Seven Sure-Fire Ways to Manage Your Home Improvement Costs
Let’s face it, home remodeling projects rarely stay as small and easy as you think they’re going to be. More often than not the budget quickly increases once you start the project, and you’re faced with important decisions to make along the way. How you deal with these can determine how badly the job will impact your wallet. Here are seven time-tested and sure-fire methods to keep in mind when considering your next home improvement job:
Plan everything out. Then plan again – There’s an old carpenter’s saying, measure twice, cut once. By being meticulous in your planning, you can try to avoid a lot of headaches down the road. Make sure you completely review bids from contractors and don’t select one just because they are the cheapest or are available right away. Do your homework. Choose the design materials carefully to avoid costly changes later.
Consider Design and Contractor Costs – Many large scale remodeling projects will require the services of a professional interior designer, architect or contractor. Insist that each bid include a detailed proposal on the scope of the work. Do some homework to determine if the fees are comparable when you shop for rates. The cheapest bidder may leave you with the clean-up and finishing work. The most expensive bids may include oversight costs that you can do yourself.
Set Milestones – Develop cost and time line goals and adhere to them as much as possible. By making a list of several tasks out of the overall larger project makes it easier to estimate the costs and manage the time line later.
Hire Professional Contractors – Good architects, designers and contractors will add to the initial price of the project, but can save you a lot of money and frustration in the long run. Their experience will help you find pitfalls early that can cause budget and scope creep later. So how do you find a good architect or contractor? Ask around and be diligent. Word of mouth and referrals are a great way to find reliable, trustworthy professionals that have done good work in the past. Check out online sites which offer customer reviews, such as Service Magic and Angies List.
Stay Involved – Even if you hire a contractor be available to pitch in where you can. By doing some of the destruction or demo work yourself you can save on the bottom line cost. If you’re good enough, do some of the final finishing work yourself to help lower the costs. Painting, touch up or installing faucets or other fixtures yourself can keep you within budget and give you the satisfaction of knowing you did some of the work yourself.
Careful with Customizations – Using custom cabinetry, windows, doors or other products can quickly increase costs for any remodeling project. This is one area where you can exercise a great deal of control over the remodeling costs. A standard window at your local home improvement store may cost $250, but a custom-sized window will cost at least double. Some elements of the project may have to be custom made due to size requirements. But some product categories – such as windows, doors and cabinetry – offer a wide variety of standard or semi-custom choices. Adding your own trim or details later may make these standard choices look customized.
Stay On Target – Remain focused and don’t get sidetracked. For example, if you are painting your bedroom and you discover that the adjoining bathroom paint now looks dingy, don’t stop what you’re doing to go work on that. Schedule the bathroom paint upgrade for another weekend. The desire to add or change along the way will be tempting and may prove irresistible. If your remodeling projects stick to the original plan, most would finish on time and within budget.
The larger the size and scope of your remodeling project the better chance you will have of running over budget. So don’t only plan for the project, budget for at least 10% more than what you think the project will cost and make price consideration choices accordingly. If you make a plan and stick to it, you’ll find less surprises along the way. And you’ll also be a lot happier with the outcome.
Try to keep within your budget as well, on lengthy projects, I tend to go over on the time line as I haven’t put in enough time lines, some good tips here.
These tips are great for people who are starting to remodel there home. I have found that planning and then re-planning has to be one of the hardest things to do. Because when I come out with a plan I think that it is the best and then later I change my mind.
Thanks for a really good post. Doing things yourself is a really good way of keeping costs down. Sometimes get somebody with the right knowledge to get you started and watch/learn carefully — You might be able to continue the work yourself and save a lot of money.
I agree, even if you’ve got a lot of experience in remodeling, at least consult with a professional. Most are good with giving you at least a little advice, then you can decide if you’re up to the task.
Indeed, these look like seven golden rules. I do follow some of these already but doing some work myself and staying on target are more often not possible.
I just found this blog on Yahoo and read a few of your other posts – do you freelance or guest write for other blogs? I have just Rss’d you to my news reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
A proper planning, helps you to avoid a lot of headaches . If you are choosing the design materials carefully, and hiring a right contractor, you can avoid going out of budget.
Very good list. I will share with our followers on twitter. I will have some of these in mind when I call an appliance repairman or two in the morning since the washer just started making very loud banging sound during the spin cycle. Or maybe they require there own set of tips, I’ll cross my fingers!
Spectacular post. A lot of people should get a lot of information regarding all the tips you’ve given. I also wanted to comment and say for those people who have AC and will be repairing it, you can ask if the electricians which come to your house are licensed to fix AC’s. A lot of people actually have this license but do not tell others when they are called for another job. So if you are looking to have something rewired or fixed you can also ask those contractors if they offer any other skills. Thanks for the post!
I was thinking about rebuild my house and got here really wonderful ideas through which I can manage its improvement cost. Thanks for sharing this wonderful ideas.
great tips, especially staying on track with a project. Always a tricky one. The 10% rule is esp useful
thanks, these are vary good tips. I think the first important thing is deciding what you want to change and what things you want to retain. Planning every tiny thing before starting the remodeling will save a lot of time and money as well. Thanks again.
Budget is one of the most important thing to consider when improving your home. Staying in budget is really difficult especially if want your home to look beautiful as possible. But if you follow the tips and suggestion about, you will know that you made the right choice. By the way, to the author; great article and I know that readers will appreciate it. God Bless!
I don’t think you can ever truly budget for home improvements or DIY. I have never ever managed to spend either less or about the amount I had planned for! Things just keep adding up or I’ve misjudged how much I need etc…! Perhaps I should call the professionals!
I also wanted to comment and say for those people who have AC and will be repairing it, you can ask if the electricians which come to your house are licensed to fix AC’s.
I also wanted to new changes. ans say for those people who have AC and will be repairing it, I’ve found it really helps to stay organized for larger projects, like keeping a journal of all things done & a folder of all of your receipts so you always know what you are spending – and if you have excess supplies you can always return them.
Make your budget according to your pocket power then choose your more important things which have more importance in your list. If you have not Planing with starting, it will create problem in future. So make restriction on your unwanted requirements.
This is a great basic list of information to manage your remodel. It’s almost like watching an episode of Flip That House on TLC. My friend is actually attempting a huge house remodel (termite damage) and it’s a slow race for her- however, she agrees with the plan and replan, because you never know what you’re going to stumble upon.
I guess its really important that the owner should not just meticulously planned everything but should also get involved during the entire home improvements process so that he was ensured that everything was followed according to the plan and nothing was overlook. These tips are of a big help to those who wants to renovate their homes in the future. Keep it up!
How do you plan for a budget without knowing costs? We want to remodel part of our home, but don’t know where to begin on managing costs. I want to have a little wiggle room, but don’t need an excess of allowance either.
Well in this particular case of your home improvement you need to plan well to keep yourself within the budget which is tough to achieve. Again not impossible. An early and proper plan will help you to achieve that.
Great tips.Especially the one about getting involved.I’m not very comfortable to trust a contractor totally when it comes to such an important thing about my home.After all it’s me who is going to live in the house.And the best quality of work you can get only when you are personally involved in any project.
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