Successful Home Renovations | Tips for Organizing Your Work and Examples of Effective Strategies

Home renovations can be exciting, but they can also be overwhelming.  Do you want to carry out major renovation work in your house or apartment? Successful home renovations is starting from research and budget. It is better to organize yourself well in order to avoid trouble and getting tangled up once the renovation work has started.

How to find the right craftsman or the right professionals? How to optimize a quote? What aid exists for an energy renovation? How do you go about it when you don’t know anything about it? In this article, we’ll provide tips for organizing your home renovation work and examples of effective strategies.

Whether you are a novice or an expert, whether for your kitchen, your bathroom, your bedroom or your living room, here are the 10 tips that will prevent you from unpleasant surprises when working on your home.

10 tips and tricks for successful renovations

1- Make an inventory
2- Make a schedule
3- Plan your budget
4- Do not forget the administrative authorizations
5- Pay attention to the needs of the family
6- Pay attention to the decoration
7- Bet on quality
8- Find the right professionals
9- Follow the site closely
10- Receive the work

1- Make an inventory

Are you planning to renovate your house or apartment? You must first establish an inventory. Remember that in some rooms, some elements can quickly deteriorate over others. You must therefore identify the parts that require emergency work to prevent your property from losing value. Determine the work to be done and prioritize it. Pay particular attention to the frame by checking for the presence of termites and to electrical installations.

Also turn to an office specializing in energy performance diagnosis or to a specialized design office if work on heating, ventilation or insulation is to be carried out.

Did you know ? If your home has a thermal sieve, reinforcing it can be a great source of savings. Indeed, an energy renovation project can significantly reduce the energy consumption of a home. No more exorbitant electricity bills! There are, moreover, aids to support you in making this energy transition.

Determine your renovation goals

Before you begin any home renovation project, it’s essential to determine what you hope to achieve. Are you looking to update a few rooms or undertake a complete overhaul of your living space? Determining your goals will help you plan the project more effectively, ensure that you allocate the necessary resources and stay within your budget.

2- Make a schedule

After the inventory, comes the planning of the work to be carried out. It is better to follow a precise schedule to carry out your project. It is best to establish this schedule with the advice of a real estate professional, if you want to successfully complete the renovation of your home. This schedule will save you in particular the oversizing of certain equipment such as air conditioning and heating. The boiler will, for example, be replaced after the windows and insulation. The dimensions of the boiler can thus be determined according to the energy needs of the home after the renovation. Are you planning to renovate your kitchen? The installation of furniture and tiling will come after electricity and plumbing or other destructive work.

Create a Detailed Plan

The first step to organizing your home renovation work is to create a detailed plan. This should include a list of all the tasks you need to complete, a timeline for each task, and a budget. Having a plan in place will help you stay on track and avoid delays or unexpected expenses.

Example: Created a detailed plan that included a timeline for each task, such as demolishing the old cabinets and installing new ones, as well as a budget for the entire project.

Prioritize Tasks

Once you have a plan in place, it’s essential to prioritize your tasks. Start with the most critical tasks, such as structural work or plumbing, before moving on to cosmetic improvements. Prioritizing tasks will help you avoid delays and ensure that your home renovation work is completed efficiently.

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3- Plan your budget

The inventory of fixtures and the planning of the works to be carried out in your accommodation will already give you an idea of the budget that you must establish. It is also essential, to establish a budget as close as possible to reality, to make several quotes from several craftsmen or professionals in order to have an overall idea of the expenses item by item. We do not advise you, moreover, to choose a quote at a very low price, it is better to use quality materials to ensure a long-term investment.

Our trick to avoid budget shortages, provide a small margin to deal with unforeseen events.

Remember that your financial efforts will be rewarded if you wish to resell or rent your property. You will also experience no regrets once the work is finished, because nothing beats a house where it is good to live.

A piece of advice, also take an interest in the various aids offered for rehabilitation work to reduce your bills and save money. Tax credits and many others, there are many solutions to lighten your budget.

Set a budget

Setting a budget for your renovation project is essential to ensure that you don’t overspend. This budget should include all the materials, equipment, and labor costs associated with the project. Ensure that you allow for unexpected expenses and add a contingency fund of at least 10% to 20% of your total budget.

4- Do not forget the administrative authorizations

Before starting your renovation project, make sure that it complies with the legislation in force. For example, do you plan to carry out extension works exceeding 150 m2? You will then have to approach an architect to establish a building permit. Also check with the town hall if you plan to carry out major renovation work. A declaration (if necessary) must be filed before the start of the work if you intend to modify the volume of the dwelling: installation of a veranda, raising a wall or even creating or removing an opening.

5- Pay attention to the needs of the family

Do you want to renovate your property to live there with your family or rent it out? We advise you to pay particular attention to your current needs, but also to those of the future inhabitants of the house. Their comfort, including yours, must remain your priority.

If you plan to renovate your children’s room, plan for the future to avoid starting new work when they are teenagers.
Only install a walk-in shower if you start to feel a lack of space.
Make sure your bathroom and kitchen remain functional after renovations.

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6- Pay attention to the decoration

Decoration must also be taken into account when it comes to undertaking renovation work in a home. Here again, you must learn to balance your decorative desires. Sleek, contemporary, industrial… There’s something for everyone. Make sure that the decoration remains to the tastes of future occupants if you want to sell or rent your property. We advise you to opt for a simple and modern decoration so as not to negatively influence the choice of future buyers or tenants. A very personal decoration could prevent them from projecting themselves into your home.

7- Bet on quality

Obviously, if you are betting on the long term, you might as well avoid low-cost materials and furniture. It is better to choose quality and solid materials to save you from undertaking other work in the future and thus save money. So take the time to choose well by establishing quotes for all the necessary materials and equipment.

As introduced a little earlier in this article, it can be interesting to select less energy-consuming equipment, such as double glazing at the range of single glazing for the renovation of your home. On purchase, the price of double glazing will be higher but in the long term you will benefit from savings because your home will consume less energy. This type of choice is also a good argument during a sale, for example.

8- Find the right professionals

Hiring professionals is essential for successful home renovations. While DIY projects can be fun, some tasks require the expertise of professionals, such as electrical work or structural repairs. Hiring professionals will ensure that the work is completed safely and to a high standard.

We can never repeat it enough, the success of the renovation works also depends on the choice of the professional or the construction company that will accompany you throughout their realization. Pay particular attention to quality craftsmen.

Hire the right contractors

Hiring the right contractors is crucial for a successful renovation project. Take time to research and vet potential contractors, asking for references and checking their credentials. Ensure that you hire licensed and insured contractors and agree on a payment schedule before the work begins.

Find out about:

• Customer references: check the latest achievements of the professional craftsman
• Technical certification labels validating the skills of the craftsman
• The age of the company.
• Do not hesitate to find out on the internet or ask those around you, word of mouth can be a good solution.

Communicate effectively

Effective communication is key to a successful home renovation project. Ensure that you communicate clearly and regularly with your contractors, discussing any concerns or changes that arise throughout the project. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project runs smoothly.

9- Follow the renovation works closely

To avoid unpleasant surprises, always keep an eye on the construction site once it has started, of course, if you call on professionals. You can of course do the work yourself, if it is a small project. For large-scale works, it is always recommended to hire an architect. You can also turn to a general contractor or a specialist for specific work such as sealing the bathroom or installing a kitchen with a kitchen designer.

Stay organized

Staying organized throughout the renovation process is crucial. Keep all your documents, receipts, and contracts in one place, so you can access them quickly and easily. Use a project management tool or app to track your progress and update your renovation plan as needed.

10- Receive the renovation works

Your work is finally finished? It is time to do a full audit of the work undertaken. Don’t neglect this last step. Have you noticed any defects on the construction site? An acceptance report, which closes the entire site, will allow you to note all the badly done work. The project owner will have one year to review all the work that has been poorly done. Note that all construction guarantees, such as the biennial guarantee or the guarantee of perfect completion, take effect when the acceptance report is established. Renovations are not to be taken lightly. It is recommended to always turn to a professional, from carrying out the inventory to choosing the decoration, including monitoring operations.

The acceptance of the works is the most important moment of a construction site. The handing over of the keys is eagerly awaited by all customers, but they should be aware that this moment can have serious consequences. Indeed, acceptance triggers a transfer of responsibilities and the start of legal guarantees. This is why you will have to be very vigilant as soon as the end of the project approaches. If you have not entrusted the monitoring of the work to a project manager, whether an architect or not, then you will have to be extra careful and follow the advice that will follow.

In other words

In other words, you accept the work carried out by the craftsmen or the builder and you take possession of it. It is also possible to accept the works while expressing reservations. A reservation is the mention of a disorder that the contractor will have to repair quickly after the reception.

This acceptance of the works must absolutely be formalized by means of an acceptance report. This document is to be signed by the client and the contractor following a joint inspection of the works.

Upon acceptance of the work, the contractor transfers custody of the work to the client. This means that the client becomes responsible for the work and must take out insurance covering this new liability. Thus, you will have to take out multi-risk home insurance from the day you receive your house.

Then, the day of receipt marks the start of the legal guarantees that the craftsmen or the builder owe you, for examples:

• the guarantee of perfect completion (1 year): the contractor must return to repair all the disorders appearing after the reception for one year after the reception;
• the guarantee of proper functioning, known as a biennial guarantee (2 years and if any): the company must replace or repair removable equipment that no longer functions correctly, for 2 years after receipt;
• the ten-year guarantee (10 years and if any): the company must repair any problems that compromise the solidity of the work or that make it unfit for its intended purpose, for 10 years after acceptance.

Photo credit: MamaShaw via Pixabay

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