Your home is an important part of your life. Far from being “just a building,” your home represents a happy place where you can live, laugh, learn, and share with those you love. However, with time, the building itself begins to get out of shape.
Renovation offers an exciting opportunity to give new life to your house. This may be through doing something as simple as reinforcing a weakened foundation or something as complex as adding a new room to accommodate your growing family.
To achieve the best results when remodeling your home, there are certain things you need to put in place. In this post, we explore some of them.
- Set a Realistic Budget
Every remodeling project comes with a budget constraint. Defining how much you’re willing to spend will help you know the extent of renovation that can take place. The last thing you want is to start a massive remodeling project only to get stuck midway due to finances. But that’s not all.
You also need to understand the complexity of the project you want to undergo and the projected timeline. Have an engineering contractor look over your plan so they can factor in unforeseen circumstances that may complicate the project cost and timeline. This ensures your final cost and time estimates are realistic.
Finally, you need to consider the financing options you have. Do you want to pay for it out-of-pocket or through a home equity loan or home refinancing?
- Define What You Want to Do
Renovation is a huge umbrella that covers a wide range of activities. It may involve improving a broken, damaged, or outdated structure. Alternatively, it may involve making a new addition to a home.
Defining the scope of the project lets you know exactly how much it will cost and how long the project will take. What’s more, it defines the impact of the project you’re about to undertake and how it will affect the overall structural integrity of the building.
For instance, if you want to combine two rooms, you will have to break the wall separating them. Depending on whether the wall is a significant load-carrying member, you may have to replace it with a structural arch or bream so as not to compromise your home’s structural integrity.
- Know Who You’re Hiring
While you might have a fanciful idea of what you want to accomplish with your renovation, only the experts can bring it to life. And as you would expect, the quality of the outcome is dependent on the skill level of the contractor you hire. That’s why you have to work only with the best.
Depending on what you want to do, you might require an architect to draw up a plan. For instance, you want an architect any time you’re changing the exterior of the building or making significant alterations to the floor plan of the house.
Most people settle for a general contractor, but you can also opt for individual contractors for the job. What’s important is that you find the right team to complete the renovation project.
Before you bring any civil engineering contractor on board – or any other professional for that matter – make sure you look into their license, certificate of insurance, lien history, certification, bond number, and financial standing.
But most importantly, you must hire one that understands your vision and is best aligned in helping you accomplish it. That’s why it’s helpful to have preliminary discussions or interviews before work begins officially. Also, make sure they will be forthright about all regulatory matters associated with your project: from building codes to inspections to permits to zoning.
You can find good engineering contractors through online services. Just make sure you research the company properly before working with them. Word-of-mouth recommendations from neighbors, friends, and family are also great ways to find reputable professionals.
- Execute Your Plans
The professional uses their experience to draw up a final plan. Depending on the complexity of the project, the plan might need to be submitted to the authorities for approval. Once it is approved, execution can commence.
Expert engineering contractors usually take an iterative approach to project management. This enables them to make minor changes to the plan (if the need arises) without major cost implications.
If you’ve followed all the previous steps to the letter, this is the stage where you relax and let the experts do their thing.
Conclusion
An old English proverb says that “There’s no place like home.” So, it only makes sense to give your home proper care and attention – especially as it begins to age. Renovations provide a great way to accomplish that. By planning accordingly and working with the right professionals, you can transform your home into your “dream home.”
We look forward to helping with your next project. Contact us today for more information.
