If you are planning to remodel your house for future resale or to upgrade the home to improve aesthetics, increase functionality and efficiency, careful planning, and budgeting is essential. Budgeting assists with decision-making to accomplish desired goals with money to spare. Failure to do so can result in doing more harm than good to your house or, worse, empty your wallet.
Planning and budgeting for any remodeling project must go hand in hand. During the planning stage, you first need to figure out which portion of the house requires remodeling to improve convenience and functionality. Your wants and luxury preferences should be considered last.
Once you have decided what the remodeling project will entail, budgeting is the next task. The purpose of budgeting is to have an overview of how much money is needed to accomplish the project. There are numerous factors required to be considered to come up with a precise budget. A miscalculation in this part can result in unexpected costs. Here are some tips on how to budget:
Create A Rough Estimate Of The Overall Costs
The first thing you need to do is estimate both material and labor costs. Doing this gives you a bird’s eye view of the scale of expenses you will carry. This calculation will be your ceiling and reference in evaluating bids from your contractors.
Selecting a Contractor
You must have at least three contractors included in the bidding process; otherwise, you are left with no other choice if you cannot agree on terms with one contractor. More contractors in the bidding process give you the bargaining power to lower the bid cost further due to competition.
Factors that you must consider in shortlisting your contractor include low unit rates, completed projects, technical expertise, client customer care, and available workforce. If these factors are met, you are now ready to sign the contract.
Search For Materials At A Bargain Price
As a homeowner, one angle you can take in staying on budget is having the materials “Owner-Supplied”. Consequently, this allows you to control material prices completely. Doing this gives you more leeway in saving money in the form of less material costs. However, you need to guarantee that you can find materials at a bargained price. You can look for salvage yards, second-hand stores, or ordering in “bulk” with suppliers who can give you discounts.
Do It Yourself
While there are remodel projects only suitable for professionals, there are other tasks ideal for homeowners with moderate DIY skills. The only downside of this is the risk of producing an unsatisfactory result, which can incur additional costs on rectification. But if you do well, you can save significant savings in the form of decreased labor costs. Therefore, if you are confident about your DIY skills, then this is something worth considering. Here are some projects suitable for moderate DIY skills: painting walls, installation of wallpaper, light demolition, or wall finishing.
Wait For Sales Before Making Significant Purchases
If you are supplying the materials to your contractor, you can make significant savings by making big purchases only if there are big sales available. You can wait for American holidays for appliances, Black Friday for electronics, and every summer for furniture. Having the discipline to wait on big purchases can help you save significant savings.
Stick To The Approved Contract
The approved contract must be strictly followed to the letter to stay on budget. The ambiguity of some items must be cleared to prevent unexpected problems that may arise due to confusion. And as much as possible, avoid design changes once the contract is awarded to ensure ease of execution and preventing other mundane tasks such as revising the contract, formulating a new work execution plan, or allocating additional manpower, which can incur additional costs. If you do make changes, make sure those changes are reflected in the written contract signed by both you and the contractor. Verbal changes will not hold up legally if it comes to that.
For excellent, high-quality custom cabinetry for your remodel contact Edgewood Cabinetry. Call 919-339-7300 for more information.
