Expert Tips To Minimize Cost Of Home Renovations
Home renovations could be quite costly, especially when you intend to remodel the entire house. But even with limited funds, you can still carry out a fairly good home renovation project on your tight budget. With careful research, planning and creativity, you can turn your home around. Here are some tips that will enable you to save money while remodelling or renovating your home.
Plan Carefully for the Renovation
Proper planning at the initial stage will save you a substantial amount of money as the project progresses. To keep your expenses within your budget, unexpected costs and unanticipated changes should be avoided as much as possible. This means that you should obtain accurate quotes from all artisans and technicians, including your builder, electrician, plumber, and interior designer. Then you will have a fairly accurate budget to begin with. Many professional home renovators also recommend that you should add about 20% to your total budget, to serve as a buffer.
Prioritize New Features to Fit Your Budget
It is unlikely that you will be able to accommodate every single new feature you want to add to your home without breaking your budget. Although, it is good to add as many modern and contemporary home design styles to your remodelling project, they will come at a significant cost. So you should arrange all the areas you want to work on in descending order, from the most important to the least important. For instance, you may arrange them in this order: living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, balcony, and so on. Then under each section, list the tasks you want to accomplish and attach costs to them. This simple exercise will help you to spend your funds on the most important areas in various sections of your home.
Plan to Re-Use Some of the Materials
Another important way to reduce renovation costs is to re-use some or all of the existing fittings and fixtures in your home. You should consult your builder and other professionals for expert advice on this. Let them inspect and assess all the doors, windows, and other fittings that will be removed so you can know if you can re-install them in other places. Also, you should try to incorporate standard off-the-shelf measurements. Minimize your customisation so that you can reduce your costs.
Shop Around and Negotiate
Shopping around gives you the opportunity to save on supplies, materials and labour. A good rule of thumb is to request for at least 3 quotes each for plumbing, electrical wiring, brickwork, carpentry, landscaping, painting and so on. After securing the quotes, you should engage your negotiation skills, request for trade prices, and seek for bargains on slightly imperfect materials or discounted sales. In addition, you should shop online from highly reputable websites for bargains on lighting, appliances, tiles, taps and so on.
Consider Doing Some Things Yourself
If you are confident about your home improvement skills and you are ready to study and learn more about home renovation, you can take up some aspects of the renovation as DIY projects. For example, doing landscaping, painting and other non-structural jobs can help you save a significant amount on labour costs. You can do some research online on popular home design and renovation DIY sites or download some home improvement apps on your iphone to get more details on what you can tackle by yourself.
These tips can help you save a substantial amount of money on home renovation. If you are not yet able to build your dream home, you can remodel your home or buy a cheaper house and use your renovation skills to remodel it and make it more suitable to your taste and family needs.