How to get your home ready for your renovation project

When it comes to getting your home as well as your mind ready for your renovation project you are going to have to perform certain tasks. You will have to be aware that you are entering a stressful time and the more and better you plan, the less stressful it will be when the work starts. 

In order to make sure that everyone is on the same page, you should draw up some plans and make sure that they are accurate, a mood board may also be a good idea to keep you focused on the end result. Where possible look for recommendations for subcontractors or businesses and check out their workmanship prior to hiring them.

#1 Draw up plans of what you want to achieve

It is important that you draw up plans of what you want to achieve in order to help you visualize it and others around you. At this stage, you will be able to adjust your drawings to make sure that you have everything that you want and still have plenty of room to move around. 

You will find it very handy if you measure your renovation areas accurately and if at all possible, hire the services of a fully qualified architect to oversee your project for you. Although having an architect is not always necessary, and you may very well feel that you could play the role yourself and therefore save some money, there are bonuses to having an architect involved with your renovation project.

• They will be totally aware of what you can and cannot do with your building in your state.
• It is likely that they will be able to advise you on subcontractors to hire.
• Will be able to assist you with materials and aesthetics to make your ideas come alive.
• Could very well save you time and money in the long term.

#2 Seek the right contractor

If you decide not to hire an architect to help you or your architect is less than forward with recommendations for subcontractors, you are going to have to find your own. In this, you should make sure that you gain quotes from more than one subcontractor and that you ensure that those quotes are provided to you in writing. This is so that you have in writing the record of the work that they are completing for you; should you end up with a part job you will be able to seek compensation the legal way or at least be able to persuade them to complete your job for you. 

By gaining more than one quote you will be able to see that there are no highly inflated prices included in the quote and be able to ascertain that the subcontractors that you have approached know what they are talking about.

#3 Workout a budget

As with all these types of things, it is very prudent to work out a budget and try to stick to it as much as possible. For the majority of renovation projects, the budget is exceeded and in some cases can cause serious problems to cash flow; however, if you do not draw up a budget, it is very highly likely that your spending will run away from you which could end in the disastrous scenario of your renovation project not being finished and you having to live in a building site until funds become available.

With this in mind, there is always the option of taking out a personal loan but you will have to make sure that you can afford the repayments.

#4 Purchasing the items you need

When it comes to purchasing the items that you need, it really does pay to shop around but you do have to keep your mind on quality. Using sites such as eBay or Amazon for instance you could find that you can save money on items that you can purchase in your local stores, obviously, the main drawback is that if you purchase your items at a store, you can touch and feel it as well as acquire the same day that you see it. 

When it comes via an online store you will have to wait for it to arrive (unless you are collecting it in person) and you will have to wait to see if it is of the quality that you are expecting and wanting.

#5 Clear the area to be worked on

There is no doubt that you are going to have to clear the area of items for work to commence. If these are items that can not be thrown away, then you could very well store them in other areas of your home. This could get very annoying within a very short span of time. The best bet is to move them to a storage facility such as BlueBox. Here they will remain safe and secure, out of the way, and ready for you to collect when your renovation is complete and place them in their new home.

Alternatively, if you do not want to throw them or store them, there is always the option of selling them on to others either by setting up a yard sale or selling them through online sites, such as eBay or social media platforms for instance.

#6 Address any additional areas that will require work

Within your budget, you will have to set aside some money to address areas of your home and garden that could well be affected by the renovation work while it is in progress. For instance, you may very well find that areas of your home that have been traipsed through now need to have some attention and this could very well be true of your front garden.

Bad planning will see that you start your renovation in the wrong area of your home so that subcontractors have to walk through with materials and tools areas that you have already paid to have completed, rather than the more desirable plan of leaving the exit of your home to the last possible project and the areas furthest away from your home exit the first on the to-do list.

Originally posted 2022-08-24 16:24:08.