Home improvement projects can cause a lot of headaches. At the beginning it might sound like a great idea to make those long awaited changes to your home, but it can turn into more than you bargained for. Our team at Corken + Company wants to give you 8 great tips to make sure your home improvement projects do not add extra stress to your life!
Make a Plan for Your Home Renovation. Then Stick To It:
Setting a firm list of priorities and budget will help you make confident decisions and stick to them. Seemingly small changes like adding a light switch or swapping a tile material may require a lot of work. To redesign, re-spec and re-scope your project, it will certainly impact your timeline and budget, even before construction begins.
Get Ready for Disruption Before Your Reno Work Begins:
At the very least, prepare the rooms that will be affected by the renovation before the work crew comes in. Clear shelves, move breakable objects, secure or isolate pets, protect or move anything that might be damaged or vulnerable during renovation or painting.
Manage Your Subcontractors’ Schedules:
If you’ll have different work crews doing different projects (painters in one room and bathroom installers in another, for example), try to schedule the work to be done at different times so they don’t get in each other’s way. Also manage your own schedule so that the disruption is not happening during otherwise stressful times.
Working From Home? Scheduling Contractors Around Business Critical Needs Is Vital:
Can that Zoom meeting with your work colleagues compete with the noise of the nail guns on your roof or the demolition of the old tile in your bathroom? Try to schedule any potentially noisy or exceptionally intrusive work inside your home on days when you have a light (and solitary) work load.
Be Specific About What You Expect From Your Home Renovation:
From the perspective of the builder or handyperson doing the work, a lot of stress can be avoided by letting the person (or people) doing the job know what you’re expecting. Make sure you have someone who cares about the work, and who will listen, tell them what you want. Be specific. A good builder wants to do the best job they can, but we’re not mind readers.
Plan for Utilities to Be Interrupted During Your Renovation:
During major renovations, there will undoubtedly be times when the power or the water — or both — will be shut off. If you will be at home, plan your days so the interrupted services are not too much of an intrusion. Make sure the utilities are back on before workers leave at the end of each day.
Thinking of DIY Home Renovation? Know Your Limitations:
Sure, you can change the flush valve in your toilet tank, but could you really install a whole new toilet yourself? Maybe painting walls is easy and you enjoy it, but how do feel about hanging wallpaper? For some home improvements, no amount of how-to videos can adequately teach the average homeowner enough to tackle certain jobs. Remember that plumbers and electricians are highly trained and skilled laborers. If you’re looking at something that requires a huge learning curve and thinking, “Maybe I can do that myself,” think next, seriously, about hiring a pro.
Remember to Take Pictures Before Your Home Reno Demo Begins:
After the work is complete, you can look back and see what a difference the renovation makes in your home. Comparing your “before” to what you have now makes the inevitable inconvenience and stress of the process worthwhile.
