Home renovation is a significant undertaking and an important part of home ownership for many households. Since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, our relationship with renovation has only gotten stronger; according to a recent survey, 77% of UK homeowners have spent money improving their property, at an average of nearly £1500.
If you’re thinking of renovating your home, you may not quite know where to start. This guide is here to help, with the following four essential steps to managing your own home renovation – whatever the size or scope.
Create a Plan
The first step in any home renovation project is the formulation of a plan. You will need to know exactly which room or rooms you intend on renovating, the kind of renovations you would like to carry out, and the rough timescale for your project. Having a structure to your project from the outset can help you significantly in the procurement of materials and labor, and can be especially helpful if you are renovating in order to sell your home.
Create a Budget
A constituent part of your plan is the budget. Renovation is a costly endeavor, even if approaching it as a DIY project; the price of timber alone has increased significantly over the last two years. You should start your budget with your ideal overall expenditure, based on your current savings and credit plans, and the most important aspects of your project – for example, a kitchen unit set you are particularly interested in installing. From here, you can include projected materials and labor costs, as well as the cost of equipment, to build a fuller picture of where your money is going.
Tools and Equipment
Speaking of equipment, you will need to invest in tools – especially if there is a significant DIY element to your renovations. It will be helpful to have a set of Milwaukee power tools to hand, in order to carry out any number of tasks relating to your project. Cordless drills are indispensable for the swift construction of stud walls, while access to a range of saws and miters can help with the sizing of coving, skirting, and other timber, as well as cutting tiles for tiling work.
Finding Contractors
Though attempting your planned renovations DIY might be tempting, some tasks are best left to professionals – from plumbing and electrics to full-scale construction work relating to extensions or knocking through load-bearing walls. As such, finding the right contractor is an important part of your home renovation process, so that you can keep the project running to schedule and ensure quality results on completion.
The best metric by which you can search for contractors is word-of-mouth recommendation. A friend or family may have had similar work completed on their property, and may have positive things to say about the contractor they used for said work.