If you’re thinking about renovating your home, you’re in the right place. This guide details how to plan your home renovation so the project runs smoothly and will be a success.
There’s so much to think about when it comes to planning a home renovation but we have removed the stress by showing you how to identify the most important steps to focus on.
Set a budget for your home renovation project
The first thing you should think about is your budget as this will determine the scope of your renovation project. Be realistic about what you can afford when setting your budget and you’ll enjoy the process so much more and not end up overstretching your finances.
Contingency budget
Oftentimes, you will run into problems during renovating that could cost you extra money. If you plan ahead for this by setting a contingency budget, you will be one step ahead and have no issues covering the cost of any problems that may occur throughout your project.
What are your renovation goals?
Next up is deciding what the desired outcome of your renovation is. Start by sitting down and writing out your goals and plans in as much detail as possible.
It’s important to have clear and detailed goals of how you want your house to look post-renovation so you can clearly communicate this to any professionals you’re hiring to complete the work, for example, architects, designers, carpenters, painters, etc.
Apply for planning permission
If you plan on making any structural changes to your house, you will need to apply for planning permission.
Sometimes it can take longer than hoped to get approved, so to avoid delaying your home renovation, aim to apply for planning permission from the planning authority for your area as early as possible. Check out the government’s website to find out more details about applying for planning permission in your local area.
Check if you’re eligible for any home renovation grants
There are multiple grants available in Ireland to help homeowners who are renovating their homes. These grants can help to reduce the cost of your renovation project, so, do your research and see which ones you may be eligible to apply for.
For example, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) provides multiple Home Energy Grant options which can be used for insulation, windows, heating, etc. The SEAI also provides a Solar Water Heating Grant. Take a look at the criteria for these grants and find out whether you are eligible to apply for them.
Set realistic project timeframes
It’s important to be realistic when setting the timeframe for your renovations. Talk to your project manager, tradespeople etc. to get accurate estimates of the time involved for the different stages of renovating. These estimates will help you to plan the different tasks involved in your renovation and create a realistic timeframe.
As mentioned previously, you may run into problems and issues along the way. Naturally, this can prolong timeframe expectations as an issue in one stage can delay the start date for the next stage of the project. To safeguard against this, it’s advisable to add a few days buffer either side of the bigger stages of the project to allow for any hiccups.
Planning and prioritising the tasks and stages of your renovation project will also help you to control spend and budget your money. You could implement a phased approach for your renovation where you split and prioritise tasks into stages which can be implemented over a certain timeframe.
Hire professionals
When hiring professionals to complete your home renovation it’s important that you don’t only use cost as a deciding factor. Consider how many years of experience they have, find out if they are licensed to carry out the work, and whether they have any references or photos from previous recent work completed.
A key tip is to ask friends and family to recommend builders and tradespeople as they’ll give you an honest opinion about whether they are reliable and did a good job.
If possible, it can be a good idea to hire a project manager to oversee the entire project, monitor progress and ensure everything runs smoothly.
Get multiple quotes to compare prices
When searching for a professional to complete a task in your home renovation, it is wise to get multiple quotes from different tradespeople so you can compare prices. This will enable you to then choose which person is offering the best service for the best value for money to suit your needs. You may also be able to negotiate a more competitive price from certain tradespeople if other quotes are coming in at a more competitive rate.
Request quotes in writing
When you hire a tradesperson, you should request any quotes that you get from them in writing. It’s important to have written records and not just verbal quote estimations when budgeting because you run the risk of the price increasing as the project progresses.
A key tip here is to be specific about the requirements of the job when requesting a quote. Being specific helps the tradesperson to be as accurate as possible with their quote while also reducing the risk of the job going over the quoted price. Furthermore, having an accurate quote will allow you to budget accordingly.
Finally, update your home insurance details
While completing your renovation project, it’s important to keep in mind that you will need to review and update your home insurance policy to ensure that your policy is still valid and sufficiently protects your newly renovated home. As the value of your house may increase, this will need to be updated in your policy to avoid being underinsured in the event of any claims in the future.
With AXA, you can review your policy documents through your MyAXA account. Simply download your policy documents to examine the level of coverage included in your policy and assess whether you have enough coverage to protect your newly renovated house. You can then make the changes to your AXA home insurance policy online through your MyAXA account or, if you wish to speak to a member of our team to discuss the changes required, feel free to contact us or call into your local AXA branch.
