Five Suggestions for Cheaper Home Renovations
Everybody wants to be able to save money these days. Even if you're planning to do a major home remodel, this shouldn't be very hard to do. There are many ways of lowering your costs if you only look into the possibilities, and here are five worth considering:
1. Take advantage of your contractor's connections.
Yes, your contractor will have lots of connections in the construction industry, and you can ask him sweet, little favors that can result in significant savings. Related articles pertaining to this are discussed at http://www.ehow.com/home/building-remodeling/. For example, for your flooring, see if you can have some "leftovers" from his other jobs. He'll probably call a few people and have a few square feet of hardwood delivered to your door. These pieces may be in odd sizes (probably headed for the trash) but you can always plane, sand and refinish them and save up to thousands of dollars.
2. Do what you can do.
If you have the time and some skills, you can save money by doing the minor jobs yourself. For instance, why not be your own demolition team? Or do some of the finishing work of a Painter Sydney that you can handle. Simply put, you can save money just by doing some of the tasks yourself. If you're not confident enough to do these things, perhaps you can help with the cleanup from day to day. Rather than hiring someone to sweep the sawdust, do it yourself and save the money for other parts of the project that you can't handle on your own.
3. Get help from an architect.
Whether or not you need an architect all throughout the renovation depends on how big or small your project is. Remember that hiring this pro full-time involves lots of long discussions and site visits, and piles of construction drawings. All in all, these are probably going to eat up as much as eight percent of your total costs. To save money, just book a single design consultation with an architect.
4. Get contractor coaching.
While this practice is frowned upon by most contractors, some can offer DIY'ers consultation a per hour basis. If you are confident that you can pull this project off on your own with a little mentoring and manpower assistance, this could be a good route for you. Again, if the project is big, just hire a contractor full-time and save the saving part for other less critical aspects of Kitchen Renovations Annandale.
5. Use mounted lights.
Mounted lights, whether wall or ceiling, give off more wattage, meaning you will be able to achieve your desired level of lighting with less fixtures. This is in comparison with recessed lights which are generally more expensive. That's because aside from installing the fixtures, a whole lot of work has to be done as well, like cutting holes, insulating them and so on. This is additional work and therefore, an additional cost.
