A good starting point for renovation costs, is to understand the purpose of the work, and the properties opportunities and constraints.
Purpose
Renovation is dirty, risky, time consuming and stressful work. It can cause strain in your family relationships. It can also improve the functionality, aesthetic appeal and value of the property. The only one that can work out if its worth it is the owner. Although you can employ designers and builders, they won’t understand the benefits of the work as much as you.
Properties opportunities and constraints
Each property has differing opportunities and constraints. When thinking of renovations, it’s worthwhile to think if the proposed work closes off other opportunities. Opportunities may be closed off because you have expended your resources. Opportunities can also be closed off from a design sense. An example is if there’s a kitchen in an awkward position in the home, renovating it to its max may inhibit worthwhile floor plan improvements.
At Home Design Edge, we have setup a Renovation Feasibility Review that can help with understanding your properties opportunities and constraints.
Planning ahead
What is an ideal outcome in the short term, medium term and long term? How can the actions in each category aid or constrain the other. Some properties are at “land cost” and are candidates for knockdown rebuild.
“Land cost” is where the value of the home is minimal compared to the overall cost of the property. Its where if you add 50-200k into the house it doesn’t nudge the overall value of the home. These things are hard to work out, and may review of comparative sales, and the opinion of a couple of real estate agents.
If that’s the case then maybe doing new flooring and built ins are not worthwhile in the short term. Other scenarios may put this in the distant future which leads to more medium term initiatives brought forward.
Work on the fundamentals before the finishing trades
If there’s underlying structural, drainage or mould issues, don’t ignore these and do a paint over. The cracked walls filled in may recrack, and the cleaned up mould may return.
This may result in abortive work and even more money and time spent on renovation overall.
Working within the envelope
Working within your building’s footprint is cheaper and less complicated than extensions. Extensions require footings, walls, roofs, drainage and connections to your existing structures. Extensions require development approval as well. This may not be appropriate for all cases, but see if there is an opportunity to work within the envelope. There may be opportunities to make your home more efficiently laid out. If space is running out and the home is cluttered, see if clever storage can be incorporated that allows you to unclutter your space.
An example of this is where a family is considering adding a 3 x 4m bedroom. In crude terms this may require an additional 12-15sqm of space at $5000/sqm for a small and fiddly extension. This could result in a budget of $75k. A comparative approach would be to consolidate two children in the one room, and incorporate full height storage and a study nook into the existing home. This may end up costing $20-30k
Plan the renovation programme
If a project is well run, and runs on time, it can save the owner weeks of double accommodation which can lead to a big difference in the renovation budget. A project which is running on time is also a rare occurrence. There are many things that can come up that are out of the control of the owner, designer or builder. Even so, it’s worth documenting all the known tasks into a gantt chart. This should include not only building activities, but design activities, preparation and owners movements. Ie. moving, packing etc.
Free Downloadable Gantt chart for creating renovation schedules
If a property is newly bought, a good tip is to gain access after the exchange of contracts for:
- measuring up so that any design can be done with reliable information
- Getting quotes from contractors and suppliers
Doing this can save you time, particularly if you can sign up a contractor to initiate work (potentially demolition) on settlement day.
An abstract example is the purchase of a small cottage requiring a small renovation of a kitchen, and new flooring and painting throughout. The starting time frame maybe 3 weeks of design and fabrication for the kitchen, and 1 week for installation, and 2 weeks for the painting and floor sanding. Adding this up may be 6 weeks in total. For a newly bought property, If your able to get the measurements after exchange of contracts, you can get the design and planning and costing for the kitchen done before you get the keys. If your able to coordinate with the painting and floor sanding contractor to start and finish with minimal gaps between trades, there maybe a possibility of reducing the 6 week overall time frame to 3-4 weeks. For some, this may result in a saving of 3 weeks rent + interest.
Setting a realistic budget
There are many costing guides available on the internet. See below for a few further resources. However, these may not be relevant to your location and market. You may have to pay more or less due to the accessibility of your property, and access to skilled trades.
A realistic budget involves real pricing from builders, and allowances for changes that come from the owners changes and issues to resolve on the existing structure.
Compare contractors and suppliers
Make sure when you compare contractors and suppliers that you not only compare on price, but also on capability, reviews, inclusions, exclusions and costs for variations and additional scope.
Self control on change / variations
There are many places to upgrade for every renovation project. The challenge is to know your budget, and your purpose and desired outcome, and to limit changes that compromise that. A variation is any change in quantity, or position or level of quality. You lose competitive pricing when you have committed to work with a contractor. That’s why it’s better to make the changes before the contractor is signed up.
Being flexible with the design
When a design is costed, a builder is appointed, and the project is over budget, see if the design can be adjusted. As an owner, think of changes that could be made that you could discuss with the builder to get further costings. An example of this perhaps the kitchen can delete a third wrap around bench and overhead cupboards, for a proprietary island bench that stores everything that is required and opens up the flow of the space.
Don’t think your locked into a corner. Until the builder is signed, appointed and has started work, you can always make adjustments to your plans to suit your budget.
Buy your own materials
You can save money by doing the research on building materials, and buying them in advance yourself. There are trade discount for people in the industry. However, most suppliers have specials every two months, so enquire when they may be. This is a time consuming task. You may buy bits and pieces and store them at the site, ready for future assembly and installation.
The more you do yourself, the more you can get the contractor to focus on putting it together. A contractor will charge a bit extra for managing materials. They have many things to do including: calling up suppliers, making the orders, sorting out loading and logistics. The benefit of the contractor sorting it is they take responsibility for defective materials, warranty issues and also if the product doesn’t suit the sites application etc.
Examples of this include tiles, flooring, appliances, lights etc
Buying reused materials and supplies
If you have the patience, and are willing to take the risk, you can monitor Graysonline for building materials auctions. We bought a 3k induction cooktop for $500 in this type of auction.
sample of appliances on offer from Graysonline
Timber can also be picked up from demolition sites, or timber yards, if you have the resources to sort and treat them, and prepare them for new works. An example location is freecycle, gumtree, facebook groups or Recycled Building Centre.
Reuse materials
On top of buying reused materials, you can also reuse your own materials. Is the cooker salvageable? Can the lights be carefully uninstalled for future use? Can the blinds and curtains be cut up and reinstalled? Can the built in cupboards and storage be rearranged to fit in the new works? Can the shelving racks be recycled from the kitchen to the laundry, or the garage? Can the kitchen sink be recycled to an outdoor kitchen? For some items it may be worthwhile to hire handy people to help with safe and clean disassembly.
Recycling saves you the time and cost it takes to buy new materials. It can also save you on waste removal costs.
Consider substitutes
Many people are worried about a builder offering substitutes as a lessening of value for your build. If you know your overall desired outcome, you can think about what kind of substitutes are acceptable. Doing the research on products and materials can help you decide whether the savings are worth it. You can also offer substitutes to the builder to initiate credits.
Consolidate trades
There are many trades required to complete a standard kitchen or bathroom renovation. There may be instances where you can consolidate trades with proprietary items. An example is a commercial stainless steel benchtop with integrated splashback and sink. This type of product takes away the need for a separate sink, a separate benchtop and carcass, and a separate tiler to do the splashback. What would normally cost 3-4k is 1k.
Do it yourself
Labour is a considerable component of building costs. The more you can upskill yourself to do more tasks yourself, the more you will save. A lesser version of this is to hire a contractor that is willing to bring you on board as labour, so you can learn how to properly and safely do the tasks with them.
Find good tradesmen
Sometimes going for the cheapest tradesmen may not be the best outcome for the project. A good tradesmen takes responsibility for their actions, and is someone you can go to if there are future problem that come up. With goodwill, they are a good ally to come back for service and warranty service calls.
A good place to find reliable tradesmen is within your existing networks. There are several sites that bring together tradespeople for quick and efficient comparisons. An example is hipages where you log a job, and get a phone call from 3 contractors with a on the phone quote.
Incorporate proprietary furniture
Many people go to ikea, kmart or target for furniture because they are functional, low cost and look good. There are many hacks to make these items integrate in a renovation scheme, which will be explored in a future post.
Conclusion
Renovation is a costly exercise with many moving parts. Putting the work into planning and design and researching contractors and suppliers can help you identify and clarify your costs, and hopefully realise savings along the way.
See here for other blogposts on Renovation at Home Design Edge
Bonus Tip
Renovation projects give many surprises. They can uncover previous sloppy builders works, and reveal structural, plumbing and electrical issues. If further problems come up, it’s a grey area on who’s responsibility it is to fix it. A tip for this is to take photos of all surfaces, walls, ceilings and flooring as often as is practical. An example is there was a pipe that burst and required plumbers works. The original landscaper was approached to investigate. He produced a photo that showed it was installed correctly, and the issue was brought on by other parties. Contractors are shrewd with this. They know that building is risk, and they don’t want to come back and fix other people’s work.
Further resources
Hipages renovation guide – How much does it cost
Goes through in general terms, and then describes a bit more on kitchens, decks, bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms
Costly mistakes that blow your renovation budget – Domain
Goes through scope of works, structural issues, knock on effects, electrical, realistic allowances, external works and variations.
Renovation cost guide: the basics explained – Homes to Love
Gives a range for each item. Depending on your market and standard of finish, this may or may not be relevant
The guide to successful home renovations – Finder
Includes sections for why, preparation, financing, mistakes, saving on renovations and increasing property value through renovation.
Australian Renovation Cost Guide – Canstar
Gives suggested rates for kitchens, bathrooms and landscaping
Renovation Cost / Sydney Rant – Whirlpool
Forum for renovators discussing their build experiences