10 Do’s and 10 Don’ts of House Renovation

Remodelling your house can be both fun and an irksome job at the same time.

Where on one hand it gives you the excitement of beautifying your place to your heartiest content, on the other hand, it can make you go nuts with the exorbitant cost and time it demands from you.

If you have done it before as well, then you would already have a fair idea of how easily it can exceed your estimated time and budget. But for those of you, who are planning it for the first time, it can be quite a nightmare if you are not well prepared. But, don’t worry, we are not here to scare you but to help you get the home you have always wanted.

All you need to do is make sure that you have a proper understanding of what exactly you have in your mind. Everything must be predefined including your budget, time, design, contractor, and a backup plan in case anything goes wrong.

All of this may sound a bit of a stretchy task to start off with but you need not worry as we are giving you here a simple but crucial guide on what to do and not do during your home renovation. And by following these easy guidelines, you can achieve the house of your dreams without losing your senses.

10 Do’s of Home Renovation

1. Do Have A Detailed Plan

That’s quite an obvious thing because, without a proper plan, you would keep wandering from here to there without getting much done.  You need to meticulously and attentively plan out every single detail of your home remodelling.

And it is best to put everything on paper so that you can easily keep a check on all the things. So, while planning, keep the below-mentioned points in your mind.

• Distinguish between what you want for the house and what your house needs.

• Prioritize on the basis of those wants and needs.

• Plan out the estimated time, budget and complete design of the house.

2. Do The Budget Allocation

Second important thing is to carefully plan out and determine the budget that you are willing to spend on your home remodelling. No matter how wisely you plan it, budget estimation is something that can horribly go wrong. So, to avoid that from happening, make sure of these points mentioned below.

• Determine how much available funds you have at the moment.

• Decide how much of the available funds you are willing to spend.

• Plan a rough estimate of the designer or contractor’s cost.

• Plan the cost of construction material and construction workers.

• Always keep a specific percentage as a contingency cost.

3. Do Check The Dates And Weather Conditions

You must know that home renovation can take up to several weeks. So, before you plan to do that, make sure that the weather and chosen dates are suitable for you to start work. So, what you need to do is:

• Plan out the entire time duration of the renovation.

• Check the dates that would be covered in that time period and start the work accordingly.

• Make sure that the weather conditions are favourable and won’t impede the work, like rain and snowfall etc.

4. Do Hire a Contractor

Selection of the right contractor is of vital importance, as the end product will all be on your contractor’s hand. How to find the right contractor? – Well, follow these simple steps.

• Check the yellow pages.

• Ask for recommendations from your friends and family along with their overall experiences.

• Investigate if there are any objections against the contractor.

• Check the contractor’s license, permit, and insurance.

• Setup a meeting with the contractor and get estimates.

5. Ensure the Renovation Work Align With Your Theme

If you have a specific theme for your house, you need to ensure the house renovation works are been carried out are aligned with your housing theme. These include the renovation materials, colours, decoration, elements and furniture are matching with your housing theme.

• We need to have time to time communication with our renovation contractor to ensure they clearly understand our requirements.

• We need to constantly monitor the renovation works are been carried out according to our discussed plan.

• Other than the main contractor, we need to let the ground workers know our requirements as well

• Request the construction materials, eg: grout, mortar, skin coat, tiles adhesive, putty, floor hardeners are branded products. Good quality materials lay a good foundation for quality renovation works.

6. Do Provide Comfortable Working Environment for the Workers

To expedite the process, you must be of great help to your workers and for that, you need to provide them with the best working environment. To ensure a good work setting, you need to keep a few things in your mind.

• Keep your valuable and breakable things away from the construction area.

• Keep some clean place for the workers to put their tools and materials.

• Always be attentive to your workers’ needs and suggestions.

7. Do Ensure Using Quality Construction Materials

Always remember, the cheaper the price, the worse the quality. If you, yourself are buying the material then you need to be extra vigilant regarding the quality because of your lack of knowledge. However, it’s better to let your renovator do that job for you. Just keep these two things in mind.

• Don’t go for cheap price.

• Seek your renovator’s opinion on the material’s efficiency.

8. Do Plan the Rearrangement of Your Home

In addition to planning out your home design and everything, you also need to plan the rearrangement of your household that would become inevitable once the work is started.  Do make sure to plan the following things.

• Keeping storage space for your stuff.

• Relocation somewhere else during water issue.

9. Do Keep a Separate Space as Your Refuge

This whole renovating adventure can be really tiresome, especially, when you have to live with all the mess around. So, to seek a refuge from all that chaos, try to keep some room free of that entire disturbance where you can easily relax until the work is finished.

10. Do Carry Out a Concluding Inspection

Lastly, when the work is done, do one final inspection to see if everything is up to the mark and as per the contract.

10 Don’ts of Home Renovation

1. Don’t Put Off The Decisions For Later

Once you decide on getting your home renovated, it is best to have every single thing decided beforehand. Do all the thinking and mind work before the work has started. There can be a lot of situations and issues that may suddenly come up and cause a delay in the work, so, early planning will help you tackle these situations quickly.

Although, those issues might be very small, like the selection of your tiles or your toilet seat and may not seem very time taking. But, trust us that it can cause significant interruptions in your overall work. So don’t delay even the smallest of decision for later on.

2. Don’t Keep Drifting From Your Plan

We completely understand that it is practically impossible to entirely go by the plan and you’ll need to change a few things in your plan as the time goes by. But, make sure to minimize the number of those changes because what you don’t realize while drifting away from your plan is that even these minor changes are going to add up to your overall cost.

Change is unavoidable and we completely understand that but you must be prepared for its prospective backlash on your plot. There are so many worse situations that you may find yourself to be in if you drift away too much, which you can read below.

• Your overall timetable will be affected by every single change.

• You will be lagging behind the schedule.

• Workers will demand additional wages for giving extra time.

3. Don’t Use Cheap Construction Materials

If you use cheap construction materials, eg: unbranded tiles adhesive, mortar, cement, and waterproofing materials. You are exploring a risk of getting defeats in future, the flooring tiles may popping up, wall tiles may be failing, facing water leaking issue, etc. These defects can be prevented by using high quality and branded materials

• You can consider using branded companies materials, eg: Sika, Mapei, Parex, Saint Gobain, Lafarge, MC Bauchemie, rather than unheard products.

• Never tolerate on construction materials quality, this will save you a lot of money in long-term.

4. Don’t Start Without Keeping Some Additional Funds

There is always the likelihood of your cost surpassing your expected budget, even when you keep a little room for the additional expenses. Generally, people try to minimize their cost as much as they can while planning and so they end up with an unrealistic budget for their project.

So, never ever start the work if you have only got what you have put in your planning. And always keep some scope for stretching your budget, even if you have allocated it generously. So, make sure to have:

• A realistic approach while making the financial

• At least 5-10% additional funds of the total planned budget.

5. Don’t Be Unaware of The Rules and Regulations

You are remodelling your house, you are excited about it and you are ready to invest, but if you don’t know about the regulations and permits then you might end up violating some rule. For that matter, you have got two options.

• Go to your resident building department for checking the requirements and other important details that can have any effect on your renovation.

• Let your contractor get all the important authorizations for you. (Recommended)

6. Don’t Let Your Children or Your Pets Impede the Work

Watch out for your kids and your pets yourself and do not expect the contractor to keep an eye on them while working to avoid any accidents. The reason we are stopping you from letting your children and pets roam around freely is that:

• It is unsafe to let children or pets on the construction site.

• The possibility of accidents rises.

• Your overall work gets delayed.

7. Don’t Stay at The Construction Site

People usually overlook this important instruction for saving additional costs of moving out of the house. But, it is crucial for you and your family’s own well-being. Staying at the home during remodelling can cause a lot of issues for you that may include:

• Health risks due to chemicals and dust.

• Unavoidable likelihood of mishaps.

• Mental stress due to the messy

8. Don’t Let the Workers Get Off The Track Because of You

You may be very excited about your place’s renovation but make sure to not become a reason for your workers’ distraction. To ensure that, keep these points in your mind.

• Be serious and quietly watch and supervise the whole work.

• Don’t’ indulge in conversations or small talk with the workers when they are at work.

• Talk only about the stuff that’s related to your house’s renovation.

9. Don’t Be Ignorant of The Actual Needs of Your House

First off, you need to understand that different types of houses require different types of people to help you plan and design your modelled house accordingly. These people may include an interior designer, a builder or an engineer.

Secondly, you need to ensure that you have thoroughly checked your house and are aware of the repair and fixing work that it needs. On the whole, you can refer to below-mentioned points to get the better idea.

• Hire the concerned person.

• Don’t start working unless you have the complete design ready in advance.

• Have everything in writing from the beginning.

• Plan out a detailed floor plan.

• Investigate each and everything and note down the places that require special attention.

• Check the back of your walls and complete wiring of the house.

10. Don’t Imagine the Lowest Charging Contractor to Be the Best Option

While looking for the contractor, you might be attracted to those who are the lowest bidders. Well, who won’t? – Obviously, if it would save you a substantial amount of money then it’s natural to be inclined towards that option.

However, while choosing your contractor, you need to keep a few points in your mind, which are mentioned below.

• The lowest charging contractor might not be that professional.

• He might not be well aware of all the work regulations.

• You may end up with a compromised work quality.

So, how to tackle this situation then? Well, it is quite easy. You should go for the one who is in the middle i.e. between the lowest and highest charging contractors. Additionally, you should ask all of the prospective candidates to show you their job descriptions and previous work details in black and white.