Tips to save renovation costs
- If you have a clear idea about your design, hire a head contractor instead of an interior designer to save on middlemen costs. A competent head contractor will help you manage your schedule and coordinate the efforts of all sub-contractors, including flooring, wall hacking, painting, roofing, ceiling, electrician, plumbers.
- Communicate to your interior designer/main contractor a list of amendments in point form after every meeting so that neither party forgets what has been discussed.
- To safeguard your interests, do your renovation in phases. Hence, if your interior designer/contractor has not been satisfactory, you can cease their services and hire someone else, thus enhancing your bargaining power. A rough plan can be hacking —> electrical rewiring + carpentry + plumbing —> painting —> aircon installation + lighting —> painting (final round). Though note that the demarcation of phases mayn’t be so straightforward as certain steps need to occur in tandem.
- If you do your renovation in phases, this means that you don’t have to move all your belongings to storage warehouses. Thus, reducing costs on storage.
- Opt for loose furniture instead of ordering built-in furniture.
- Overlay with vinyl instead of hacking the flooring of the living room and bedrooms
- Forego false ceilings and TV console and feature walls.
- Make sure that a primer or sealant layer is applied prior to painting 2-3 coats of paint. This is to reduce the likelihood of small cracks appearing due to contraction and expansion that arise as a result of humidity and temperature changes. Also, make sure that the painting contractor leaves you a small can of paint so that you can do any DIY touch-up.
- Come to your site for regular checks and surface any irregularities to your interior designer/contractor asap. Usually cheaper to fix defects during the renovation process than later.
- Research the market and plan a customised lighting plan with suitable layering of ambient, task and accent lights for different type of rooms. The same goes with your Internet network. Decide the devices in your opinion that require LAN connection, as well as the ones that don’t require and can survive with WiFi.