Inside: How to Organise Your Stress-Free Home Renovation. Collaborative post.
Organising a stress-free home renovation might sound impossible but it’s a lot easier than you think if you make the right preparations. Read on for a few top tips on how to effectively renovate your home…
Renovating your home can be an exciting time, but if you don’t prepare carefully, it can leave you feeling exhausted and frustrated. Thankfully, there are ways to minimise stress and speed up the process to avoid disappointment.
From researching your contractors to clearing out your home and checking your plans with a local planning authority to avoid property dispute solicitors, there are several factors to consider before any actual renovation takes place. Ultimately, planning is key.
In this post, we’re going to help you organise your stress-free home renovations by telling you exactly how to prepare.
How Should You Prepare for a Stress-Free Home Renovation?
Organising a home renovation that’s stress-free is as simple as thinking of the things that could go wrong and putting contingencies in place to mitigate them. Here are the main things you need to consider before you start your renovation.
Check for Planning Permission
Before you start any renovation work, it’s a good idea to check that you have permission from your local council to do so. If you’re building any type of fence, gate, or wall, you’ll need planning permission, especially if it encroaches upon your neighbours.
The last thing you want when you’ve started your home renovation is to end up in a property dispute with the council or your neighbour.
Talk to Your Neighbours
On the topic of neighbours, you should have a discussion with them about the works you’ll be carrying out, so they don’t feel like you’ve sprung a load of noisy building work on them without warning.
Let them know the start and end date of the work and any other information that might affect their lives. Make your home renovation stress-free by making it stress-free for your neighbours.
Research Your Contractor
Do some research on the contractors in your local area and ask your friends for recommendations on people they’ve used before. This will give you the best chance of getting someone who can do what you want within your desired timeframe.
Thanks to the internet, you can check their online reviews (keep your eye out for fake ones), look at their previous projects (if they have a website), and find out if your friends or neighbours have used them before. If people you know are recommending a contractor based on previous work, ask to visit their homes, and assess the work first-hand.
Remember, building work is stressful enough without a bad contractor thrown into the mix.
Get a Programme of Works
Once you have a good contractor in the bag, ask them to provide a programme of works so you know what to expect and when.
To keep this home renovation stress-free, you’ll want to know when you’re likely to be without power and water and for how long. Ask questions such as when the noisiest/messiest parts of the build will take place and what parts of the house you won’t have access to and when.
Schedule the Work to Suit Your Family
The contractor’s programme of works isn’t set in stone; you can discuss it with them and make amendments so that it suits your family’s schedule.
For example, don’t plan heavy work when your children are studying for an exam, or when you’ll want it for a special occasion. If you really want the renovation to be stress-free, book a holiday and schedule the loudest, most disruptive parts to be done whilst you’re away.
Set Aside a Contingency and Keep on Top of Your Money
The most stressful part of a home renovation is the fear of going over your allotted budget and running out of money. To avoid this stress, you need to set aside a contingency of at least 10% of the total expected cost to cover any extra expenses.
Keeping on top of how much is being spent might sound stressful, but it’s much better than staying in the dark and worrying about how much it might be. Carefully monitor your renovation spending as closely as you can to avoid any nasty surprises.
One effective way to manage your budget and avoid overspending is by researching and comparing prices for key elements like external oak doors, ensuring that you find high-quality options within your allocated budget, allowing you to maintain financial control throughout your renovation journey.
Clear Out the Work Area
This probably goes without saying but you should make sure all the areas in your home that the builders will be working on are completely clear. This means emptying cupboards, moving furniture, and removing artwork, curtains, and blinds.
Most contractors will be happy to help you move large items of furniture. The last thing you want is your renovation being held up by builders working around furniture or asking you to move things for access. That is a definite recipe for stress.
Learn to Embrace the Issues and the Mess
Once you’ve checked your planning permission, spoken to your neighbours, arranged a schedule of work, put money aside and cleared out your home, it’s time for the renovation to begin.
Despite all your preparation, issues are likely to crop up and the best way to avoid getting stressed out is to just embrace them. Jump on any issues that arise straight away, try to keep a section of the house tidy so you’re not surrounded by mess, and try to switch off.
When you find yourself getting stressed, try to remember you’ve done everything you can to make the process plain sailing. Minor issues that crop up are nothing compared to what would’ve happened if you hadn’t organised your home renovation properly.
Is This Everything You Need to Do to Prepare for a Stress-Free Home Renovation?
In this post, we’ve shared everything you need to know to organise a stress-free home renovation.
There might be more contingencies you can put in place to mitigate errors when the build starts. But at some point, you need to decide that you’ve done enough planning and accept there will be issues you have to face once the build starts.
If you follow the advice we’ve shared in this article, you should be more than prepared for your stress-free home renovation. Let us know how you got on in the comments below!