Home renovation should be an exciting activity as it entails making exciting changes to your dream house. It could be adding a new room or renovating your basement into a kid's play area. But in many instances, these exciting projects quickly turn into a nightmare due to one reason or the other.
The list of things going wrong during a remodeling project is endless, but most of them are avoidable with some extra attention paid to essential details. From making a contract in black and white to checking your contractor's background, you can avoid many of them.
The worst case for a home renovation project going wrong can be a blown-up budget or the project taking longer than what you expected. Here are some frequent home repair nightmares and ways you can avoid them.
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1. Hiring a general contractor for a specialized job
Often people hire general contractors for home renovation projects. They might be good at general construction work in the house. However, there is no guarantee that they can successfully deal with specialized situations in the home.
For instance, people living in flood-prone areas or where they experience frequent rainfalls often deal with water damage. People often hire general contractors to recover their property from moisture-related problems.
But a general contractor is the best choice to effectively and economically deal with such problems. General contractors lack the experience needed to cope with and understand insurance providers for flooding and water damage situations.
A better choice would be to hire a dedicated water damage advisor to effectively dry up your house, and save furniture and equipment to avoid further damage. If you intend on getting more construction done, hire a general contractor after a water damage specialist is done with the job.
2. The contractor leaving the project midway
It is common to see your contractor leaving the project midway due to a variety of reasons. When this happens, you find yourself in a house that is halfway through the repairs with a remodeling budget wreaking havoc in your brain.
The reasons for your contractor bailing out can be varied because the more time a job requires, the more expensive it tends to get, which can upset your initial budget expectations.
Either way, you need to have an ironclad contract guaranteeing no such thing happens to you. The obvious solution is to devise an explicit agreement in the beginning. The contract should list penalties for delayed or incomplete projects to avoid any such activities from happening.
3. Hiring a contractor without a background check
One remodeling nightmare is hiring a contractor without a proper background check or going through customer reviews. Such a contractor can delay your project or may have a shady reputation.
Often contractors are a part of advertising campaigns that get far more jobs for their affiliate company than they can manage. They can waste your money because they don't have enough time to finish your project according to schedule. Hence, causing the homeowner to funnel more money for the delayed project.
The solution is to always hire contractors after getting credible information about them; customer reviews are even better. Ideally, you should hire a contractor with someone's reference or one who has worked for your friend or family.
If the project requires a lot of money and work, try contacting previous customers to be sure of the authenticity of the reviews.
4. Your project exceeding the budget estimation
Many homeowners make a common mistake when planning for remodeling their house is keeping an unrealistically small budget. When the project exceeds the budget, it is often not due to the project's increasing cost but because a proper budget was not set. The new price is the actual expense required for the project.
It is common for home improvement projects to go slightly over the predicted time for completion, which is not too worrying. Therefore, making a realistic and flexible calculation for the budget before the project starts requires more money.
It is advisable to get a market analysis of the material costs, contractor's fees, and budget. Even the most minor details of how the tiles would be arranged can change your budget or affect the schedule.
Additionally, you should always add 20% extra to your initial estimation. Other ways to avoid unnecessary shocks regarding the budget include sticking to the initial plan, negotiating fixed charges with your contractor, planning everything in the beginning, etc.
5. Overdesigning the project
Remodeling your house does not always mean making too many changes. The thought behind overdesigning is that it either goes too big or goes home. The result is that your new home looks too busy and flashy but with less functionally practical elements. Adding too many changes may include making patterns on the wall or squeezing a washroom into an already small room.
The solution is to always go with simplicity giving supreme importance to the practicality of the new design as you will be living in the house after remodeling. A stylish home does not necessarily need to be overcrowded with details on the walls or furniture pieces. Picking essential furniture pieces and letting the whole amalgamation of elements dictate the vibe of your house is the best approach.
Conclusion
Home remodeling is an exciting activity, but it can become a nightmare if you ignore the project's basic details. But with due care and vigilance, you can avoid many of these terrifying experiences. From hiring a specialized contractor for a particular job to making a contract, in the beginning, some time spent in careful initial planning can save you a lot of trouble.
