Unexpected Renovation Costs You Better Be Prepared For

It is a truly exciting experience to move into a new home or change your present one, getting it look and feel just the way you’ve always dreamt of. In either case, renovation is a stage homeowners need to go through. While renovation is much of an exciting project, it is also a challenging one. In fact, a ‘project’ it is just at the very beginning, soon developing into a time and budget consuming process of hard work and solving of various problems.

Most of the renovation costs are well known – builders, materials, furniture, decoration, etc. Homeowners are well aware of these costs and consider them seriously. They build a budget around and based on the information they have gathered about them, hoping they’ve covered everything. Yet, practice shows that there hasn’t been a single renovation project that has gone by smoothly and without ‘surprises’.

Unexpected costs storm in and may pose serious challenges. You have three options to deal with such situations:

• one: go deeper into your “pockets” and pay the extra costs
• two: compromise on either quality or quantity of services or items planned for
• and three: do a far better planning

Needless to say that the latter is highly recommended! So, when you’ve set up your renovation plan and budget, go back, start from the beginning, and make sure you’ve taken into consideration these few very important issues, too.

Be sure that no matter how well everything seems to have been planned and thought of, unexpected obstacles may well turn up and endanger the entire renovation process. No one can know what these may be or when they might appear.  So, you should be wise to do some better planning to be able to avoid any unexpected issues or deal with them if such still happen.

You could start with a very detailed list and description of each and all renovation tasks and consult these details with the builders. If you are dealing with a major renovation of a big property, then you better look for construction drawing management software solutions that will help you view all drawings, revisions and discussions with builders and architects from start to finish.

Additionally, before starting any renovation work at all, you should definitely check the building’s structure, as well as test the major on-site installations – water, electricity or gas supply lines at least. Be sure to get the proper documentation evidencing such inspections. Check also for possible mold or pests problem and discuss the issue with the builders, making sure they can take care of it and include the cost of such services into their offer.

So, the key point here is – consult with the builders your renovation plan in thorough details.

For one, you can so avoid possible unexpected issues. And two, the builders will not be able to “surprise” you with extra costs for services that have not been planned for and not included in the initial offer.

One of the most commonly encountered mistakes is to overlook the regulations of the local authorities on doing any kind of construction or renovation works. Make sure you have checked on these, way before even starting with your renovation plans. It may turn out that some of the planned works may not even be permitted, while others may need getting particular permits for. And permits cost money! This is why house and land packages are so appealing.

Moreover, if you have not considered the local regulations properly, you may well find yourself in the middle of the renovation process when someone comes and puts everything on hold until an issue is solved. Forget about deadlines! This costs money, too!

Again, make sure these issues are discussed with the builders beforehand. In most cases, it is them that take care of getting the respective permits, and they should include the relevant costs in their initial offer.

When renovation plans apply to a newly bought residence, moving becomes an issue to take into consideration. If you think that several trips with your car will help move your belongings, think again. One never knows how much household stuff there actually is until it needs to be moved.

Packing it all yourself is a good idea, of course. In this way, you may put everything in order (Finally!) and be sure you’ll be able to find things at the new place. To be honest, however, this is a tiresome job! You’ll need to do a lot of dragging, lifting, loading and unloading. Are you up to it? In our opinion, it is way better to consider hiring the services of professional movers instead. So, if you take our advice, make sure to have these costs included in your renovation budget, too.

Sometimes moving is not about boxes and furniture only. If you’re expected to vacate the previous residence before the renovation work at the new place has been finished, then you may need moving the family, too. That means covering some extra costs for renting a temporary residence or staying at a hotel. So, be sure to check well on renovation deadlines to avoid leaving your family “on the street”.

Renovation process in 2020 involves lots of demolition, too. Garbage and waste materials pile up and these need to be disposed of properly. Dealing with this yourself is practically impossible. There are particular requirements and regulations on the issue of disposing of different materials, so make sure this is taken care of.

What you need to plan for is hiring a respective company specialized in performing such services. Here’s a valuable advice on what needs to be done. Start with answering a few simple question to get an estimate:

• What is the scale of the job?
• How is everything delivered?
• What type of materials need to be hauled off?

Take into consideration how long you’ll be using such services and make sure you’ve included the relevant costs in your renovation budget.

As said before, renovation quickly grows from a project to a hard work process. At the end of it all, when builders have laid down their tools, it may turn out that some things have not been done as planned or not done at all. This happens. Often, unfortunately! So, it would be wise to plan some extra money to cover the cost of possible last-minute repairs and changes.

In an ideal world, you would hand the builders the keys to the house to be renovated, go on a holiday some place warm and sunny, and come back to the spick-and-span home of your dreams. It may still happen, but if anything, the final stage of any renovation definitely needs some thorough cleaning.

All renovation activities involve dirty work. Dust, debris, paint, it all accumulates and needs to be cleaned up before the renovated house shows its beautiful looks. Since this is not regular cleaning, professional help will be needed. So, make sure you’ve addressed this issue properly and have ensured enough budget for this final stage, too.

Published in: Smart home | Author: Rossitsa