Home renovation is complex at the best of times, even when you’re just remodelling a single room. Whole home renovations bring the process to a new level; your home will be a construction zone for a couple of months as contractors demolish and rebuild room by room.
Don’t let that scare you, though—with this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to plan for a whole home demolition—which projects should be tackled first and how to make the entire process easier. Let’s dive right in!
Set Your Budget and Timeline
Determine Your Maximum Budget
The first step is to determine your budget for your dream home; when renovating your entire home, it can be a good idea to break your budget down per room you’re renovating. You’ll also want to do your research; talk to contractors about the features you’re interested in building and get an idea of the costs.
Prioritize the most important renovations, and set a maximum budget. Additionally, you’ll want to set a minimum of 20% of your maximum budget aside for unexpected expenses. When renovating an entire home, all kinds of unpleasant discoveries can increase the overall costs. We always tell our clients that we don’t have x-ray vision (as much as we would like to!) – so we can’t see behind walls or under flooring; we do our best to anticipate costs, but in this industry, you learn to expect the unexpected.
Create a Realistic Timeline
On TV, a whole home renovation takes as little as 30 minutes! In reality, though, the renovation process will take a lot longer. Talk to us about what you want in your dream home, and we’ll help you set a realistic timeline. Plan accordingly, and budget accordingly; you may need to order food (or use your barbecue!) when you don’t have access to your kitchen. Depending on the areas being renovated, sometimes a temporary kitchen can be set up in a basement, or in another area of your home that’s not part of the project.
Prepare and Protect Your Home
Clear Out Furniture and Belongings
As a part of the renovation process, you’ll need to clear out any furniture from the rooms that are being renovated. Ideally, you’ll move absolutely everything you own out into storage; working on the whole home at once is more efficient than tackling the renovation room by room.
Consider renting a storage facility, or a storage pod or moving your belongings in with friends and family until renovations are completed. You’ll want to move everything you can; this may include appliances like fridges and stoves. Our crew can also help move the larger items. Depending on the scope of work, some of the larger, “must use” items (like fridge and microwave) can be kept on site, and either relocated throughout the project, or temporarily relocated to a different area of the home.
Install Protective Barriers
We’ll install protective barriers on your behalf where needed before demolition work begins.
Complete Structural and Mechanical Work
Make Any Structural Changes
Structural changes begin with demolition work; once demolition is completed, rough-in work (the work of making structural changes and installing utilities) can be made. These changes might include removing non-load-bearing walls, adding new walls, reinforcing the foundation, and more.
Update Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC
You may want new light fixtures, plumbing for a new bathroom, and other changes to your utilities. The rough-in phase is the best time for these changes; everything is exposed, making it much easier to run air vents for central heating, wires for electrical, and reconfigure plumbing systems. Once we have opened up all areas that we are working on, we always do a full inspection of any exposed plumbing, electrical, mechanical, structure, and anything else we find, and report any of our findings to you. If any additional work is required, we will provide you with some budget pricing before the repairs are made.
Focus on Main Living Spaces
Remodel Kitchen and Bathrooms
Kitchen and bathroom renovations are the two most work-intensive parts of a home renovation; electrical and plumbing both play important and unique roles in these rooms. When you’re doing a room-by-room home renovation, it can be a good idea to start with these and then move on to the living room and bedrooms. Unfortunately, kitchens and bathrooms are the two most expensive areas (per square foot) to renovate in a home, so be prepared to spend a fair bit of your budget in these two areas!
Refresh Living Room and Bedrooms
Once the kitchen and bathroom are renovated, you can renovate the living room, family room, bedrooms, and other features of your home. These rooms are likely to be the least complicated part of your home renovation, but we’ll still handle them with care.
Basements
Basements are another area that people really love to renovate, especially to capture the additional living space in your home. Much like kitchens and bathrooms, basement renovations can be very costly. Here’s the difference: most basements have the same square footage as the main floor of your home; if you are in a bungalow, keep in mind that you are renovating 50% of your home (and potentially its value!) when you renovate a basement.
Finish Strong With Exterior Upgrades
Improve Curb Appeal
No home renovation is complete without some updates to your home’s exterior. A fresh coat of paint is one of the best ways to enhance curb appeal and let everyone know that your home is fully renovated.
Enhance Outdoor Living Areas
Another great way of bringing your home renovation project to the next level is enhancing your yard. You can install a patio or a gazebo, update your landscaping, and make other changes to boost your home’s exterior.
Add Finishing Touches
Install Flooring and Trim
Once everything has been fully renovated, our team will install new flooring, and paint and trim walls, baseboards, and more. These steps are completed last in order to avoid damaging your new floor or scuffing any paint. Consider adding heated flooring to your bathroom as part of your home renovation!
Thoroughly Clean and Organize
Your home renovation is almost complete! The only step left is to clean and organize your home. When you hire the professionals at All Canadian Renovations for your home renovation, we’ll handle the construction waste cleanup on your behalf. We’ll divert as much waste away from landfills and to recycling depots as they can.
Achieve Your Dream Home With Proper Planning
When you master the planning process, your home renovation will be easier and faster. Best of all, you can save money because the professionals renovating your home will be able to work more efficiently.
A whole home renovation isn’t easy, and the order of your home renovation matters—from installing new air vents and electrical to the finishing touches on your paint—having a professional to help you plan and execute your home renovations is the best way to have everything go smoothly. Contact All Canadian Renovations today!