There are many reasons as to why you might want to undertake a home renovation. You could be looking to update your property to bring it in line with 21st-century fashions; you might need to renovate as a practical necessity if you need more living space or a bigger bathroom or you might simply be looking to increase the properties value ahead of selling it.

Whatever the reasons, you need to prepare properly for a renovation. It is a costly, time-consuming and often stressful experience that requires proper planning. From color schemes to contractors, if you don’t want your renovation to go off the rails, then you need to make sure you are prepared.

Here are six areas you need to consider before renovating your home.

Know out what you want

You might think that knowing what you want is the easy part – a brand new bathroom, of course. A brand-new bathroom can mean many different things. Do you just want a new sink and shower put in are you wanting to completely reconfigure the design so that everything moves or around? You might even want to knock down a wall and enlarge the current space or move it all together.

Each of those options has varying degrees of cost and complexity. Deciding on exactly what you want is the first step towards ensuring that your renovation is both viable and can be a success.

Check the budget

Can you afford the work your going to carry out and is it likely to add value to your home? A general rule of thumb is that a renovation project should cost around 7 percent of the value of your property. Before you get too attached to the idea of installing an exact replica of one of the the six best celebrity kitchens of 2018, make sure you can afford it.

The budget stage is also a good time to consider how you are going to pay for the upgrade. Are you dipping into savings or have you had an unexpected windfall? There are of course a number of loan options that you could consider to help finance the renovation, including online payday loans direct lenders which can help give you access to money fast via guaranteed payday loans. Although not particularly useful for financing the whole project, they can be a vital source of quick finance should any problems arise during the process.

Consult a professional

Your dreams for how to renovate your home might come up against the cruel realities of the real world, so it is best to always consult a professional before setting the plans in concrete. You might, for example, want to knock down the wall between kitchen and dining room to create a more open environment. A great idea in practice until you find out that you are actually about to remove a load bearing wall which could have severe consequences for the stability of your home.

That is why it is always best to consult a professional before proceeding. They can advise you if what you are doing is both safe and workable. If it is, then it’s full steam ahead. If it isn’t, then it will be case of back to the drawing board.

Decide who is carrying out the work

Unless you’ve got specialist skills, it’s nearly always best to call upon a professional contractor to do the work. While it may seem like an idea to do it yourself, you may not actually have the skills you need for the job. 

You might think you can take the challenge on, but if you do it is going to a far lengthier project as you’ll be trying to fit it in around work and leisure commitments. The final renovation might also lack the quality you’d receive from a professional tradesman, not to mention the possibility of something going drastically wrong which you are then unable to fix.

Get the right contractor for the job

When hiring a contractor, most people focus on their qualifications and their qualifications only. Of course, this is important – you need them to be fully qualified, have a contractor’s license, a certificate of insurance for general liability and workers comp, lien history and a bond number and certification.

One aspect that often goes overlooked, however, is that you need to get on with the contractor. They’re going to be spending many hours working in your home and as a result, they need to be a good personal fit with you. Over the course of the weeks and months it takes to complete the renovation, they are almost going to be like a housemate to you so if you don’t get on or you can see them grinding your gears during what is already likely to be a stressful process, then they might not be the contractor for you.

Test out colors and materials

There is nothing worse than undertaking a costly renovation, only to realize at the end that you don’t actually like it. You might think that you’ve decided on the perfect peach color for the bedroom, but you need to test it thoroughly – and that means getting your hands on plenty of samples.

Colors and patterns change with light throughout the day. What might look good as the brilliant sunlight of dawn pours in through the windows can take on a completely different and less alluring appearance under electric lighting once evening arrives. A carpet material that is soft and bouncy at first might turn out to be a cleaning nightmare once you accidentally drop a packet of potato chips on it.

That is why testing out colors and materials is so important. You need to be able to live with the colors for at least a few days, constantly walking past at different points to get a feel for what you really want. Never be afraid of having too many samples either – cover your walls with as many different paints as you like to make sure that the one you settle on is definitely the right choice.