Follow These Tips to Make Your House Renovation Go Smoothly

We all know the harsh truths when it comes to a house renovation. It can be expensive, time consuming, difficult, and sometimes the source of despair and hardship. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If done properly, your home renovation project will not only achieve your goals of functionality and form, but add resale value and be a source of pride for years to come.
At Independent Living Solutions, we have more than two decades of experience helping you realize your dreams when it comes to house renovation projects, and we’ve accumulated a wellspring of advice and tips we’d like to pass along to make your experience worthwhile from start to finish.
Tips for a Successful House Renovation
• Never ignore the three E’s of any renovation work: Estimate, estimate, estimate. In other words, get estimates from at least three reputable contractors you may want to work with, and don’t be afraid to ask for references.
• Before you arrange for an onsite estimate, write down a list of dream enhancements you’d like to have completed, then winnow it down to what you feel are must have’s based on your needs.
• You’re hiring a professional, so make sure they have professional standards they’ll abide to before setting foot on your property. This means a guarantee of cleaning up after themselves, not smoking on your property, and keeping inappropriate conversations or foul language out of your home – especially if it’ll be occupied while the house renovation is ongoing.
• Get all the details in writing, down to the last detail. If you’re having a fireplace torn out and replaced, does the cost include a new fireplace surround, for instance? If you’re having a new wheelchair ramp installed, don’t assume it will have a slip-free surface the way your old one did – get it in writing!
• Your house renovation could last days or weeks, so make sure you have an agreement about working hours.
• You have to be comfortable with the contractor and crew doing the work, but if you have issues with a carpenter, plumber, or the person hanging the drywall, talk with the supervisor to get it worked out as soon as possible.
• One horror story our customers relay all the time are carpet installations gone bad. Not necessarily for the quality of the work, but because a contractor over estimated how much carpeting was needed, and left all the remnants behind. So what’s the problem? Number one, the customer was charged for all extra carpet, and two – all the remnants were left behind!
• Prepare yourself for making lots of decisions from start to finish, and don’t let the contractor make them for you.
• Never make a payment until your satisfied with the work, it’s been inspected and approved, or until certain contractual milestones have been met.
A house renovation can and should be a dream project for any homeowner, and it will as long as you follow valuable advice from professionals who know what they’re talking about.

Call Independent Living Solutions for your next house renovation project and you will not be sorry.