Two Tips for Those Who Are Thinking About Renovating Their Homes
If you are thinking about renovating your home, here are a few tips that you might find useful.
Prioritise structural repairs over cosmetic improvements
When drawing up the plans for your renovation, you may find yourself focusing primarily on the cosmetic changes you want to make to your home rather than the more practical structural repairs that need to be carried out.
Whilst this is perfectly understandable (after all, cosmetic improvements can have a very dramatic impact on the overall appearance of your home, whilst structural repairs tend to be far less noticeable), it is crucial to make sure that you set aside enough time and money to take care of any structural problems your property has.
If you fail to do this and instead spend most of your renovation budget on repainting the walls, replacing the cabinetry and re-carpeting the floors, you could end up facing serious problems in the future.
If for instance, you have noticed that the condition of your home's roof trusses has started to deteriorate, and you choose not to have them replaced during your renovation project, several of them could end up breaking in a few months' time.
The primary purpose of roof trusses is to support the weight of the roofing materials. This prevents these materials from exerting too much pressure on the house's other structural components, such as the wall studs, braces and floor joists.
As such, if you allow your roof trusses to deteriorate to the point where they can no longer perform their primary function, two problems could arise.
Firstly, the roof will begin to sag; this distortion could create tiny openings in the roofing materials which could, in turn, allow rainwater to seep into the house and cause water damage.
Secondly, the amount of pressure the roofing materials place on the house's structural components could lead to large cracks developing in both the walls and the foundation.
In short, whilst it might be tempting to spend most of your renovation budget on superficial improvements, it is absolutely critical to prioritise structural repairs.
Move out for the duration of the renovation project
Temporarily moving out of your home whilst your renovation team carries out their work might be a bit inconvenient. However, it could also significantly reduce the likelihood of delays and other problems arising during the project.
There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, if you and your family vacate the property, the construction crew won't have to take your safety and day-to-day needs into consideration before deciding whether or not to perform a specific task.
For example, if they need to carry out a job which will generate large amounts of dust and produce a lot of noise (such as using an electric saw to cut timber) they can do so indoors.
Conversely, if you were living in the property, they would have to waste their time and energy lugging their equipment and building materials outdoors, and do their work outside, in order to protect you from the dust and noise.
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