With the real estate market in the United States and around the world more competitive than ever, the chance of moving to a new home is gone for most people who don’t have a lot of money saved up. Instead, many homeowners are starting to look at a whole home remodel as a way to change the living space they have and customize it to their needs without spending too much or needing to take out a second mortgage. As you embark on a whole home remodel, there are parts of the project you’re sure to want to tackle yourself and others that are best left to the professionals. Contractors who have trained in electrical, plumbing, and building techniques are the best people to handle the skilled work that goes into a whole home renovation. Even if you’ve remodeled parts of the home before to great success or are skilled at DIY projects, the process of a whole home remodel can be much more involved and costly than a weekend upgrade to the home. You have to have a wide base of knowledge in all types of contracting, including structural, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing, in order to handle any issues that crop up along the way and avoid them turning into larger problems. Not to mention, there can also be permits that have to be pulled and zoning issues to navigate as you change the function and layout of your home. The city or town where you live may have strict building codes you need to abide by, or you risk getting fined or worse. Having the help of experienced contractors can make these processes easier.
These are key parts of a whole home remodel that you can hire someone to help you complete safely and on budget.
Remove Dangerous Elements
When it comes to potentially harmful elements in the home, you may think that every trace of them is gone, but it takes an expert eye to really assess what is happening and the likelihood the problem will come back. For example, mold may seem to be gone, but even one spore left can attach to a moisture source and kick off a whole new issue with mold growth. If you live in an older or a historic home, you may discover issues within the home structure that are potentially dangerous to you and your family once you start tearing things apart to start a whole home remodel. Things like outdated wiring that doesn’t meet current electrical code, asbestos in the wall, mold spores, or a high presence of lead in the home should be resolved before someone gets hurt. These elements can be present in places you may not realize or think about, including lead particles in the paint on your walls or mold growth on the underside of your carpeting. Lead removal specialists can ensure that every trace of lead is gone before they leave your home, letting you stay in the home without having to be concerned about lead poisoning or other impacts on your health in the long term.
Make The Place Energy Efficient
If you’re concerned about the environment and want to do what you can to reduce your carbon footprint, consider making your home more energy efficient as part of your whole home remodel or renovation. Add solar panels, upgrade the lighting system to work on LEDs, or change out your appliances to more efficient ones, and you can start to feel good about making an effort to save the planet. You can start making the home more efficient by having an electrician or HVAC contractor assess the status of your electrical and HVAC systems to see if there are any efficiency issues present. When you hire electrical contractors to work on your property, you can feel reassured that the work done is up to code and poses no real threat to your safety. Trained and licensed electricians can spot any issues within the electricity system and address them.
The best way to make a home energy efficient is to stop heat and cool air from escaping the home through the openings that exist in the home’s structure. The most likely places for this to happen include windows, doors, and through the surface of the walls due to poor insulation that doesn’t trap the air. Ask your insulation contractor which kinds of insulation are likely to keep the home the most energy efficient and what the price difference is to upgrade to this product. The extra expense is likely to be offset by the reduction you’ll see in your monthly electric bills after your whole home remodel is completed and the home works more efficiently.
Another good way to increase energy efficiency is by selecting appliances that are made to consume less energy. Modern washing machines and dishwashers use less water and electricity than older models, making them a solid choice for concerned homeowners. In some cities and states, these appliances may even come with rebates from the government to thank you for making an environmentally sound decision.
Upgrade and Test Safety Features
The safety of your family in your home is paramount, and there are many devices that protect that safety by monitoring potential dangers within your space. By measuring and monitoring the levels of carbon dioxide, alerting you to the presence of smoke, and showing you who is watching your home from the exterior, safety features help you increase your home’s value and decrease the potential of being a crime victim. There are many ways to increase the overall security level of the home and even the exterior areas like the front and backyard. You can install a smart video doorbell to monitor traffic coming up to your home, and even see what is happening inside when you are away. You can also take this time to test your existing safety features like carbon monoxide detectors, smoke detectors, and sprinkler systems. While you can perform these tests yourself, if you find an issue or suspect something is wrong, its best to call a contractor that specializes in fixing that component of the house. For example, a sprinkler system repair contractor knows exactly what is wrong with the system and has the components and knowledge to perform the repair. A garage door repair contractor can quickly stop the malfunctioning door, preventing people who shouldn’t be in the home from gaining easy access.
Adding on Living Space
Of course, one of the things homeowners often want to do is expand the living space that makes up the home’s air-conditioned square footage, thereby making the home larger and allowing you to demand more money when you’re ready to sell it and move on. This is a task that needs help from qualified professionals, as poorly built living space will not pass inspection or add to the value of the home. Add on living spaces that aren’t correctly built out are known to be hot and stuffy and can be a source of leaks and mold growth if the roof is not extended properly to cover this area. HVAC contractors can ensure that the right parts of the vents and heating or cooling system extend into this new square footage, keeping it climate controlled and the same temperature as the rest of the house. Similarly, a roofing contractor will make sure the roof extends properly over that part of the living space and there are no leaks or open spaces that allow animals to get in. This extra living space can then act as a guest room, home office, or mother-in-law suite for an aging parent who you want to keep close.
Create a Spa-Inspired Bathroom
Making your bathroom lusher and more comfortable is a great way to add value to your home for resale and make it more enjoyable while you live there. Studies show that a luxurious bathroom is one of the features potential buyers are excited to see in a home for sale on the market. Adding luxury touches to your place, like a jetted tub, warming towel bar, heated tile flooring, and a shower bench transforms a regular bathroom to a modern, comfortable oasis. If you’re going to make larger changes to the layout of the bathroom, that’s when you’ll need to get in touch with a contractor. A good plumbing contractor can help you understand where the pipes run inside the walls of your home and how your bathroom should be laid out to take advantage of this existing structural element. If you move the elements that require plumbing too far, you may have to have a plumbing contractor run new connections, which greatly increases the cost of the bathroom remodel.
Putting Down Specialty Flooring
New floors are a great way to make the whole home look cleaner and brighten the rooms. Be sure that you choose flooring that a regular contractor can lay for you or look into hiring someone with the experience to make sure that your floor comes out right. Some specialty floor tiles, like Italian travertine, should be laid in a specific way that allows the natural material to really shine and brings out the highlights in the material. Having an unskilled worker put them down can result in an uneven finish when the tiles settle, making your floor less than perfect and possibly dangerous for guests who visit. Instead, a flooring contractor who understands how to lay flooring made of different materials can help you ensure that the floor has a smooth, level finish and does not move over time.
Put The Finishing Touches on Yourself
If you want to save money on part of your whole home remodel or simply want the satisfaction of contributing some work of your own to your whole home remodel, try doing the pieces that come at the very end of the process, so you don’t hold anyone up and impede the process of getting your own renovation complete. Things like painting the walls and ceiling, applying wallpaper, sealing decks and outdoor walkways, cleaning the home to get rid of construction dust, and decorating it can be completed fairly easily if you have some experience with DIY and decorating. You can save thousands by not hiring professional painters, cleaners, and organizers to handle these tasks.
Let Landscaping Contractors Guide The Outdoor Vision
Improving the outside of your home shouldn’t be done by randomly adding plants and flowers in areas as you purchase them, because the result can be too random and colorful to look good in the end. A cohesive plan for plants, flowers, and trees that complement each other and can survive in your local climate is the best possible starting point for a home landscape. Excavating contractors can safely dig a pond, fountain, or pool in the yard for you and ensure that no pipes or power lines are damaged in the process. This can act as a gathering point for your friends and family in the summer months once it is done. Using commercial equipment to get your landscaping set up and your water feature ready, they can get a large area dug in a portion of the time it would take a crew using shovels to do it manually.
A whole home remodel is a big, time-consuming project, but once it’s completed well, you can get more satisfaction and function out of your home. With more people working and living in their house, having a space that functions and meets your design taste helps bring harmony to your career and personal life.
