Remodeling of any kind can be quite an undertaking. It does not matter if you are simply repainting a room or two, if you are adding a patio or if you are tearing your house from the bottom up and redoing the entire thing – it is always a process and a potential trap that can cost you a ton of money and nerves.
It is because of this that you need to make sure you have prepared properly, that you have envisioned every possible problem and that you have avoided it before it actually starts being a problem. This article will, hopefully, help you do just that – prepare for a remodel and ensure that the problems and hiccups are kept to a minimum.
Meticulous inspection
Before you start doing anything, you will have an idea about what you want to do and how you want to go about it. Every remodel starts from a plan, but it is very important to understand that this plan can be ruined if you are not prepared.
Let’s imagine that you wish to reroute some of the electrical wiring in one of the walls in your kitchen. You buy everything you need for this reroute, you start drilling holes in the wall and pulling the wiring out and then you realize that there is a major pipe leak in the same wall. All of a sudden, your entire project is ruined.
This does not happen if you do a proper inspection and if you check everything beforehand. Sometimes you may need to call up professionals and sometimes you will be able to do this on your own.
Careful budgeting
Every remodel costs. Sometimes it is an insignificant investment but sometimes it can require quite a handful of money. The worst thing about it all is that the final tally is almost always larger than the one you expected. This is why budgeting for a remodel needs to be done extra carefully. You need to factor absolutely everything, from the material, the tools, the money you will be paying the professionals to their lunch.
And then, once you have come up with a realistic budget – add 15% to it. Trust us. It is better to have some leeway than to end up mid-project with no money to finish it. If you are not certain that you can afford the remodeling project, do not start it.
Getting everything you need (and then some)
Remodels vary greatly when it comes to the amount of material, the tools and the equipment that you will require. Sometimes you will have everything you need lying around in your garage, but more times than not, you will need to go shopping for supplies. Depending on the ambitiousness of the project, this will be more or less complicated and expensive. Sometimes it will be as easy as buying a can of paint and other times it will require you to, for instance, hire a forklift for a particularly extensive remodel.
Taking a deep breath
Once you have all of your ducks in a row, so to say, and it is time to start with the remodel, you need to stand back (perhaps sit back) and take a very, very, very deep breath. Something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong with a remodel and one of the things that will help you cope with this is being prepared for this. The advice we shared with you will minimize the chances of something going wrong, but there is still almost a 100% chance that something will.
Be prepared for this.
After figuring out the budget for the remodel I think the most important part is over preparing. Yes, over preparing. I would recommend trying to think of every problem you could encounter so that you will be ready. For example getting a dumpster that is one size bigger than you think you need just in case. I can almost guarantee that you will fill it up.