While kitchens are the most popular room in a home to renovate, bathrooms come a very close second. What both of these renovations have in common, however, is they’re both labour-intensive projects.
Whether you’re looking to fix up and repair problematic areas, install a new feature or overhaul the entire room, there is likely to be complications and headaches along the way. Dealing with plumbing and drainage, waterproofing, and ventilation concerns, often all with little space to work with, there are many challenges which need to be overcome.
To achieve all of this requires careful planning in order to avoid a D.I.Y. disaster being unleashed in one of your home’s most important rooms.
Turning Dreams Into Reality
Once you’ve decided work needs to be carried out in your bathroom, a flood of ideas and inspirations can wash over you. It can be very easy to get caught up in this, causing your original plans to spiral along with the cost of your project. Furthermore, several influences can often combine to produce a design which does not always deliver function or fashion but is rather a hodge-podge collection of fleeting ideas.
To create a well-styled room requires as much discipline as it does artistry and imagination. Therefore, to successfully remodel your bathroom, take the time to set out your needs and objectives at the beginning of the process. This will help you stay on track and deliver a new room which meets the goals that triggered you to renovate the room in the first place.
Seek Professional Guidance
For most people, understanding everything needed to turn your ideas into a finished bathroom are a bit of a mystery. What your plans require will largely depend upon the purpose and scale of the renovation. So to will other factors such as how much time has passed since the room was previously upgraded.
Whether you’re carrying out an update for your own personal use or you’re looking to add value to your house price, some of the tasks may well be more involving than you originally perceive.
Asking advice from plumbing and renovation experts will help you understand the complexities involved with your renovation, possibly highlighting necessary work which you hadn’t considered which will greatly improve your bathroom.
It’s important to try and seek advice through several different, independent sources. A friend in the trade may seem like a trustworthy choice on their own, however, the more opinions you can gather, the stronger you plans will become.
Making An Informed Action Plan
With a clearer idea of the individual stages needed to complete a renovation, you can fix a loose schedule to the work. You can also plan how much of the work you are able to do yourself and which, if any, tasks will require hired help.
It is at this point which you can decide on the best layout for your room regarding the fittings and equipment which will be affected in the renovation. Not only will all of this help you to fix a budget on the work, but it can also give you an approximate idea of how long the room will be out of use for.
Planning Your Budget
The bigger your project, the more important this stage is. Once you have decided how much you are prepared to spend, you will need to find the materials, tools and possibly professional help which fit within your spending limits.
Budget planning is best approached by first accounting for all of the fixed costs associated with the building work. This includes everything from necessary tools to glues and sealants and any essential fittings such as pipework. It also includes the cost of any labour which should involve a minimum of three separate quotes. These labour costs should always be appraised on-site and from professionals which have a reliable reputation.
The remaining budget is how much you have remaining for the materials needed to complete the work. This can all prove to be a tedious and tiresome process, however, it’s vital if you want to get the most for your money.
Plan For An Emergency
If you find unexpected signs of mold, faulty wiring, or broken fittings during the early stages of the renovation, you must address them. These additional costs can quickly accumulate and so you need to dedicate part of your budget to an emergency fund for dealing with such problems. If you are renovating an old house, the chances of encountering extra costs are also significantly increased.
It’s recommended to set aside between 10-20% of your budget for an emergency,
If you are in the happy position towards the end of your project where this fund remains untouched, you can then use the money to arrange a celebration for its completion or perhaps upgrade a light fitting or set of tiles to a more luxurious option you found during your planning.
Colouring In Your Picture
With all of this in place, you can then begin the fun part of the planning process. Making your design decisions. Choosing the materials, fittings, and furniture can be far more stressful than you imagine so it’s important to tackle it in an organized way.
Begin by seeking your inspiration and opting for a general style which you want for your bathroom. With a list of all of the separate components needed to add into your design, you can then note down suitable ideas and options which can be incorporated into your room.
Fine-Tuning Your Choices
Very rarely will a fixed budget be met after making your first set of choices regarding the fixtures and fittings. This means you will most probably need to find ways to make savings in sourcing materials.
Other than choosing alternatives and checking for cheaper places to buy the same parts, there are other tricks you can use. From buying second-hand to up-cycling, repairing, and re-surfacing existing objects, some creative thinking can save you some money.
What is vital to creating a successful renovation is not cutting corners which will impact the functionality of your bathroom. It may be tempting to attempt to rewire or tackle the plumbing yourself but if you’re not fully competent, you are moving ever closer to the D.I.Y disaster you’re trying to avoid.
Contact us today for a bathroom renovation quote to update your bathroom.