There is a time when your growing family will need a new home. When that time arrives, you will have to choose between renovating their current space or building a new one. This is not an easy choice to make because a home renovation or addition might cost more than a new home.
Here are the reasons why:
A home renovation requires careful demolition
Demolishing an entire house is easier compared to dismantling a wall carefully, so the structural components of the house beside it. This manual demolition in renovations takes more time and money. Not to mention, you need to repair all the doors, walls, and other parts damaged during the manual renovation. You’ll pay for the service of carpenters, plasterers, electricians, and painters. At the end of the day, more money is spent in removing and repairing instead of building the new structure.
If you are working under a tight budget, your renovations are very limited. You need to maintain a lot of the structure’s existing layout and design. You and your designer should be able to produce an updated and interesting design that still celebrates the original structure.
Surprise costs and repairs
The surprises that come up during a renovation are no fun at all. These problems such as waterproofing repairs, electrical issues, and structural modifications jump in the picture right when construction has started. Aside from the materials needed to fix these, you also need to make an additional payment to the builders.
If you don’t have a contingency budget, addressing these issues will really shock you and your wallet. Normally, designers ask homeowners to prepare a contingency budget. During construction, some builders include the contingency budget on the final quotation (to be sure). Don’t freak out when this happens. Simply reserve or realign the money you personally set aside to ensure other costs.
Fixing the previous construction mistakes
The older your home, the more expensive it is to renovate. Who knows what hidden construction mistakes lurk in the walls, under the floor, or above the ceiling. You need to fix and upgrade all of it. If there’s a lot of structural modifications to do, the renovation can get expensive.
What you can do is hire a good designer who can assess and highlight the spots of your home which might need significant repairs. This is the only way that you can prepare for the rectification costs.
Producing high-quality documentation papers
Unlike building a new home, a designer with a renovation project needs to show two drawings. One for the existing house and another for the proposed design. These drawings are critical for renovation and extension projects—it should determine the scope of work clearly. It must speak to the builders and tradies on which of the existing parts of your house needs to be renovated, refinished, refitted, repainted, etc. If not, the builders might give you an inaccurate quote. Worse, if they blow up the quote with a large contingency budget. Builders will still finish a project even if the scope of work isn’t clear. They’ll use the lump of contingency budget to finish the project.
It is not a clean slate
Designing a new home starts at zero, unlike renovating which deals with an original structure. The designer and homeowner who work on a renovation project commonly have a lot of compromises during the planning stage. If the new design requires a different layout and the demolition of walls, then the construction costs will be more expensive.
If you are working on a tight budget, your renovations are very limited. You need to maintain a lot of the structure’s existing layout and design. You and your designer should be able to produce an updated and interesting design that still celebrates the original structure.
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