify whether or not the contractor will take care of it for you, or if you’ll need to arrange the inspection. As soon as the renovations are completed, get the inspector in to take a detailed look.
Home Renovation Mistakes You Need To Avoid
Renovating your house the easy way doesn’t just involve following a few practical steps, as effective as they can be. You’ll also need to avoid a few mishaps during the process. You’ll need to avoid the top home renovation mistakes that many homeowners tend to make.
If you’re renovating your home for the first time, you mightn’t know what these are, which is why they’re easy to make. Some are more common than others, however. By knowing about them, you can make sure you avoid them. The most notable include:
- Underestimating Costs – Putting a budget together is vital to renovating your house, but you’ll need to be careful with this. It’s easy to underestimate how much everything will cost, even if you’re doing it yourself. You should add an extra 10% to 20% to your renovation budget to make sure you have all of the costs covered.
- Choosing The Lowest Cost Options – Speaking of money, it’s not uncommon to choose the most affordable materials and contractors so the costs don’t get too high. You shouldn’t take this approach, as low-price often means low-quality. You could end up having issues in the future, which will be expensive to fix.
- Making Multiple Changes – If you’re unsure about anything about the renovation, you could end up making changes as the process goes on. Avoid this, as it’ll end up costing you a lot of money, thanks to the various delays it could cause. Make sure you know exactly what you want before starting.
Avoiding the most common home renovation mistakes makes sure you don’t run into any costly delays or repairs. You’ll be sure to do everything the right way, while not needing to put up with any issues in the short or long term.
Renovating Your House The Easy Way: Wrapping Up
Renovating your house the easy way is more within your grasp than you’d think. You shouldn’t have to deal with a lot of stress and hassle during the process, so why not take steps to avoid it? Getting inspired, having the right materials, putting your scope and budget together, and multiple other steps are vital to this.
Coupled with that are the various mistakes you should avoid when carrying out the renovations. Some of these can be difficult to spot if you don’t know what you’re doing, which makes a bit of research and planning vital.
With a bit of work, you shouldn’t have a problem making your home look and feel the way you want it. You’ll get there without all of the stress you’d expect.