How to avoid renovating mistakes
By | 25th Feb 20

Let’s be honest, renovating can be an extremely daunting process. There are many traps that are easy to fall into and can turn what should be your dream home into a disaster or eat into an investor's profit margin!

1. Poor planning

Before you start anything, it is absolutely essential to have a big picture or long term vision in place for the works you are undertaking. 

Having a really great plan and budget in place will help with getting accurate building costs before you start the renovation. Iit will eliminate the need to make possibly bad or regretful decisions on the run, and at the end of your renovation you will hopefully end up with a consistent look and feel throughout your property.

 

2. Not hiring the right professionals

When it comes to hiring design professionals or tradesmen, it is so critical to have the right team to implement your renovation. Make sure you are hiring professionals that:
– you can trust and ideally a recommendation 
– Have a proven track record
– understand the vision you have for your home

Get an idea of their work credentials and level of experience and don’t be afraid to ask for references or examples of past projects they have worked on.

If you are hiring an architect or interior designer, they will generally have a go-to list of trustworthy builders and tradesmen that they have built working relationships with which is great because it means less work for you!

Sure hiring a professional painter seems like an unnecessary expense right now, you are more than capable of painting walls yourself, right? Trust me when I say the time and pain that you will endure in the long run is just not worth it! Think about when the bulk of the renovations are done and much time has passed and you still haven’t gotten around to that second coat on the walls. You will wish you had the hindsight to just hire a professional in the first place. You need to be honest and realistic with yourself about what works you can take on and also what you can do well. 

 

3. Not spending money where you should

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money and this goes for materials and fixtures as well as your builders and trades. Going for the lowest cost option is just going to give a sub-standard outcome for your renovation. Investing in items such as good quality tapware is always going to be worth it in the long-term, cheap tapware will inevitably have to be replaced time and time again.

 

4. Being too caught up in trends

Generally speaking, it’s probably better to avoid being too ‘on trend’ as it limits the timelessness of your property. It is also important that whatever style choices you make are adaptable and that if the property is an investment, that you do not renovate to your own personal taste.