3 Mistakes to Avoid During House Renovations

Total Extensions builders working in Kent

One of the most exciting undertakings for homeowners is the oft-maligned renovation. I use ‘exciting’ and ‘maligned’ in the same sentence because it is a process that we all love to plan but hate to mess up, which happens particularly often with DIY projects. But home renovations don’t have to be stressful. The joy you carry during your dreaming and designing phase can be carried throughout the build, but there are certain pitfalls that you really need to avoid. Read below for a list of the few common ones, and how you can cut a path around them.

 

1. Hire a professional

Trust me, we understand: there is a huge romantic draw to going it alone, renovating that kitchen or extending that back room. But do you really know what you’re doing? And by really, I mean really. Most of us own a hammer and a drill. Good tool sets are fairly common as well. But there’s a big difference between fixing that tap and even putting up that new fence panel, and making major changes to your home. Building something yourself is a great feeling, but making drastic errors to your well-earned house is not worth it. For major changes like extensions, hire a professional.

 

2. Plan, plan and plan again

Following step one will help a lot with this, but it’s important you’ve done your planning correctly. As with all important things in life, especially complicated projects, doing it without a proper process in placed is asking for trouble. Set your idea firmly in your bread and then work from budget and timeline back. Leaving out details is where plans usually awry.

 

3. The dreaded budget

This is one of the more obvious ones, which makes it kind of funny that so many people fall down at this hurdle. Designing can be really exciting, as we all know, and once you get thinking ideas can begin to flow quickly and without a hold. Bear in mind however that the more you think of and the more cool ideas you add to the design, the more it’s (probably) going to cost.

And so, tie these three together and you can feel pretty safe about that renovation: keep your budget in mind, plan everything then do it again, and at some point along the line – (before you start building anything!) speak to a professional.