Tips for Saving While Renovating Your Home

When it comes to improving your home, it’s hard not to get carried away with big plans that can run the risk of putting the entire project above the family’s means. While an intelligent home owner leaves certain things to the “professionals,” there are still plenty of things you can do yourself both during the preparation phase as well as carrying out the renovation itself. It’s imperative to know the things you can save on early in the process, so you can properly plan and allocate funds to other areas of the project that are more intensive. Here are a few helpful hints to help you stretch every dollar you have, while taking certain matters into your own hands.

Have a Paint Party! – Take something as mundane and otherwise boring as painting, and make it a fun opportunity to have friends over to check out your new home. It’ll be on you to of course provide the music, pizza, and (most importantly) beer/wine, but let everyone pick a room and do their part. Not only will everyone feel a proud sense of accomplishment every time they come over from that point on, but you will significantly cut down the time it takes to get everything painted. Chances are you’ve at the very least helped a buddy or two move in along the way, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask for some help; painting is something you should really never pay for unless we’re talking cathedral ceilings or another hazardous layout.

Do Your Own Demo- Let’s face it, the first jobs we typically look to hire out for, are the ones that none of us want to do ourselves. It’s not exactly laziness; it’s just that nobody really ever “runs” to do dirty jobs like attic, plumbing, and insulation work. Unfortunately, contractors know this and that’s why it will cost you a very good amount of cash to factor in any type of demolition work into the overall SOW or master invoice of your project. If you want to save some money, rip up your own rugs, knock down your own sheetrock, bag up your own old insulation, and strip off your own wall paper. If you get things to as clean of a slate yourself before bringing in whatever kind of professional you may need to leverage, it will at least contain the strain on your bank account to the absolute necessities. Spend that money elsewhere within your home improvement plans, or save it for the nest project.

Rent Your Big Tools- While every home owner should have the standard set of hammers, screwdrivers, drills, wrenches, etc., not everyone has either the space nor the budget needed for having a full arsenal of power tools in house. If your project calls for something out of the ordinary, say to help you cut granite for the kitchen counter, or mix cement for the backyard of your dreams, look into tool rental services to save a ton of cash. Think about it, unless you are planning a side business as a carpenter, how many times are you really going to be laying concrete or setting beams? There’s no need to pay hundreds of dollars for something you may only need for a week in your life; business big and small typically offer a wide array of products, some of which even come with quick tutorial classes offered by the store. Home Depot, for example, rents out everything from carpet cleaners to jack hammers at very affordable daily and weekly rates.