10 Most Common Renovation Mistakes

Renovation Mistakes that Everyone makes!

We all know that a fantastic home renovation can add value to your home. It can enhance your lifestyle and provide many benefits for years to come. But what happens when a renovation is done poorly? Make sure that you do not make these mistakes…

Do it Yourself – Painting is the prime culprit!

Home Renovations are an exciting time in your life. Many homeowners thrive on the opportunity to contribute via ‘do it yourself’ tasks i.e. DIY. This is fine for small fixes, but there comes a time when it’s best to hand the job over to the professionals. One area where we see this happen repeatedly is with Painting.

Painting is a classic finishing trade, and as such, finishes off the job and provides the final polish. If this is done poorly, it can ruin a fantastic project. It needs great preparation of surfaces, great cutting in skills, and a level of skill that could be compared to artistry. There is no doubt that a professional painter will provide a quality finish that most of us could only dream of achieving.

Changing Your Mind. A Lot!

This one is simple. The more you change your mind, the more your renovation will cost you. The later in the process you change your mind, the more it will cost! This applies both to design elements and the selection of fixtures and fittings. Changing the design is the most costly thing that you can do. At worst this could mean having to get new planning approval. At best it may mean re-issuing plans to trades. When you do this, you run the risk that a trade continues to work off an old copy of the plans. This introduces the risk of errors, which will then cause time delays due to rectification work.

Changing your mind about fittings and fixtures is fine up until a point. However, at some point the goods need to be ordered. Once orders are placed, it can be difficult to change selections without incurring costs from Suppliers. The best way to avoid this is to seek help from an Interior Decorator. They can help you make selections that tie in with each other. A good Interior Decorator will remove much of the indecision which is usually the reason that you are changing your mind a lot. At Amerex, we provide the services of a interior decorating professional for a free 2 hour consultation to get you started.

Buying Cheap Fixtures

Saving a few dollars in the short term may not be wise in the long term. Consider investing on quality fixtures such as selections in your kitchen and bathroom. Items that are used often are worth spending on to get a quality product. Quality choices will mean less repairs and replacements, and they will fare better in terms of wear and tear in the long term.

Quality materials and products also often have additional features that make living easier, making them worth the cost.

Using Your Friend, Cousin, or mate as a Trade

Saving money is often a prime consideration when Home Owners decide they want to engage family or friends to undertake a trade activity in your home renovation. Before going down this path, consider the following:

Did you know that many trades are required to be licenced?

ALWAYS ensure that you use a licensed professional for trades such as electrical, plumbing, asbestos removal and anything to do with gas or the structure of your home.

What about insurance for accidents?

You MUST check that a trade has the necessary insurances in place. Failure to do so, will leave you – the Home Owner – potentially liable if an accident occurs.

The unforeseen problems…

Amerex only engage our own reliable and insurance checked trades on site. Allowing friends or family is fraught with potential pit-falls. Consider these questions: How do you get them back when you are unhappy with the quality of the work? Could unsatisfactory work lead to a break-down in your relationship with them? Will you agree the costs of the work up-front? Failure to do so can result in a nasty disagreement about payment further down the track. Our advice is, just don’t go there!

Going for the Cheapest Builder or Trade

Using the cheapest Builder or selecting the cheapest quote for a trade may save you money now, however, this almost certainly will come back to bite you in the long term. You need to ask questions such as: Why are they cheaper? Are they using cheaper quality materials? Has everything been included in the quote, or are there exclusions that will cost you extra as the job progresses? Do they have enough experience in what I need them to do? Are they able to provide references so that I can check on the quality of their work with previous clients?

Cheaper is most definitely not always the best. Tread carefully and ensure that you take cost into consideration along with many other factors too.

Tiles on Sale! Buyer Beware!

What? What could possibly go wrong with tiles on Sale? The two key questions to ask the Supplier here are: (1) Are the remaining tiles all from the same batch? Tiles that are from different batches may have colour variations and this can be disastrous for your end result with mismatched tiles ruining your final look. (2) Are there enough tiles in stock so that you order some extras for future repairs, breakage, and wastage? If there is not enough surplus, you run the risk of not having enough tiles to complete your job if something unforseen happens such as excessive breakages. Buyer beware.

Tiles not matching in size

Tiling is an area that is very unforgiving if you get it wrong. A rookie mistake to watch out for, is mismatching of tile sizes. For example, the wall tile in a bathroom may be 2-3mm smaller than the floor tile. The problem once the tiles is laid, is that the joints will not match up. The end result will look uneven, and very difficult to remedy without pulling the entire lot up!

Selecting LARGE Tiles

Large tiles have the benefit of less joins and a nice clean look. They can however, introduce some problems. Sometime they can be supplied with deflections or slight bends in individual tiles. Suppliers are quick to put a disclaimer across this sort of defect, and you can be forced to work with the product. One problem that this can cause is known as lippage. That is the tile is slightly raised or turned up at the edge. These tiles can be very difficult to lay, and may also incur extra costs from the Tiler as a result.

A good tiling company should assist you when making selections and avoid this. At Amerex, we refer our clients to our preferred tiling Suppliers who are experienced at assisting clients and will make sure that this does not happen. You will be guided into making selections that avoid this type of pit-fall.

Using cutting edge products that have not been tested

Early adopters of new products are those that must discover the pros and cons of using a new product thru trial and error. While new products can be exciting and make many promises, there can be unexpected problems. Our advice is to wait until new products have been tried and tested for a period of time in the marketplace before opting to use them.

Ignoring Existing Issues

When you tear down walls and rip up floors in an older home, there is the chance that you will find something unexpected. It is always better to address these issues straight away. For example, electrical and plumbing issues will be cheaper to address now, before you close the walls back up. This sometimes means an unexpected renovation cost now, but believe us when we say, it will save you tons of money in the long run.