Remodel Rules: Reduce the Headache Associated with Remodeling Your Home
So how do you protect yourself and make sure that your remodel goes smoothly? How do you find the right contractor for the job and at the right price? How do you defend yourself from the tricks of the trade designed to separate you from your money? Simple, just read on and follow these simple steps to ensure a happier and healthier remodeling project.
1.Educate Yourself – This does not mean that you need to acquire every skill required for your remodeling job. It simply means that you need to at least learn the basic concepts and terminology of whatever home improvement job you are going to undertake. Go to any bookstore, home store or hardware emporium and pick up a how-to book. They write these books for just about any project imaginable in straightforward easy to understand language. Look through the book and become familiar with what you are going to be doing. Learn words like stud, joist and header. Give yourself the background knowledge so that when your contractor tells you that he needs to “frame out for a knee wall” you have some idea what’s involved and won’t wind up paying $1000 for half a dozen two by fours and an hours’ work.
2. Read the Contract – How are changes handled? What are the performance benchmarks? What are you paying for materials? What happens if the job isn’t done on time? All of these things should be in your contract. If they aren’t there, put them in, and if your contractor balks find yourself another one. This is the most important part of any remodel and the one that most folks skip altogether. They get multiple bids, they call references, they do everything right and then just sign whatever the contractor puts in front of them. Read the contract thoroughly and bring up any questions you have before signing anything. If you really have a quality contractor they will be more than happy to address any concerns you have with the contract. If you have a fly by night operator, better to find out before you sign anything and before your kitchen disappears.
3. Do Stuff Yourself – You can always save a little money by doing the daily clean up yourself. You can save even more by doing the demolition work before the contractor starts. These are low skill, medium effort tasks that not only help you save a few bucks, but also keep you abreast of what is going on with the job on a daily basis. This in turn keeps small problems (did we really want that island there?) from becoming really big problems if left to fester. As an added bonus, the more involved you are, the more you learn about how your new kitchen or bath is put together, which will pay off down the road when maintenance needs to be performed.
4. Buy Your Own Stuff – Don’t leave it to the contractor to find your fixtures and finishes. Head out to the home store buy the necessary items yourself. That way you not only know exactly what is going into your new kitchen, but you know where it comes from if something goes wrong. If you watch the sales, you will probably save money as well. It is important to spell out in the contract exactly what you will be providing and what the contractor will be supplying in the way of materials. You do not want your contractor waiting around for a range to be delivered that you thought he was providing.
Generally speaking, remodeling is a massive pain that causes levels of stress akin to an IRS audit. Follow the steps above and it will be a better experience, but it will still be remodeling. So perhaps the most important rule of remodeling is always expect the worst. That way if everything works out you can be pleasantly surprised.
