After leaving in a home for a few years, it is common for home owners to think of starting a home renovation project to revamp the look and feel of your house. Giving your home a fresh new look is a cheaper alternative to purchasing a completely new house. Especially considering the price of property in Singapore within the last decade.
That being said, a home remodelling project is never a small project. The cost of renovation can scale up very quickly if you’re not careful.
Having talked to many home owners and guided even more from small refurbishment to large scale remodelling, here are some tips to help you save money and avoid bursting a hole in your pocket.
Renovation Can Be A Costly Endeavour For Unsuspecting Home Owners
Depending on the scope of your renovation work, you should be expecting to invest at least $10,000 for a minor renovation to $50,000 and above for more major hacking and redevelopment construction. This will depend on whether you need to hack any wall or pillar in your redesign.
Not to forget about furnishing. For home owners on a tight budget, you may want to consider sourcing for furniture from the ever popular IKEA with many beautiful and interesting designs. Alternatively, if your budget allows, you might want to consider hiring a local interior designer to plan your entire layout.
An experienced designer will factor in various factors like your house architecture and structure, your preferences, and your budget. With all these considerations in mind, they’ll create mock-ups before beginning any construction proper.
This brings us to the next most important aspect of any renovation project…
Always Have Your Renovation Plan On Hand
We’ve all heard that familiar old adage…
“You don’t plan to fail, you just fail to plan.”
And this is especially important when remodelling your home. The last thing you want is to allocate a space for your fridge but you didn’t leave enough space and now you can’t squeeze it in. Or on the other side, you left too much space for your washing machine and there are now too much unnecessary gaps.
Given space constraint Singapore properties, planning is a critical step to maximise your space. And with an experienced contractor, you can save even more space with loft bedding. The key is to have your plans on hand and have your contractor to stick to this plan and avoid any unnecessary additional construction.
Jump the Gun by Going Straight to the Source
Ultimately, every interior designer and contractor have their own connections to get materials and furniture at a preferred rate. That doesn’t mean you can’t do the same.
With more and more ecommerce websites from China like taobao where you can get affordable home furnishings (even toilet bowls and tables) it is now way easier to get beautiful, almost designer grade furniture at a steal. And the best part? You’re stripping away the middleman by getting these items yourself.
In the past, many of them would purchase from the manufacturer and mark up the items. But with the growing influence of the internet world today, you can go straight to these manufacturer and get a great price yourself.
Stagger Your Renovation Payments
A final note on saving cost is about payments. If you decide to engage a professional to do the renovation for you, always be aware of the industry standards and practices.
Whether its a BTO, Condo, EC, HDB, or private property, the processes are always the same. Every company will only collect an initial deposit and break payments up to different milestones. Likewise, your renovation payment should follow this same process.
Never give full payment to any contractor. Ensure that sufficient work is completed before you proceed with the next payment.
And even before you choose a contractor to work with, get a few quotes from different sources. That doesn’t mean you should go with the cheapest. Read up on their reviews and see some sample portfolio before deciding. There have been cases of unscrupulous companies that introduce an entire list of hidden costs after a project has been confirmed. And you probably also only want quality workmanship. That means slightly higher cost but the investment will pay off once your home has been renovated.
At the end of the day, paying for quality services is one of the best way to save money by avoiding unnecessary additional fees in the future.