Avoid Sticker Shock On Your Next Home Improvement Project

Many homeowners are taking advantage of the warm season to complete home repairs and improvements, and even some major remodeling projects, too. Summer is a great time to take care of your home, and it certainly is the booming season for us contractors.

One thing we encounter all too frequently with customers and homeowner friends alike is the "sticker shock" of a remodel or home improvement project. All too often, these projects start out as a "small job" and grow bigger and more expensive with each step. This holds especially true when doing repairs or improvements on older homes.

One factor in the "rising cost" of a home improvement project is the hidden factors that no homeowner or contractor can be entirely prepared for. When we do estimates for our customers, we try to cover all the bases- but there are inevitably surprises along the way when you undertake a job on an older home. The older the home, the greater the chance for these "surprise expenses" to pop up.

For example, we just did some work on a home being readied for sale and discovered that today's standard bath vent fan/lights do not cover the opening from the existing fan, which was about 40-50 years old and an odd shape. Factor in some extra drywall work into the initial project estimate...


Or consider the homeowner who wanted his bathroom remodeled for sale, but when we took off the existing tile surround, we found years of water damage and rot which required substantial repair- and up goes that bottom line. Move over to the toilet- same thing. We had to repair the whole subfloor where it had rotted out beneath the existing commode in order to replace it. The homeowner had no idea all that water damage was there, and although it needed to be repaired, it was an unforseen cost in their home improvement budget.

These sorts of things are very common, but many times homeowners start projects without planning for a little extra in the budget for unexpected expenses. This can lead to bigger problems if you find yourself strapped for cash and in need of some serious repair work, like our homeowner with the bathroom water damage. Had he not had a little bit extra set aside "just in case", who knows where that bathroom would have ended up.

The bottom line is this: Spending every last penny you can afford on the materials if you're going to do it yourself, or allowing your contractor's bid to meet your budget limit is a bad idea. Whether you are taking a project into your own hands, or trusting your home to a contractor to complete some repairs or improvements, be sure to allow for some flex room in your budget- for some projects with higher potentials for hidden expenses, like those involving potential plumbing or electrical work, a good cushion is about 20%- it may seem like a lot, but you'll be glad you did if you have it allotted for, Just In Case.

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Modern Renovations, LLC is a Design&Remodeling firm located in Harrisonburg, VA serving homeowners and property managers in the Central Shenandoah Valley. We are fully licensed and insured Building and Remodeling Contractor in the Commonwealth of Virginia and have an Interior Designer on staff to take your project- big or small- from design to construction. Serving residential and commercial clients.

Give us a call today for a FREE project consultation and estimate: 540.421.6206

View us on the web at http://www.modreno.com

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