16 Oct Save Money When Renovating Your House
Need to save money when renovating your house? It may not actually be as hard as you think. Practically all of us will undertake home renovations at some point in our time owning your house, and it’s not uncommon to run over our ideal budget when we do it. However, with careful consideration and a bit of insider knowledge, it’s still more than possible to save yourself some money. That way, you have more spend on the more exciting things like furnishings and house-warming parties, and less on the builders and materials.
Home renovations can include anything, ranging from large projects like re-doing the whole house, right through to smaller projects like adding an extension or loft conversion. They of course all have their own requirements. With that being said, having a realistic budget, knowing exactly what your project entails so that there are no hidden costs, and thinking wisely about the decisions you make will all contribute to saving money renovating your home.
Read our guide on saving money renovating your house for all the advice you need from how to plan effectively to reusing materials.
Plan Everything Out
Budgeting
Understanding exactly what your project requires to put together an accurate and realistic budget in place for your renovation costs will always help you save money on your renovation. From there, you’ll be able to decide how your budget will be split. For example, will most of the budget go on the internal fixtures and fittings, or on the actual building work? These are the big questions that have the largest impacts.
Foresight is a really useful tool for saving money, no matter what you’re doing. It’s easier and cheaper to create new rooms out of your current space rather than to extend your property, for example, but you need to prioritise what you need form the project too. Removing costs for new foundations, walls and a roof can save you massive amounts on your home renovation which can allow you to focus on the more visual aspect of the design such as flooring, wall finishes and furniture.
Having a set budget and sticking to it will be the fundamental aspect to stop you from overspending. Don’t forget to factor in accommodation costs if your renovation will mean that you will need to live elsewhere for a period of time.
TIP: Spreadsheets listing all items needing to be paid for are a great way to track costings and check you are in budget.
Scheduling
Planning the schedule of your home renovation isn’t always an easy task. Understanding and juggling what needs to be done in what order can be quite stressful, but once this task is done, it creates a bible you can use to ensure you don’t make the mistake of doing anything too early or hastily. Each task can be thought about in advance and all decisions can be made without a rush. That prevents the wastage of your finances saving you further money when renovating your home.
Project management can be another way to amplify this, but it often depends on the extent of your project too. It typically costs around 5% of the renovation cost, which can be a big addition to the bill. If it means there are no mistakes left to fix by the builders, or that it saves money on labour costs due to holding the builders to a higher level of responsibility, however, it can pay for itself. Give it some thought.
Lists
Creating two lists of items for your home renovation, like items that are essential to your home renovation and items that are just desired but not vital, can be a great way to keep a lid on your budget. It helps to stop you spending on unnecessary items and skimping on the important ones, but still makes sure you have everything you need and a good idea of what you could add in the future should you choose.
Once you have paid for all the essential items, you can treat yourself to those items that are desired. You’ll also be able to see where you have gone over or under budget on each item individually, too, which helps to get a much broader picture of your overall project and can make a massive different on how much you save on your renovation as a whole.
Get Multiple Quotes
Make you have the set of building regulations drawings that have passed Building Control, you can then go and get quotations for the work required. We always advise to get at least three different quotations to compare them. Typically the quotes vary widely, so make sure to read and understand what is and isn’t included and make note of it.
Builders are always happy to provide advice on areas you can save money, often by completing the work in stages or slight design or specification changes, so make sure to ask them if your quotation is too high.
It’s important to also note that often builders over price jobs if they are very busy as they either don’t want the work or will take the most lucrative job. Getting multiple quotes allows you to find someone who wants to do the work, has good experience in your type of home renovation and has a good reputation
DIY
Carrying out parts of your project yourself is a sure way of saving money on renovating your home. Even if you are not the best at DIY, there will certainly be tasks that you can do the reduce the overall costing. Builders charge by the hour, regardless of how unskilled the task is. Even the simplest of tasks you do to prep the space will save costs. Clearing space, preparing surfaces like skim-coating walls, and even painting and prepping the floors are all easy tasks that you can do to shave down the costs.
If you’re more confident on the DIY front, there are many other tasks you can do to shave the costs of your home renovation down further. YouTube will be your best friend with this. Patience and determination will get you a long way in DIY, so take it slow and the job will be great. If you don’t have all the tools you need, you can rent them from a local hardware store which will save you a fair bit of money when renovating your home.
Buy and Sell
Reusing cabinets and appliances can help you save money when renovating your home. Resurfacing your cabinet doors or changing their handles is much less of an expense to buying a whole new kitchen fit.
If you can’t reuse anything pre-existing, selling your old materials will earn you money that can be put towards your renovation costs while helping others too.
Buying wisely is key if you can’t reuse or upcycle old items. Ex-display items are always a great purchase as they are discounted heavily while still being of high quality. Sales are also a great place to buy new items yet still save money.
Home renovation should be an exciting time. Its best to always remember what you can and can’t do and what you do and don’t want.