General

Thinking about remodeling? In need of some home remodeling tips? We know renovating any part of your home can be stressful. It should be a fun experience to be changing things in your home, but that isn’t always the case. We are here to help you prepare for anything and everything before you dive into your next projects.

Home Remodeling Tips

Choose the improvements that add the most value to your home – Make a list. Although you might have a few repairs you’d like to do on your home, remember the important ones should come first. Improvements which will add the most value are a kitchen, a bathroom remodel, or a new deck. They might be the most expensive, but they will be the best bang for your buck.

Decide whether you should DIY – This tip is imperative, so listen up! There are some little home projects you might be able to do on your own, but others could come as a challenge. Don’t let your pride or money get in the way. Save the big jobs for the professionals. Keep this quote in mind, “You think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job; wait until you hire an amateur.” You probably won’t regret hiring a professional, but you will definitely regret doing it yourself if it doesn’t turn out the way you had planned.

Hone in on your home improvement skills – If you’re thinking about becoming a little more handy around your home, make sure you do your homework. Don’t just try and fix any problem without researching it fully. The internet is a beautiful thing and today there is a how-to video for almost everything. So read up, folks!

Ideas & Inspiration

Find inspiration – Before making any changes to your home, look around for inspiration. Read up on articles and blogs about home remodeling.  Pinterest is your friend and extremely helpful for ideas. There are so many people who will share their entire remodeling experience with you. Be sure to check out HGTV, Houzz, This Old House and many more sites and shows. All of these sites, as well as our website, are great places to start. Make a folder on your laptop or even a tangible folder and fill it with ideas, articles and photos.

Find the money for home improvement projects – It would be nice to win the lottery before doing all these projects, wouldn’t it? Well, until that day comes make sure you budget all of your projects. Ask yourself questions like: Do we have the money to install new cabinets? Should we just re-paint them and put money towards other projects? Research the different ways you can finance your home improvement projects without putting your home at risk. This might be one of the most important home remodeling tips out there. If we could all remodel our homes we would, but we don’t always have the funds to do so.

Choose the right contractor – Your home improvement projects won’t get done right if you don’t find a contractor who works for you. If you have a specific project in mind, for example a kitchen remodel, find a contractor that specializes in it. Make sure you do your research and ask for referrals from friends.

Think It Through

Have a plan – When you’re remodeling your home, you need to have some sort of a plan. Regardless of the size of the remodel consider all of the details – cost, time, materials, and design. Cost is a huge factor. Don’t start a project until you budget it out. What if something were to go wrong halfway through and you run out of money? Plan for that. Time is also extremely important. Starting an exterior project in the fall could be risky if it doesn’t get finished before winter arrives. And what about materials? Will you be buying them or your contractor? And just as we stated before about inspiration, create your design and plan everything out first. It’s okay to change your mind every now and then; but the more changes you make, the more time and money it will cost you.

Now that you read a few of our home remodeling tips, do you think you’re ready to begin your next project? Come into Builders Surplus today to get started!